Arthur Burns

The diocesan revival in the Church of England, c.1800-1870

This book provides the first account of an important but neglected aspect of the history of the nineteenth-century Church of England: the reform of its diocesan structures. It illustrates how one of the most important institutions of Victorian England responded at a regional level to the pastoral challenge of a rapidly changing society. Providing a new perspective on the impact of both the Oxford Movement and the Ecclesiastical Commission on the Church, The Diocesan Revival in the Church of England shows that an appreciation of the dynamics of diocesan reform has implications for our understanding of secular as well as ecclesiastical reform in the early nineteenth century.

Reconstructing Clerical Careers: The Experience of the Clergy of the Church of England Database

The Clergy of the Church of England Database, a project funded by the AHRB, began work in I999 with the aim of constructing a relational database covering all clerical careers in the Church of England between I540 and I835. This article outlines the methodology and scope of the project before discussing some of the intellectual problems posed by the task of constructing a database that reflects the complexities of an irrational, pre-bureaucratic organisation. It also offers an insight into the potential of the completed database as a tool for investigating the largest profession of the early modern period.

Introduction: Modern Walks

In the introduction to this volume of essays, Bryant, Burns and Readman provide an extensive overview of nineteenth-century walking practices, and the meanings attached to these practices. They also offer an agenda-setting critique of the scholarly literature on walking. As the editors show, much previous work has focused on the idea of the ‘Romantic Walk’ in particular, with scholars—particularly historians—having given relatively little attention to many other walking practices. As the introduction sets out, Walking Histories is intended to correct this oversight. It suggests boldly that once historians place walking—of various kinds—at the heart of their analyses, important new perspectives on themes central to the ‘long nineteenth century’ emerge.

Accidents will happen: Risk, climbing and pedestrianism in the 'Golden Age' of English Mountaineering 1850-1865

Burns examines the public presentation of English mountaineering in the ‘Golden Age’ of British Alpinism. In particular he explores the ways in which ‘climbing’ came to be understood as a separate activity from ‘walking’. The chapter shows how uncertain the boundary between walking and climbing was in the 1850s and 1860s as observed in narratives of alpinism. In particular, it notes how accidents in the mountains were accommodated in ways which did not challenge the presentation of such tourism as an activity accessible to a broad, non-specialist, leisured constituency. However, the series of accidents in 1865, and in particular that which befell Edward Whymper’s Matterhorn expedition, helped render this accommodation unsustainable, confronted by a new understanding of the place of risk and danger in alpinism.

St. Paul's: The Cathedral Church of London, 604-2004

St Pauls is unique among English cathedrals for its association with the richest city in the realm and with the secular and political life of the capital. At the same time it has been a lively site of devotion, often innovative in liturgy, music, and decoration, and sometimes at the heart of conflict between opposing views. The story of St Pauls offers many insights into the history of England as a whole and into the part played by religion in both private and public life. This magnificent book--the first comprehensive history of St Pauls Cathedral in thirty years--opens with a series of historical overviews of the cathedral, of the people associated with it, and of its religious, social, and political significance, from its foundation to the present. Additional essays investigate various topics related to the successive cathedrals on the site, and many well-chosen illustrations underline these themes and present the splendid features of the cathedral as it is today.