Lord Salisbury,Mr. Chamberlain and South Africa, 1895–9

In the closing decades of the nineteenth century the idea of Greater Britain, of the unity of the Anglo-Saxon colonies and the ‘mother country’, became a topic of considerable interest and controversy amongst the metropolitan intellectual and political elite. This article examines the roles played by the monarchy in the debates. Queen Victoria, as both idea and institution, assumed two central functions. First, it was argued that the institution of the monarchy, stretching back over centuries, could supply an anchor of permanence and constitutional fidelity in a redesigned global polity. This would reassure critics of such schemes that their fears about fundamental transformation were unfounded; that a thread of historical continuity ran through the proposals. Secondly, Victoria – or at least an idealised representation of her – acted as the linchpin for a sense of global national identity. The prestige and admiration that she (and the institution of the monarchy itself) generated, it was contended, bound the distant peoples of her realm in close communion. Moreover, the way in which she was sometimes represented in imperial debate harked back to (while modifying) an older civic humanist language of ‘patriot kingship’.     

An assessment of blanket mire degradation and Peatland Gully development in the Cheviot Hills,Northumberland

This paper provides the first systematic assessment of blanket mire degradation in the east Cheviot Hills, Northumberland. The extent of erosion is mapped over a 32 km² area of peat. Erosion affects 37% of the blanket peat. Erosion forms consist of anastomosing (7%), linear (21%) and dendritic (9%) gully systems together with peat slides (<1%). Topography is the primary influence on gully system pattern. Spatial variations in gully form can be partly explained by position in the stream network (stream order) and local variations in the depth of peat. A sequential scheme of gully development is described. Gullies evolve initially through a phase of rapid downcutting to the peat base, followed by lateral erosion and gully widening becoming dominant through a process of roughly parallel wall retreat. As gully width increases re‐deposition of peat occurs and re‐vegetation occurs on the gully floor. Comparative photography reveals that gully patterns have been stable over the past 32 years and in some areas for over 70 years. It is possible that gully systems in places are in excess of 500 years old.     

The 2010 Cultural Olympiad: playing for the global or the local stage?

Increasingly, local cultural communities are called upon to support global mega‐events such as the Olympic games with the promise that this global occurrence is a ‘once in a lifetime opportunity’ for an urban artistic community. What evidence exists to support the premise that hosting a Cultural Olympiad provides a professional arts sector with positive and substantive legacies, sustained material and financial benefits, or increased national and international profile? Data collected on the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad suggest that the local arts sector did not enjoy any of the claimed global benefits. However, it is also clear that some arts organizations, by virtue of the artistic and operational decisions they took, were able to exert influence over and upon the outcome; this outcome ultimately depending on whether they elected to play for a global or a local stage.     

Reviews of Lost Buildings. By Ira Glass, Tim Samuelson, and cartoonist Chris Ware.

Chicago: WBEZ and Public Radio International, 2004. 22 minutes(DVD) with 96 pp. hard cover (book). To go on sale Fall 2005(price not yet disclosed; currently available with $150 donationto Chicago Public Radio). http://www.thislife.org/dvd/     

Urban evolution in the USA

On a sustained basis, cities are of non-uniform relative sizes.This paper addresses three basic issues which arise from thissimple observation by examining the size distribution of UScities over the period 1900–1990. First, we explore thereasons why there is a wide distribution of city sizes. Second,we characterize the evolution of the size distribution of cities,documenting growth in sizes and numbers of cities. We ask whetherthe relative size distribution of cities has remained stableover time, or if it has displayed, instead, a tendency to collapse,flatten, or otherwise change its shape. We also examine evidenceon whether the size distribution obeys Zipf's Law. Third, weexamine the degree and determinants of mobility of individualcities within this distribution, asking to what extent citiesare moving up and down in the distribution and how this movementis influenced by cities' geographic characteristics. We usea newly constructed data with consistent metropolitan area definitionsover this century, discussing the issues and linking our resultsto the relevant literature.