Peter Denney recently completed his Ph.D. in the Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies at the University of York. His thesis, "Silencing the Poor: Soundscape, Landscape, and Society in Eighteenth-Century Britain," examined how the rise of picturesque landscape aesthetics influenced contemporary perceptions of the acoustic environment, focusing particularly on polite attitudes to the sound of plebeian culture. He is currently a Lecturer at Griffith University, Australia.