Abstract
During the lnterregnum the English government began to ascribe to English oak trees and woodlands such concepts as naval power and national prosperity. The publication and subsequent popularity of John Evelyn's Sylva... (1 664) crystalized the symbolism of English oak trees and woodlands, both obscuring and revealing England's quest for global hegemony. Over the course of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the literate community drew upon the symbolic meaning of oak trees and woodlands popularized by Evelyn, not only to encourage landowners to plant English oak on their estates for naval purposes, but to influence England's forest and foreign policies as well. Although the cultural significance of trees and woodlands has long been recognized, most geographies of early modern England have either ignored the association of English oak with naval power, dealt with it superficially, or treated it as a static symbolic form. However, by neglecting the process through which an organic society ascribed symbolic meaning to its wooded landscapes, important issues that may otherwise increase the explanatory power of historical-cultural geography are disregarded.
Hanson, Jesse Conrad (1994). England, Evelyn, and the maritime symbolism of English oak trees, woods and forests. Master's thesis, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /ETD -TAMU -1994 -THESIS -H251.