‘Tree Mountaineers’: Arboreal Materiality on the Fells in the Lakeland Guides of William Wordsworth and Harriet Martineau

Journal article


Burton, A. 2023. ‘Tree Mountaineers’: Arboreal Materiality on the Fells in the Lakeland Guides of William Wordsworth and Harriet Martineau. Green Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism . pp. 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/14688417.2023.2217195
AuthorsBurton, A.
Abstract

This ascending line of enquiry will pay close attention to how, through their nineteenth-century Lakeland writings, William Wordsworth and Harriet Martineau attached meaning to the continued presence and perceived role of trees in the landscapes of the English Lake District. The authors wrote about the region when increased numbers of landowners were planting trees for aesthetic, agricultural, and financial purposes on their land, ranging from the villa garden to the fell-side plantation. In this context, this analysis will consider the authors’ perceptions of historical upland tree cover, their aesthetic evaluation of particular planted and self-seeded spaces, and how individual specimens are sites of natural and cultural convergence shaped by the ‘wildness’ of the fells. Focusing on literary Lakeland trees – as discussed by Wordsworth, Martineau, and their circle – this article illustrates an ecological and arbori-cultural understanding of the environment that shifts, in accordance with elevation, from the valley floor up to the mountain top.

Keywordstrees; altitude; wilderness; Lake District
Year2023
JournalGreen Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism
Journal citationpp. 1-13
PublisherTaylor & Francis (Routledge)
ISSN2168-1414
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/14688417.2023.2217195
Web address (URL)https://10.1080/14688417.2023.2217195
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
Online27 May 2023
Publication process dates
Accepted17 May 2023
Deposited29 Jun 2023
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