Abstract
This article takes as its starting point Jacob George Strutt’s description, in his Sylva Britannica (1826) of the Cowthorpe Oak, an ancient oak tree, as being ‘like some aged peasant, whose toil-worn limbs still give evidence of the strength which enabled him to acquit himself of the labors of his youth’. Strutt’s etching of the tree may be compared with Thomas Barker of Bath’s painting, Man Holding a Staff. Both works compare the life cycle of a tree to that of a human being, and specifically a male peasant, who has spent his working life in the open air, battered by the weather. Symbols of British history and greatness, from the rites of the Druids to the naval victories of the Napoleonic Wars, ancient oaks could stand for stoicism, steadfastness, independence, and peaceful reform. Depictions of aged peasants, in art and literature, served a similar purpose. They appealed to those who felt nostalgic for the idea of a more settled, rural past, and emotionally attached to paternalistic values.
Highlights
This article takes as its starting point Jacob George Strutt’s description, in his Sylva Britannica (1826) of the Cowthorpe Oak, an ancient oak tree, as being ‘like some aged peasant, whose toil-worn limbs still give evidence of the strength which enabled him to acquit himself of the labors of his youth’
In 1826 Jacob George Strutt, in his Sylva Britannica, described the Cowthorpe Oak, an ancient oak tree, as being ‘like some aged peasant, whose toil-worn limbs still give evidence of the strength which enabled him to acquit himself of the labors of his youth’
For Strutt, comparing the old oak to a peasant was as much, or even more of a compliment than comparing it to a king. The analogy he makes between an ancient tree and an aged peasant shows Strutt’s awareness of the recent tradition of praising aged, generally male labourers in poetry and depicting them in painting
Summary
This article takes as its starting point Jacob George Strutt’s description, in his Sylva Britannica (1826) of the Cowthorpe Oak, an ancient oak tree, as being ‘like some aged peasant, whose toil-worn limbs still give evidence of the strength which enabled him to acquit himself of the labors of his youth’. In this article I will consider one particular representative of the old, the aged rustic labourer, sometimes shown as part of a family or social group, but more often on his own, like a solitary tree.
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