‘Trees even in their very roads’

This chapter explores a lesser-known avenue in the history of street trees by examining ideas about planting trees in the urban environment during the intense political upheaval of the English civil wars, Commonwealth and Protectorate, followed by the Restoration in 1660. Exploring the transfer of ideas between intellectuals and innovators, such as Samuel Hartlib, John Beale and John Evelyn, this chapter sheds light on the changing politics underlying the development of ideas about trees in the seventeenth-century English urban environment. Concluding with a discussion on the concept of urban trees as ‘public ornaments,’ this chapter traces a route through mid-seventeenth-century English thought, considering perceptions of trees in the built environment as loci of ‘common wealth’ or what we might call the ‘public good.’