Chapter 13 Summary

The Vicar of Bray was a colorful, but somewhat disreputable character, who has as a legacy a somewhat comic song celebrating his ability to accommodate to several generations of reigning royalty and a "magnificent yew tree." Another colorful character, Thibaw, the drunken and homicidal King of Burma, left a somewhat bloodly reputation but a beautiful bounty of tamarind trees that flourished on the streets of Mandalay until the Japanese bombing destroyed them in the 1940's.

The point of all this is that Orwell notes that you don't have to be a good person to plant a good tree. He suggests, lightheartedly, that, if you commit some kind of a sin, it might be a good idea to go ahead and plant a tree in contrition. And, if you don't have a place of your own, he suggests a vacant lot might be good...