The Hermit in the Garden: From Imperial Rome to Ornamental GnomeTracing its distant origins to the villa of the Roman emperor Hadrian in the second century AD, the eccentric phenomenon of the ornamental hermit enjoyed its heyday in the England of the eighteenth century It was at this time that it became highly fashionable for owners of country estates to commission architectural follies for their landscape gardens. These follies often included hermitages, many of which still survive, often in a ruined state. Landowners peopled their hermitages either with imaginary hermits or with real hermits - in some cases the landowner even became his own hermit. Those who took employment as garden hermits were typically required to refrain from cutting their hair or washing, and some were dressed as druids. Unlike the hermits of the Middle Ages, these were wholly secular hermits, products of the eighteenth century fondness for 'pleasing melancholy'. Although the fashion for them had fizzled out by the end of the eighteenth century, they had left their indelible mark on both the literature as well as the gardens of the period. And, as Gordon Campbell shows, they live on in the art, literature, and drama of our own day - as well as in the figure of the modern-day garden gnome. This engaging and generously illustrated book takes the reader on a journey that is at once illuminating and whimsical, both through the history of the ornamental hermit and also around the sites of many of the surviving hermitages themselves, which remain scattered throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland. And for the real enthusiast, there is even a comprehensive checklist, enabling avid hermitage-hunters to locate their prey. |
Contents
The Hermitage in Georgian England | |
The Hermitage in the Celtic Lands | |
The Afterlife of the Hermit | |
APPENDIX 1 | |
Works Consulted | |
Other editions - View all
The Hermit in the Garden: From Imperial Rome to Ornamental Gnome Gordon Campbell Limited preview - 2013 |
The Hermit in the Garden: From Imperial Rome to Ornamental Gnome Gordon Campbell Limited preview - 2013 |
The Hermit in the Garden: From Imperial Rome to Ornamental Gnome Gordon Campbell No preview available - 2013 |
Common terms and phrases
Abbey accommodate Adam’s advertisement architect architectural became built Castle cave Charles commissioned constructed Craigieburn decorated Delany demesne destroyed destroyed destroyed extant druids duke earl eighteenth century England English garden English landscape garden Enville eremetical extant destroyed fashion ferme ornée FIGURE follies Francis Friars garden buildings garden design garden gnome garden hermit George Georgian Gilbert Glin Glin Castle Gothic grotto Hagley Hamilton Hawkstone Henry hermit’s cell hermitage Hill included Ireland James John Knight of Glin known Lady Luxborough lake Leasowes lived London Lord Luxborough melancholy Milton natural ornamental hermit Orrery Oxford Painshill painting palace Palladian Park pavilion poem poet Queen residence restored Richard Richmond Robert roof root house Rousseau royal ruins rustic seat seems Selborne Shenstone Soane solitude stone Stourhead Stowe Stukeley survives Temple thatched Thomas Tong trees village visitors William William Kent William Shenstone William Stukeley window wood Wörlitz Wyatt