The British of the eighteenth century raised to another level the concept of the garden dwarf – hired hermits to live on their properties. They could not cut their beard or nails.
“Ornamental Hermit was sought” was a common poster between the British aristocracy between 1727 and 1830.
It was a fashion of little hard, but bizarre and original: Eremites was hired by the richest families to live within their vast gardens. In return, they should not cut their nails or beard, they had to walk barefoot, use a goat hair tunic and always remain silent – Easy task for a hermit.
Landscape architect Todd Longstaffe-Gowan explains to that, at the time, organized and highly ornate gardens are no longer fashionable, and the disorder became the favorite aesthetic of the British elite: irregularities and the asymmetry of nature They were charmingly inspiring. ”
Historian Edward S. Harwood confirms: “Around 1750, if only one structure built in his garden, it would be an hermitage.”
If the hermit was caught to socialize Or not to comply with the rules, it was fired – and yes, it is stated that some were caught in the act to drink in tavern.
Smithsonian had access to a letter from a 1776 -dated herit, which gives it a spontaneous candidacy: “If you build a small cabin as a hermitage in a woods next to your house, with a tall wall around you, you can find a Man willing to live there seven years Without seeing any human being… I will not cut my hair, neither beard nor nails during that time. I just wish to leave me, in a discreet place, the necessary to live. ”
One of the most famous hermits, Father Francis, was slightly different-not live in total imprisonment, and the Shropshire property visitors, where they live, considered a attraction. When I slept or was sick, it was necessary to keep him in his place: he was replaced by a druid-dressed doll.
Now the practice would be bizarre, but at the time it was an undeniable success. “In the Middle Ages, the hermit was someone who could resort to solve problems, because was not stuck in the work of everyday social life ”says Harwood. “But today we live in a world where this remoteness no longer gives power-in fact, it removes it, because there is no longer interaction.”
