The Hermit in the Garden : From Imperial Rome to Ornamental Gnome / Gordon Campbell.

Main entry:

Campbell, Gordon, 1944-

Title & Author:

The Hermit in the Garden : From Imperial Rome to Ornamental Gnome / Gordon Campbell.

Edition:

1st ed.

Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2013.

Description:

xiv, 257 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 23 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 223-240) and index.
[Table of Contents] -- List of Colour Plates -- List of Illustrations -- 1. Origins and Antecedents -- 2. The Idea of the Hermit -- 3. The Hermits -- 4. The Hermitage in Georgian England -- 5. The Hermitage in the Celtic Lands -- 6. The Afterlife of the Hermit -- Appendix 1: A Catalogue of Hermitages -- Appendix 2: The Hermit and the Hermitage on the Continent -- Works Consulted -- Picture Acknowledgements -- Index.

Summary:

Tracing 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.

Resources:
Table of contents
Contributor biographical information
Publisher description

ISBN:

9780199696994
0199696993
9780191644481 (electronic bk.)
019164448X (electronic bk.)

Subject:

Historic gardens Great Britain.
Hermits England History 18th century.
Hermitages England History.
Gardens Design History.
Aesthetics, British 18th century.
Jardins historiques Grande-Bretagne.
Ermites Angleterre Histoire 18e siècle.
Ermitages Angleterre Histoire.
Jardins Architecture Histoire.
Esthétique britannique 18e siècle.
Aesthetics, British
Gardens Design
Hermitages
Hermits
Historic gardens
Gartenkunst
Eremitage
Trädgårdar historia.
Eremiter.
England
Great Britain
Großbritannien

Form/genre:

History

Holdings:

Location: Library main 283967
Call No.: BIB 222495
Status: Available

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