The Era of Professional Ornamental Hermits

In the 18th century, wealthy landowners hired live-in hermits to decorate their estates. These ornamental recluses lived in garden grottos to provide a sense of refined melancholy and status for their hosts.

During the Georgian era, it became a trend for aristocrats to employ a human hermit as a living lawn ornament. Some owners even required their hermits to grow long beards and remain silent to better play the part of a wise, contemplative ascetic. They were treated as exotic features, much like a decorative fountain or a garden bridge. This bizarre practice was meant to show off the landowner's taste for the philosophical and the picturesque.