“It turns out that the garden gnome that we now use to ornament our garden were once real-life garden hermits. Yes, a real person who lives in a real hermitage, in a real garden. From the 15th to 18th century, wealthy estate owners were not content with just having lavish and perfectly landscaped grounds that looked natural with all the follies, rustic-looking trees, and lakes – there had to be a Garden Hermit that actually lived there.
Garden hermits, also known as ornamental hermits, were people who are hired by rich landowners to live in their estate where they purposely built a hermitage, with follies, grottoes, or rockeries to complete its overall look. They were expected to permanently live on-site, shun the public life, and basically live in solitude. These ‘hermits’ were encouraged to dress like druids, too. Some would go as far as not bathing, and or trimming their hair and nails.”
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