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
Index
Gordon Campbell is Professor of Renaissance Studies at the
University of Leicester. He is the author of the best-selling
Bible: The Story of the King James Bible and of many other books on
literature, art, history, and biography. A fellow of the British
Academy and a former chair of the Society for Renaissance Studies,
in 2012 he was awarded the Longman - History Today Trustees Award
for a lifetime contribution to History. In this book his interests
in
cultural history, architectural history, and designed landscapes
converge in a pioneering study of the phenomenon of the English
ornamental hermit and his hermitage.
`One of those books which will continue to resonate in the mind
long after its covers are closed... Campbell illuminates something
immensely serious dwelling inside something you might at first have
thought about was delight and diversion. And that is a triumphant
thing to have carried off.'
Adam Nicolson, author of Sissinghurst: An Unfinished History
`[A] rollicking new history...a book for the enrichment of all our
lives.'
The Daily Telegraph
`The delicious subtitle of this fine little study - From Imperial
Rome to Ornamental Gnome - catches its tone perfectly. Gordon
Campbell treats the topic with the seriousness and attention to
detail one expects of a scholar, but he never falls into the
academic's trap of assuming his readers are would-be hermit
scholars.'
Country Life
`[An] engaging study of one of the oddest fads in garden
design.'
Charles Elliott, Literary Review
`[An] intriguing book.'
The Lady
`A slim but fact-and-fun-and-idea-filled volume ... an unmitigated
pleasure to read.'
Hortus
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