Ornamental Hermit
HE five promised BBC programmes on English Eccentrics will be worth listening to, judging by the first sample which I heard from 4YA (the only one I have heard at time of writing). The most remarkable figure in this pro-gramme-lI found him almost unbeliev-able-was one who called himself an Ornamental Hermit; it seems that there really were such creatures, for in the later 18th and early, 19th Century owners of palatial mansions in the country would hire a hermit to reside in a grotto en the estate. What pleasure they and their friends obtained from the. presence of a hermit in the garden would no doubt
‘depend on the particular hermit’s nature and attainments. Just as hired fools could be relied on for quips and jests, so no doubt one might expect the resident hermit to enliven a country holiday with wisdom of a more metaphysical sort. Provided that the grotto was dry and the climate not too chilly at nights, and given the presence of a few tomes, a quire of paper and something to write with, such an existence (meals provided) would seem, compared with the mode complications of a thinker’s life, Posi--tively paradisal.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 378, 20 September 1946, Page 15
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198Ornamental Hermit New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 378, 20 September 1946, Page 15
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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