Human pets remembered in 'Hunt the Hermit' (From Your Local Guardian)

Human pets remembered in 'Hunt the Hermit'

7:10am Sunday 31st August 2008 in

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Long nails and bedraggled hair became a sign of wealth in the 18th century, when ornamental hermits took pride of place in eccentric England.

Ornamental hermits were not real hermits but men employed by rich state owners to amuse guests by making appearances and living in hermitage.

One of the most notable hermit employers was the Honourable Charles Hamilton, of Painshill Park in Cobham, who advertised for a man to reside in his poorly built hermitage in the 1740s.

The advertisement read: “The hermit must continue on the hermitage seven years, where he shall be provided with a Bible, optical glasses, a mat for his feet, a hassock for his pillow, an hourglass for timepiece, water for his beverage and food from the house.”

He was ordered to wear a camlet robe and was forbidden from cutting his hair or nails. He was not allowed to speak or stray from the grounds of the estate.

The fee was 700 guineas, but this would only be paid if the hermit served the whole seven years, and no money would be given if he left before this time or broke the rules.

Legend has it that the first hermit lasted three weeks before running away and being found drunk in a nearby hostelry.

In 1763, Sir John Parnell described finding the hermitage: “You strike into a wood of different firs, acacias, etc, and serpentining through it arrive at a hermitage formed to the front with the trunks of fir trees with their bark on, their branches making natural gothic windows.”

The hermitage at Painshill Park soon became derelict and was demolished for firewood in the 1940s, with a marker left in its place.

The park now holds “Hunt the Hermit” every September, reviving the tradition of housing a human pet at the bottom of the garden, and visitors are invited to search for him in the grounds.

• For information on the hunt times and dates click here