Follies | Author, Jane Lark's stories

I have used follies in my Regency Romances because I love the idea of building something just for fun, just for adult entertainment, be that entertainment innocent or sinful. The Georgian eras were renowned for pleasure seeking, from the pleasure gardens that people paid to attend, like Vauxhall, to the tunnels and rooms dug beneath the Chiltern Hills created for the Hellfire Club. One of the most popular follies for innocent entertainment at the time, was to build a cottage in the garden. Just a single room that could be used for more simple pleasures like stopping for a cup of tea during an afternoon stroll.

I have used the folly in the images below, which is in the grounds of Stourhead, as an example to make up my own cottage folly for scenes in a book. I have always thought it quite impressive that so much detail was built into something people only occasionally used. But that was the whole point of a folly, it was a stupid waste of money, but it was also, therefore, an expression of how wealthy you were because you had money you could afford to waste on such a luxury.

So when I saw the cottage built for Queen Charlotte in the grounds of the palace at Kew, London… Below. Well, what a folly, or you could say what a silly waste of money. Or you could say what an impressive investment in luxury. Royal luxury.

This cottage folly serves exactly the same purpose as the much smaller version at Stourhead, and I love that they are built in a similar style, displaying the same fashion, with a chimney/s and thatched roof. Just like the cottage at Stourhead, the cottage in the grounds of Kew Gardens, is a place to stop while they took some exercise in the grounds, they may have ridden or walked to reach it, and the servants would be there already with a luncheon prepared. It is not a place where anyone can live, or stay, it is literally for a short period of pleasure.

I have to say, this is not the tallest folly I have ever seen, but I think it well maybe the largest.

”There is a good deal to be said for frivolity. Frivolous people, when all is said and done, do less harm in the world than some of our philanthropisers and reformers.

Mistrust a man who never has an occasional flash of silliness.’ Lord Berners

It is no wonder that I am fascinated and inspired by follies as I grew up in the shadow of the one Lord Berners built.

The Folly at Faringdon in Oxfordshire, England, dominates the horizon, standing proud and tall on a hill looking down on the market town.

It is the end of an era, the last Folly Tower to have been built in Britain.

Lord Berners, commissioned it as a birthday present for his friend, Robert Heber-Percy, of course it had to be ‘utterly useless’ in true folly fashion.

Life can be very mundane if there is no frivolity and Lord Berners was obviously a believer in a bit of folly as I am. He once wrote, ‘There is a legend that Our Lord said “Blessed are the Frivolous, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” and that it was suppressed by St Paul’.

Lord Berners was witty. He seems to me the epitome of the folly builder, although they lived more in previous generations, in the glamour of the Regency and Georgian periods, when the wealthy wished to flaunt their money in excesses.

I just love the hedonism of the folly builder, building for the sake of building, for beauty or view, or just for pleasure. And now this out of fashion art remains for us to admire and enjoy.

Folly hill was well known even before Lord Berners built the folly there. Its was a prominent post for historic battles. King Charles stayed in Faringon in the Civil War and the hill became Cromwell’s camp, and in the 1100’s it played a part in the war between King Stephen and Queen Matilda. A couple of years ago the ruins of the castle built in the medieval civil war were discovered beneath the ground at the bottom of the hill by the river Thames.

In 1774 it became famous for its views when the Poet Laureate, Henry Pye, wrote, ‘Faringdon Hill’.

‘Here lofty mountains lift their azure heads,

There in green lap the grassy meadows spread;

Enclosures here the sylvan scene divide,

There plains extended spread their harvests wide’.

I have included some photographs so you may enjoy the view as Henry Pye did. To find out more on Faringdon folly go to http://www.faringdonfolly.org.uk/

Jane Lark is a writer of authentic, passionate and emotional love stories.

See the side bar for details of Jane’s books, and Jane’s website www.janelark.co.uk to learn more about Jane. Or click ‘like’ on Jane’s Facebook page to see photo’s and learn historical facts from the Georgian, Regency and Victorian eras, which Jane publishes there. You can also follow Jane on twitter at @janelark