Grand Designs
When is a folly not a folly? This is neither a joke nor a trick question, for this mysterious landscape feature, popular particularly in England down the centuries, defies easy definition. Usually follies serve no practical purpose, yet they tend to have a multiplicity of roles, often subtle and psychological – “an ornament for a gentleman’s grounds and a mirror for his mind,” wrote Barbara Jones in her landmark book Follies and Grottoes (1953). Small wonder their sense of mystery and popularity has endured, and they continue to be built today. Indeed, you might even have considered commissioning one.
The name itself is ambiguous. The French we know to mean ‘madness’, but it also translates as ‘delight’. More confusingly, follies are called in France. Perhaps the clue lies in the conflation of the two French translations. Follies in the English context involve a delightful madness that we’ve come to think of as eccentricity. It is the humour and playful sensibility that sets British follies apart from, say, the make-believe of modern-day Disneyland and Disney World.
