Real, paid people who lived in gardens?
Take the humble garden gnome, for example: a cheerful little man in a red hat, passively smiling down at passersby. Completely harmless, right? What if I told you that the precursor to the garden gnome tradition involved real, paid people who lived in gardens? It sounds like something out of a dystopian novel, but it isn't. It was a very real practice, and it wasn't that long ago:
One of the advertisements placed by Charles Hamilton described what was expected of a hermit in the sleeping quarters as follows:
...he will be provided with a Bible, a pair of glasses, a mat for his feet, a sock for a pillow, an hourglass for a clock, water to drink, and food from the house. He must wear a camisole and must under no circumstances cut his hair, beard, or fingernails, leave the boundaries of Mr. Hamilton's property, or exchange a word with the servant.
The more eccentric the hermit was, the better he fared. While some consider modern hermits' preference for self-imposed isolation to be pathological, in 18th-century Europe, a person's inclination toward solitude was praised, and those willing to spend nearly a decade without a bath or new clothes were paid a handsome penny.
In fact, the men were recruited to serve as living decorations on the estates of wealthy landowners. The hermit's presence would be a lasting symbol of peaceful solitude, no matter how many tiresome garden parties were held. Human ornaments. If that sounds terrible and dehumanizing, it's because it was. Personally, I prefer the absence of ethical concerns that a simple ceramic gnome evokes.