Category: England

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Dulwich Hermit (18th century)

This is Local London offers a short article about an 18th century hermit titled “The Tragedy of the Dulwich Hermit.”

“Samuel Matthews, known for many years as the ‘Dulwich Hermit’ was a native of South Wales born in 1733. He lived a frugal lifestyle in the woods and was subject to curiosity by the locals.

In 1772, Matthews moved to Dulwich with his beloved wife and daughter. He worked tirelessly as a gardener for the local gentry and lived happily. Several years later, his wife passed away. He became melancholy and quickly resolved to secluding himself from society. …

URL: https://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/23158550.tragedy-dulwich-hermit/

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In Search of Guthlac

Current Archaeology offers an article titled “In search of Guthlac, Crowland’s early medieval hermit,” byline “Excavations in Crowland, Lincolnshire, are exploring the remains of a structure that might be linked to an Anglo-Saxon anchorite.”

While Crowland has been traditionally assumed to be Guthlac’s home, a nearby site at the suggestively-named Anchor Church Field is now the subject of archaeological attention, turning up remarkable ceramics and bone, plus evidence of a large structure.

URL: https://the-past.com/news/in-search-of-guthlac-crowlands-early-medieval-hermit/

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Anglo-Saxon king-hermit’s cave

Archaelogists have identified a cave church in Derbyshire, England, with the ninth-century Anglo-Saxon king Eardwulf of Northumbria. Eardwulf was dethroned and exiled, and lived the rest of his life reclusively, known as the hermit (or anchorite) Hardulph, who was to be canonized as a saint. For a time the cave was the presumed dwelling of an ornamental hermit on the expansive grounds of a wealthy eighteenth-century estate owner. Hardulph is thought to have attracted disciples by his eremitic example.

URL: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/anglo-saxon-cave-house-scli-intl-gbr/index.html?ofs=fbia

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Jeannie, “Lady Hermit of Cornwall”

Not just a local historical piece but of wider interest is the story of the “Lady Hermit of the Cornish cliffs” of England. The article is from the CornwellLve website. Here is opening text:

Its one of the strangest stories to emerge from 20th century Cornwall – the rich, educated, young Russian woman who was known across the county as the “Lady Hermit of the Cornish cliffs”.

So unusual a sight was Jeannie Schmolivitz, who made her home in caves in west Cornwall and lived on blackberries, that she spooked many a local into thinking she was a ghost.

Jeannie became a media star of the day, with national and international newspapers reporting her story, which took in a broken heart, madness, arrests, incarceration, daring escape and a final “rescue” which took her from Cornwall back to Russia.

Jeannie Schmolivtz (her surname could also have been Schmulewitz) became a sensation as the 1900s dawned, though her story is now largely forgotten.

URL: https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/history/strange-tale-mad-russian-hermit-1675063