Category: United Kingdom

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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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Emma Orbach – update

The Independent offers this “Interview with Earth Prophet Emma Orbach.” The interview was conducted via mail, since Emma has no electricity or modern devices. From the interview:

“Over twenty years ago, Emma Orbach made the decision to leave the modern world behind.

She lives in the Welsh woodlands on her own land, at the base of the Preseli Mountains. 

She grew up in a ‘rundown’ castle and attended Oxford University to study Chinese. However, following her intuitive connection with the Earth, she chose to pursue a life entirely without electricity, modern technology, or furniture. 

For her home, she built a Celtic-style round hut from straw bales and horse manure, with a wooden reciprocal frame roof. Instead of electric lights, ovens and heaters, she has a fireplace. She collects fresh water from a stream, grows her own vegetables, keeps goats for milk and uses horses for transport.” …

URL:  https://www.indiependent.co.uk/an-interview-with-earth-prophet-emma-orbach/

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Sara Maitland article in “The Tablet”

The Tablet, a Catholic UK publication, recently offered a useful article on women hermits, authoritatively written by author and commentator Sara Maitland, author of A Book of Silence and How to be Alone. The title is “Palladius mentions 2,975 women living as hermits in the Egyptian desert.” (Full article available to registered users).

URL: https://www.thetablet.co.uk/columnists/3/21026/palladius-mentions-2-975-women-living-as-hermits-in-the-egyptian-desert

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Milton as hermit

Historian Gordon Campbell, author of The Hermit in the Garden: From Imperial Rome to Ornamental Gnome, recently lectured on the poem “Il Pensamento” by British poet John Milton, specifically its reference to hermits. Campbell selected the last twenty lines of the poem, the title of which means “The Serious One,” or “The Pensive One.”

The poem represents a transition from Milton’s early Catholic thinking to his conversion to Anglicanism to his radicalization as Puritan — and back again to a Catholic or Anglican sympathy. The latter thinking was for Milton more compatible with his affinity to Melancholy, a popular eighteenth-century attitude among intellectuals and poets, which nostalgia further welcomed the historical hermit. Indeed, in his book, Campbell describes Milton’s poem as “the founding text of the eighteenth-century cult of melancholy.” The cultivation of melancholy conjured a romantic landscape of hermits, though it did not directly advocate eremitism.

URL: https://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/events/public-lectures/summer-2021/milton-hermit/

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Emma Orbach – Update

Daily Mail (UK) features an update on hermit Emma Orbach, who lives in rural Wales. “A woman who left her former life behind to live in the woodlands of Pembrokeshire 20 years ago tells presenter Ben Fogle she doesn’t care if other people call her ‘crazy.'” Includes short video clip. From UK TV series “New Lives in the Wild.”

URL: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-9290531/Ben-Fogle-New-Lives-Wild-Woman-lives-grid-doesnt-care-shes-called-crazy.html