What is it about follies that we find so enticing? Perhaps it is their variety – real ruins, fake ruins, monumental columns, ornamental cottages, dovecotes and even gazebos can all be encompassed by the term. Perhaps it is the fact that many are essays in ‘pure architecture’, built with no function in mind other than to delight and entertain. Or perhaps it is the hubris inherent in the name, which calls to mind the aspirations of those who built them – invariably eccentric and sometimes downright mad.
The imaginative and even emotional pull of these structures is borne out by the existence of the Folly Fellowship, a pressure group founded to ‘protect, preserve and promote’ follies everywhere. By everywhere, I of course mean primarily England, for the folly seems to be a curiously English phenomenon, a manifestation of the fabled eccentricity of its inhabitants. Certainly, in discussing the folly, the word ‘eccentric’ never seems to be far off. Some can take it to ext