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An architectural extravaganza, a monument without functional intention, a concrete expression of the builder's private beliefs, an embodiment of his wit and a mirror to his vanity, a house abandoned incompleted, any building which is generally considered to lack utility or meaning. The folly is particularly associated with 18th-century England, when indulgence in this aberration of the art of architecture assumed the proportions of an epidemic. Yet the folly is not confined to any style, period or nationality.
Conspicuous examples are scattered throughout the centuries, from the Tower of Babel to the palace and gardens of the Prince of Patagonia, La Bagaria, in Sicily and the artificial ruins on the hilltops of Lower Austria. The unfinished cathedral of the Sagrada Familia by Gaudi in Barcelona is also a genuine folly. The earliest authentic follies in England were built in Northamptonshire by the recusant Sir Thomas Tresham who designed Rushton Lodge ( 1595) and the unfinished house called Lyveden New Building to symbolize his private views on the Passion; other follies of a religious nature include the Tattingstone Wonder, Suffolk, cottages built in the form of a church to improve the view from the squire's window, and Jezreel's Temple near Rochester designed by James White in 1885 in preparation for the end of the world.
The most conspicuous follies took the form of isolated towers; among the more notable examples are Eyre's Folly, Wiltshire, Sir William Chambers' Pagoda at Kew, Stratton's Folly at Little Berkhamsted, Beckford's Lansdowne Tower at Bath and the Sugarloaf Folly above Dallington, Sussex, erected by ' Mad Jack' Fuller to win a bet that Dallington Church spire could be seen from his drawing-room window. Nearly every 18th-century country house could boast its Temple, Artificial Ruin, Triumphal Arch, Pyramid, Tower, Gazebo, Grotto or Ornamental Mausoleum. Some parks, like that at Stowe, were embellished with all these types of folly.
The most modest follies were grottoes, stemming from the memories of Baroque gardens in Italy and France. Evelyn and Sir William Temple were the first to indulge in grottoes; Pope popularized them with his celebrated folly at Twickenham; the Duchess of Richmond and her daughters built a famous shell grotto with their own hands at Goodwood House. The most magnificent folly Triumphal Arch, known as the 'Gates of Jerusalem' was erected at Shugborough Park in 1763 to the designs of James Stuart. The folly Pyramids were usually intended for tombs; outstanding are the two built by Jack Fuller, one at Brightling for himself and the other on Farley Mount, Hants, for a favourite horse. Sir Francis Dashwood's mausoleum at West Wycombe is another curious sepulchral folly. A strange medley of imitation Roman tempietta and sham Gothic ruin is to be seen in the grounds of Colchester Castle.
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