During the Regency time, many of JA’s peers would take turns in the gardens as a form of recreation and refreshment. Gardens were an extension of indoor living and thus became more and more extravagent, this came to include faux ruins and intricate gazebos and structures known as follies. We hear of a sample of this in JA’s novel Sanditon.
This beautiful coffee-table book features follies from the magical, ambitious charm of Portmeirion in North-West Wales, to the marvellous eccentricity of La Scarzuola of Montegabbione, Umbria, with its Staircase of Knowledge and Crystal pyramid. This book explores follies, extravagant structures erected for the amusement or diversion – and occasionally for the residence – of inspired patrons and artists throughout Europe.
Jane Austen Society of North America - New Jersey Region 