His foe was folly and his weapon wit.

(Inscription on tablet to Sir W S Gilbert)

Anthony Hope, also known as Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins.

Folly history bristles (as it should) with thorny queries. Just as no one can account for the ninteenth - century revival of interest in tilting (Sir Walter's Disease; said Mark Twain), no one really knows why a certain man will devote twenty years to surfacing he house with crockery shards and teapot lids; no one can fully share the squires impulse to retire to his own Toad Hall, or somebody's longing for a battlemented bicycle shed at the bottom of his garden, or something very nasty to gothicize his woodshed.

Page 11, Follies, Ed Sir Hugh Casson.

Some of us take for granted are usually monuments to human foolishness; flimsy prisons that have failed to save daughters from abduction, bosoms from asps, and sons - and heirs from vengeful witches.

Page 8, Follies, Ed Sir Hugh Casson.

There are many 'borderline' follies, for the simple reason that no all-embracing definition of a folly exists. Follyhood has to be felt as well as seen.

Page 8, Follies, Ed Sir Hugh Casson.





Painting by Paul Brason
http://www.paulbrason.co.uk/index.htm

Not every foolishly - conceived building is a folly, of course, nor is every folly pointless, gemcrack or tasteless.

Page 8, Follies, Ed Sir Hugh Casson.

Almost anyone, almost anywhere is liable at any time to come upon a forgotten, nameless, but undoubtedly man-man structure with that over solemnity, raffishness, hint of menace, or glaring inappropriateness that mark it as a folly.

Page 8, Follies, Ed Sir Hugh Casson.

Let nobody please bother to ask 'What is it for?' For to that question there is only one answer. The mark of a true folly is that it was errected simply to satisfy and give pleasure to it's builder and to use Sansovino's words 'greatly surprize the stranger'. There could be not better aim or epitaph for any buildings, nor, for any publication.

Foreword, Follies, Ed Sir Hugh Casson.