hiermit hermit

Previously, thanks to Futility Closet’s excellent podcast, we learned of the curious eighteenth century custom among the landed gentry and hopeless romantics of England of employing individuals as professional hermits to lend their estates certain airs, but I never before made the connection that the caretaker of a hermitage is also a hermit, until informed that a divorced, former police officer will be taking up solitary residence at the bottom of Verena Gorge. According to tradition, the venerated saint that the Swiss valley is named after passed through the area, having traveled from Egypt. A contemplative theologian in retirement, the new hermit won’t be able to abandon his manners and social graces altogether, however, as quite a few hikers come through, and in fact the last incumbent resigned her commission over the amount of tourists.