Garden Gnomes

 Today we have garden gnomes but in the 18th century, rich people sometimes paid human beings to pose in their gardens. They were called ornamental hermits and they usually lived in a hut on the grounds of a large house. Often they were paid to wear strange clothes (sometimes they were dressed as druids). Sometimes they were supposed to just stand or sit in the garden without speaking to anyone. Garden gnomes were introduced in the 19th century.