I did a deep dive into shell grottoes while writing the second Sexy at Sixty novel, Deep Trouble noting that by the twentieth century, grottoes were effectively forgotten. But as often the case, we’ve seen an resurgence of popularity. Popular grottoes like Margate in England, offer tours and have an attached gift shops selling enough shells for a person to build their own grotto.
A shell grotto is, essentially a garden feature, sometimes underground, sometimes by a water feature (because – shells).
One of the responses to the Enlightenment – (the beginning of so much: modern secular Western values, religious tolerance, freedom of thought, speech and the press, of rationality and evidence-based argument, projects that occupied most of the 18th century,) was collecting and categorizing. As more land, more peoples, more excavations were discovered, emerging ideas about similarities and minute differences within species was a growing study and obsession. One of the salient features of the Enlightenment was the study of nature as a way to understanding God. Collecting was meditation and tribute to Nature and the great creator. Taking that collection and adhering it to the walls of a small folly (building) was one way to preserve and display your collection.
The Duchesses of Portland (1715 – 1785). who was friends with Mary Delany, was one such collector. She gathered and purchased shells from all over the world. But what do you do with such a collection? build something, during the 17 and 18th century that something was a grotto, an underground version of the follies – whimsical buildings with no purpose than to be decorative. Grottoes were typically created out of plaster and stone and decorated with shells and smooth pebbles. The patterns were both natural (artists used the natural colors of the shells) and fantastical (those patterns evolved into a recognizable overwrought, exuberant style). Grottoes were a thing. Building them was a social event as was celebrating and enjoying the finished project.
One of the best features of grottoes is the speculation about their “true” purpose. Visit the Margate web site to read some wonderful conjectures: Why was this place built? Could it be a smuggler’s cove (do smugglers spend years decorating their hideout?) Was this grotto a place for pagan rituals? Perhaps (like I discuss in Deep Trouble), a grotto was something to create, a project to occupy the idle rich, an excuse to get them out of the house and in to Nature. Which is a very good reason to do anything. Crazy, pointless, beautiful. These grottoes would hold up against any Burning Man installation.
