page_title: Ossian's Hall of Mirrors
section_title: Ossian's shrine
hierarchical_section_title: Ossian's Hall of Mirrors / History of the site / Ossian's shrine
caption_attribution_description: English: Ossian in Ossian's Hall, The Hermitage, Dunkeld, Scotland Català: Ossian a Ossian's Hall, The Hermitage, Dunkeld, Escòcia
context_page_description: Ossian's Hall of Mirrors is a Georgian structure located at The Hermitage in Dunkeld, Scotland.
context_section_description: The Hermitage was redecorated in 1783 as a shrine to the blind bard, Ossian. Ossian is supposed to have lived and written his heroic verse around the 3rd century.
  The redecorated hall was intended to evoke features of 'shock' and 'amazement' in the viewers' minds; the room from where views of the waterfall were taken was lined with mirrors which made the spectator imagine that the water was appearing from all angles. William Wordsworth composed a poem which described the 'World of Wonder' in this room. Another description states that in the 1780s, visitors entering were met by a painting of Ossian serenading a group of maidens. The guide operated a device that withdrew the painting into the wall, providing access to another room - a hall of mirrors - giving the illusion of water pouring all around reflecting the river cascading outside. In 1803 the hall had walks that were intersected, here and there, by a small garden of fine flowers among rocks and stones'. These small-scale gardens have since gone.
  In 1803 Dorothy Wordsworth wrote "The waterfall, which we came to see, warned us by a loud roaring that we might expect it; we first, however, conducted into a small compartment, where the gardener desired us to look at a painting of the figure of Ossian, which, while he was telling us the story of the young artist who performed the work, disappeared, parting in the middle, flying asunder as if by the touch of magic, and lo! we are at the entrance of a splendid room, which was almost dizzy and alive with waterfalls, that tumbled in all directions - the great cascade, which was opposite to the window that faced us, being reflected in innumerable mirrors upon the ceiling and against the walls".
caption: An image of Ossian on an internal door in the hall of mirrors
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