Folly

Father of Folly (Abu Jahl), an aged chief, who led a hundred horse and seven hundred camels against Mahomet and fell at the battle of Bedr. His own people called him Father of Wisdom (Abuʹ Lhoem).

Folly. A fantastic or foolishly extravagant country seat, built for amusement or vainglory. (French, folie.)

“We have in? this country a word (namely, Folly) which has a technical appropriation to the case of fantastic buildings.”—De Quincey: Essays on the Poets (Keats, p. 90).

Fisher’s Folly. A large and beautiful house in Bishopsgate, with pleasure-gardens, bowling-green, and hot-houses, built by Jasper Fisher, one of the six clerks of Chancery and a Justice of the Peace. Queen Elizabeth lodged there.

“Kirby’s castle, and Fisher’s folly,

Spinola’s pleasure, and Megse’s glory.”

Stowe: Survey.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.