Pavilions like this with a name taken from the French language were a common feature of regular gardens in the eighteenth century. They were intended to enable the owner of the estate to rest and dine in the company of a select few and were located in the “wild” area of the park. In order to avoid the inhibiting presence of servants, such pavilions were usually fitted with mechanisms that enabled the tables to be raised and lowered. The Hermitage pavilion was never reconstructed after the mid-eighteenth century and so its interior decoration has come down to us practically unaltered.