{222} I am not aware of the existence of a single specimen of an ecclesiastical labyrinth in any church in England, [222.D] but we possess numerous works of this description cut in the turf of our rural greens, and some are of the same patterns as those of the foreign examples mentioned above worked on pavements or walls. These turf-mazes have been usually termed “Troy-towns,” or “Julian’s Bowers,” but improperly, because such names apparently point to a very remote, or at least to {223} a classical period, [223.E] whereas the works so styled are without doubt mediæval.
The reign of Elizabeth was productive of a love for material subtilties, and for allegorical figures of speech, which, from that Queen’s classical attainments, very usually took a classical form. “Troy-town,” and all the difficulties of its capture, would then form a tempting subject for one of those embryo dramas so frequently enacted in her presence; whilst “Julian’s Bower” would be an appropriate term for a court masque, in which a bevy of courtiers and fair dames, issuing from some verdant concealment, might affect to imitate the evolutions of the little Iulus and his companions in their martial sport, as described by Virgil,—
Inde alios ineunt cursus, aliosque recursus
Adversis spatiis, alternosque orbibus orbes
Impediunt, pugnæque cient simulacra sub armis:
Et nunc terga fugâ nudant, nunc spicula vertunt
Infensi, factâ pariter nunc pace
feruntur.—Æn. Lib. v. 583.
Whence any complicated figures, either traced by the feet of dancers or cut on the ground, might possibly acquire a synonymous appellation during the reign of the great Tudor Queen, and retain it to the present time. This conventional term was a most unfortunate cause of delusive speculations to Stukeley, as he was thereby completely led off from the origin of such turf-mazes to pursue an illusion, with all the ardour of his vivid imagination, fully believing that he had discovered a still-existing Roman reminiscence on our British soil. He says, in reference to the frequent occurrence of places called Julian’s Bower, or Troy-town, both at Roman towns and other localities, especially in Lincolnshire:—“Upon a little reflection I concluded that this is the ancient Roman game; and it is admirable that both name and thing should have continued through such a diversity of people. As to the name Bower it signifies not an arbour or pleasant shady retirement in this place ; but Borough, or any work made with ramparts of earth, as camps and the like..... The name of Julian undoubtedly refers to Iulus the son of Æneas, who first brought it into Italy.” [223.1] The continued study of archæology, however, now so widely pursued, and the easy means of travelling abroad as well as {224} at home, have brought many hidden things to light which before were either obscure or entirely concealed; whilst truth, in many instances veiled with a fictitious covering of old, now stands revealed in all her natural purity.
Ancient turf-mazes either exist or are known to have existed in Scotland and Wales as well as in England, whilst shepherds and other persons are still in the habit of re-cutting these, or occasionally forming new ones, copied from more ancient designs, handed down from a remote period. Such works were to be seen in Strathmore and other parts of North Britain; they occurred likewise in Wales, where they were termed “Caerdroia,” or Troy-walls, allusion to which is made in “Drych y Prif Oesoedd” and other Welsh histories, and they have been found in various localities throughout England, namely in the vicinity of the Solway, Cumberland; [224.2] at Ripon and Asenby in Yorkshire; at Alkborough, Louth, Appleby, and Horncastle in Lincolnshire; at Sneinton and Clifton in Notts; at Wing and Lyddington, in Rutland; on Boughton-Green, in Northamptonshire; at Comberton, Cambridgeshire, called “the Mazles”; at Hilton, Hunts; Dunstable, Bedfordshire; Saffron Walden, Essex; Winchester, Hants; West Ashton, Wilts; on the Cotswold Hills, Gloucestershire; at Pimpern, and at Leigh in Yetminster, Dorset. The latter is called the “Miz-Maze.” I will now refer more particularly to some of these.
The first which I shall notice is the maze that formerly existed in Yorkshire on Ripon Common: it was ploughed up in 1827, but its plan having been fortunately preserved by Mr. J. Tuting, sen., of Ripon, I am able to exhibit its form (see fig. 4). It was 20 yards in diameter, and its path was 407 yards long.
Another maze, precisely resembling this Ripon specimen, may still be seen in the same locality, namely, at Asenby, in the parish of Topcliffe, and it is preserved with very laudable care at the expense of the parish, and I trust will continue to meet with such attention. [224.F] It is slightly smaller than the maze formerly to be seen at Ripon, being 17 yards in diameter, and its path is 336 yards long.
Another may be seen at Alkborough, Lincolnshire, over- {225} looking the Humber. This is 44 feet in diameter, and the remarkable resemblance between its plan and that designed on marble at Lucca will be at once perceived. (See Fig. 5.) The next example (Fig. 6) is on the outskirts of the village of Wing, near Uppingham, Rutlandshire; it is 40 feet in diameter, and belongs to the same class as the preceding maze.
{Fig. 4}
Fig. 7 is cut on Boughton Green, [225.G] in Northamptonshire, so celebrated for its fair; it is 37 feet in diameter.
Fig. 8 is remarkable for the addition of projecting features to the circular centre, which gives quite a different character to its plan, and still more so on account of the cross-crosslets fitchy cut within those projections. It formerly existed on a hill near St. Anne’s Well, in the lordship of Sneinton, {226} about a mile distant from Nottingham. Its diameter was 17 yards, exclusive of the projecting portions, and the length of its sinuous pathway was 535 yards. It was termed the “Shepherd’s Maze,” and “Robin Hood’s Race,” but it was unfortunately ploughed up in 1797.
Fig. 9 nearly resembles the last. It is cut on the common adjoining Saffron Walden, Essex, and is 110 feet in diameter. There is a local tradition that this is a copy of another and more ancient maze, which was imitated by a soldier, but probably the soldier only re-cut the old design; certain it is, however, that a maze has existed on the Saffron Walden common, such as is represented, for a very long period, as testified by local records. [226.3]
Fig. 10 presents a totally new and very complicated design to our notice. It formerly existed in the parish of Pimpern, near Blandford in Dorsetshire, and covered nearly an acre of ground, but it was ploughed up in 1730. It was formed of small ridges, about a foot high, [226.4]
Fig. 11 is an example of a quadrangular maze, 86 feet square, also cut in turf like the preceding specimens. It is on St. Catherine’s Hill, in the parish of Chilcombe near Winchester, and is known by the name of the “Mize-Maze.” Having become very indistinct, it was re-cut by the present Warden of Winchester, with the aid of a plan that had been fortunately preserved by a lady in the vicinity. It has been thus alluded to in the Rev. J. Warton’s “Mons Catherinæ:”—
Aut aliquis tereti ductos in margine gyros
Suspiciens, miratur inextricabile textum;
Sive illic Lemurum populus sub nocte choreas
Plauserit exiguas, viridesque attriverit herbas;
Sive olim pastor fidos descripserit ignes,
Verbaque difficili composta reliquerit orbe,
Confusasque rotas, impressaque cespite vota.
It will be remarked that there is a very strong degree of similarity between the six circular designs given, of which, however, one is cut on marble in an Italian cathedral, and the other five are cut in turf on the green-sward of as many different English counties. This fact, in addition to the great skill requisite to trace such complicated devices upon {227} very limited spaces, at once negatives the idea that any of them could have been originally the handywork of some local shepherd. Denying, therefore, their pastoral, as well their presumed Roman origin, it now remains to be suggested, by whom they were created, for what purpose, and at what period. So far, I believe questions on these points would have been asked in vain, but France has lately presented a clue by which we may be guided to the solution of some of the difficulties connected with turf labyrinths. On comparing the English specimens with those in French mediæval churches, and the maze at Alkborough in particular with the example before noticed, in Sens Cathedral, the respective designs are almost identical, and there could scarcely remain a doubt that both had an ecclesiastical origin, had no other evidence been forthcoming. Moreover, this supposition is strengthened by another circumstance, namely, that most, if not all, of our English turf-mazes are situated in the vicinity either of a church or chapel, or in localities where it may appear probable that some sacred structure once existed.
The Alkborough specimen is within a short distance of the parish church of that village, as is that at Wing. That on Boughton Green, although now in a remote spot, is near the ruins of the original parish church of St. John, first built by the Abbot of St. Wandregesile in Normandy. That at Sneinton was close to the chapel of St. Anne, built in 1409, some traces of which still exist in the foundations of a modern house now occupying its site. [227.5] This maze seems to have puzzled the learned historian of Nottingham, Dr. Deering, who, although rejecting Stukeley’s opinion as to the Roman origin of such works, and inclined to attribute them to ecclesiastics, gives the following ludicrous reason for their formation:—“Might I offer my conjecture, I should think this open maze was made by some of the priests belonging to St. Anne’s chappel, who being confined so far as not to venture out of sight and hearing, contrived this to give themselves a breathing for want of other exercise.” [227.6] The Winchester maze also was near the ancient chapel of St. Catherine, of which mention is made in the episcopal registers in conjunction with the parish church of Chilcombe.
{228} It appears possible, therefore, that some of these works may have been originally created as a means of performing penance, and not for purposes of amusement, and that they were designed by ecclesiastics, and not by Romans of old, nor by shepherds and others of later years. This supposition is illustrated by the accompanying engraving, taken from a drawing by a talented lady, Mrs. Robert Miles, which represents the ecclesiastics of St. Anne’s chapel, adjoining the well of that name, at prayer in their penitential labyrinth. [216.B]
After the Reformation, however, these rural mazes were certainly converted into a medium of recreation, as referred to in several passages of Shakspere:—
The nine men’s morris is fill’d up with mud;
And the quaint mazes on the wanton green,
For lack of tread, are undistinguishable.—
Midsummer Night’s
Dream, Act 2, Scene 2.
My old bones ache: here’s a maze trod indeed,
Through forth-rights and meanders! by your patience
I needs must rest me.—Tempest, Act 3,
Scene 3.
Another class of labyrinths still remains to be noticed, viz., the Topiary, consisting of those formed by clipped hedges of yew, holly, or hornbeam, enclosing a puzzling series of winding paths, one of which alone conducts to a small open space in the centre. These works, the joint production of nature and man, were known to the Romans, and are alluded to by Pliny, [228.7] whilst the romantic history of Rosamond Clifford may readily remind us of their existence in England at an early period. The maze at Woodstock, in which she was for a time concealed by Henry II. from the sight of his young queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, had probably formed part of the “Plaisance” adjoining the royal palace, long before it was adapted for the reception of the fair object of Henry’s love. In the reigns of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth mazes were much in vogue, and there must then have been a frequent demand for fabricators of verdant subtilties, a maze formed by neatly clipped hedges being an usual adjunct to the royal residences, and probably also to those of the nobility. These, I believe, are now for the most part destroyed, but their past existence is indicated by {229}{Illus.}{230} the retention of the name Maze in the vicinity of the spots they had once occupied, such as The Maze in Southwark, marking the site of the Princess Mary Tudor’s residence, alluded to by Miss Strickland in her Lives of the Queens of England, [230.8] and Maze Hill, at Greenwich, once supplied with a similar means of amusing the royal inmates of the adjoining palace. Artists, moreover, whose names are of high repute in the development of the pictorial and other arts, did not deem it beneath them to devise plans for these intricate verdant bowers. Holbein designed one, a print of which was exhibited at the late Manchester Exhibition, accompanied by a Latin and a German poetical inscription, whence it appeared that it was intended to represent the mythical work of Dædalus. Tintoretto, likewise, painted a labyrinth, which may be seen in Hampton Court Palace. [230.9] I here give two plans of verdant mazes of the sixteenth century, one, Fig. 12, from the old palace of Theobalds, Herts; and another, Fig. 13, taken from an Italian work on architecture, by Serlio. [230.1] Labyrinths of this description continued to abound during the seventeenth century in Italy, France, Germany, and Holland, but they were discarded from England by the refined taste of the times of Charles I. and Charles II., whose artistic garden-terraces, adorned with groups of well-chosen sculpture, and fair lawns enlivened with embroidery of skilfully contrasted flowers, could not admit the propinquity of so puerile a conceit as a gloomy mass of hedges, affecting to represent the mighty architectural designs {231}{Fig. 12}{232} of the ancient monarchs of Egypt, Crete, or Etruria. Clement X., who ordered a maze to be made at the Villa Altiéri, is reported to have amused himself with the perplexities of his attendants when consigned to its folds, formed of thick and high box-trees. [232.2] Gabriel planned one for the palace of Choisi in France, and the celebrated Le Nôtre another for that of Chantilly, during the abovenamed period. The passion for these verdant marvels was again resumed through the example of William III., who formed one at his palace of the Loo, in Holland, and that well-known specimen at Hampton Court, a work which very probably suggested to Pope, who resided in its vicinity, the idea expressed in the following lines:—
Let us (since life can little more supply
Than just to look about us and to die),
Expatiate free o’er all this scene of man,
A mighty maze! but not without a plan.
EDWARD TROLLOPE.
