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Whilst the foregoing memoir has been in the printer’s hands, certain particulars relating to the subject under consideration have been communicated, which appear deserving of notice.
At Hilton, Huntingdonshire, there is a maze precisely resembling that at Alkborough, called “Julian’s Bower” (fig. 5, supra). In the centre stands a stone pillar, bearing inscriptions in Latin and in English, to the effect that one William Sparrow formed the maze around it in the year 1660, possibly as it may be imagined to commemorate the Restoration. He doubtless copied the design of some older maze with which he was familiar, [232.H] perhaps that in Lincolnshire, above mentioned.
At Comberton, [232.K] Cambridgeshire, there exists a maze called “The Mazles,” almost identical with that at Wing, Rutlandshire (fig. 6, supra). The path is of gravel, 2 feet wide; its windings are separated from each other by little trenches nine inches wide. The diameter of the circle is 50 feet, and the outer margin is on a level with the surrounding ground, but the area of the maze gradually sinks towards its centre.
Mr. Wright, in a note in his History of Essex, vol. ii. p. 124, states that “it has been a custom from time immemorial among the villagers, to hold a feast at this spot every three years about the time of Easter. It would seem most probable that such works originally served for some religious ceremony among the Britons, to whom they are generally attributed, as among all the ancient systems the labyrinth was a sacred symbol.”
{233} It is remarkable that mazes formed on turf appear to be unknown on the Continent. [233.L] Enquiry has been made in vain to ascertain the occurrence of any example. The learned French archaeologist, however, M. Didron, whose instructive and admirably illustrated “Annales” comprise almost every subject within the range of antiquarian investigation, promises to give a memoir with engravings, the result of the researches of M. Bonnin of Evreux, who has succeeded in collecting not less than two hundred examples of all periods and all countries. Amongst these, probably, some foreign maze, traced on turf like those in England, may be found. See the notes to M. Durand’s interesting paper on “Les Pavés-mosaiques,” before cited, and published in the Annales Archeologiques, tome xvii. p. 127.
No example of the maze appears to have been noticed as existing in Surrey; Aubrey, however, in his History of that County, vol. v. p. 80, observes that there were many mazes in England before the civil wars, and that the young people used on festivals to dance upon them, or as the term was, to tread them. A very keen observer of early vestiges in Surrey, Mr. H. L. Long, states that in his remembrance there existed a maze termed “a Troy Town,” cut on Hillbury, between Farnham and Guildford. The writer of the Query regarding labyrinths, cut on the turf by shepherds in former days, and called Caerdroia, Walls or Citadel of Troy, in commemoration, it has been believed, of the Trojan origin of the Britons, asserts that at the present time herdsmen on the grassy plains of Burgh and Rockliff Marshes near the Solway, in Cumberland, cut a labyrinthine figure on the turf, which they call the Walls of Troy. (Notes and Queries, Series ii. vol. v. p. 211). In Scotland, as we are informed by Mr. Joseph Robertson, the “Walls of Troy” are still popular amongst children, who trace the maze on the sea-sand, or draw it on their school-slates. Topiary mazes there formed a feature of old pleasure-grounds, as in the south. As a device, he notices the labyrinth to be seen incised on the stone bench in one of the window recesses of the hall at Craigmillar Castle. The obscure allusion to Troy was retained, it must be observed, until comparatively recent times, since amongst the topiary and other works: laid out at Kensington Palace by London and Wise, the celebrated designers of gardens in the reign of William III., the curious upper garden known as the “Siege of Troy” was long celebrated. Some antiquaries have supposed that a certain connexion may have subsisted between the so-called “Troy Town” and the Ludus Trojæ, or Troy Game, a favourite martial exercise in early mediæval times, which has been regarded as having been the origin of tournaments. There may have been a resemblance between this disport and the warlike exercises of Iulus described by Virgil, as cited in the foregoing memoir. See regarding the Ludus Trojæ, Meyrick’s Critical Enquiry, vol. ii., pp. 79, 83, 125; Bohn’s edition.
This game, it may be observed, had certainly been handed down from a period long anterior to mediæval times. Nero, as we learn from Suetonius, was accustomed in his youth to play at Troy,—“Trojam lusit;” and the the same writer, in his treatise, “De lusibus puerorum,” observes, that the “Lusus quem vulgo Pyrricham appellant Troja vocatur.”
Many localities, doubtless, in England have preserved the names of Troy Town and Julian’s Bower, besides those already mentioned. In Gough’s edition of Camden’s Britannia, vol. i., p. 73, it is said that the maze at Pimpern, Dorset, bore the designation of Troy Town; and another place so called is found in the same county, north-east of Beer Regis. In Kent, {234} a place of the same name occurs near Westerham, and other instances will be familiar to our readers.
It has been observed in the previous memoir that the Topiary maze appears to have been in fashion amongst the Romans, by whom decorations of clipped evergreens in gardens were carried to great perfection, the Topiarius, or ornamental gardener, being mentioned by Cicero and other writers. Pliny recommends various shrubs as suitable for such purposes, especially the laurel called Taxa, very fit for green arbours and to be wrought into knots; as also the Alexandrine laurel, the cypress, and the box, well suited to be formed into borders and hedges, kept orderly with clipping and cutting. Nat. Hist. B. xv. c. 30; B. xvi. c. 16, 33, &c. Whether any labyrinthine figures were actually thus formed in the gardens of the Romans may appear questionable, but if the Ars Topiaria were not called into requisition for such works, it seems certain that mazes resembling some in our own country were not unknown. Pliny, speaking of the great extent and intricacy of the Cretan labyrinth, observes (as translated by Holland), “neither must we thinke that these turnings and returnings were after the manner of mazes which are drawne upon the pavement and plaine floore of a field (ut in pavimentis puerumve ludicris campestribus videmus) such as we commonly see serve to make sport and pastime among boies, that is to say, which within a little compasse and a round border comprehend many miles,” &c. B. xxxvi. c. 13. See the article Hortus, in Smith’s Dictionary of Antiquities, and the Epistle of the younger Pliny, in which he describes his Tuscan villa, with its hippodromus, explained to have been a kind of circus, consisting of several paths divided by hedges of box, and ornamented with topiary work. Pliny, Epist. lib. v. ep. 6.
It may be difficult, if not impracticable, to ascertain what is the most ancient instance of a labyrinth, of whatever description, in the British Islands. An ancient earthwork on Wick Down Hill, near Downton, Wiltshire, described by Sir Richard Colt Hoare in his Ancient Wilts, vol. i. p. 231, as a Maze, “has the appearance of a low barrow surrounded by circles within circles.” There are tumuli in the neighbourhood. It is to be regretted that no plan is given of this curious work.
Mention has been made of the earliest labyrinth, so designated, familiar to us in English history, namely, Rosamond’s Bower at Woodstock. It is, however, very doubtful of what description this may have been. Drayton, in a note to his “Epistle of Rosamond,” says that her labyrinth was formed of arched and walled vaults underground, but Gough observes that the poet gives no authority for the assertion. See Preface to Gough’s Brit. Topog. p. xxx. Such vaults might have existed in Drayton’s time, but they did not prove that there had not been any superstructure. According to Bromton, indeed, Rosamond’s labyrinth at Woodstock should be numbered amongst those of the Architectural class. He says of her, “Huic nempe puellæ spectatissimæ fecerat rex apud Wodestoke mirabilis architecturæ cameram operi Dædalino similem, ne forsan a regina deprehenderetur.” Script. decem, col. 1151. Knyghton uses the same words, with the exception only of the expression, “Operi Dædalino sinuatam.” Ibid, col. 2395.
Henry, abbot of Clairvaux, has been supposed to allude to mazes, such as have been figured in the foregoing memoir, when, writing allegorically of being entangled in a labyrinth, he observes, “non habent {235} certos aditus, semitas ambulant circulares, et in quodam fraudium labyrintho monstra sævissima reconduntur.” See Hoveden, ed. Savile, p. 577, under the year 1178. It is obvious, however, that the writer may have had in his thoughts merely the traditional forms of the Cretan labyrinth.
Of the frequent use of mazes in later times and the varied fashions of their design, illustrations might be easily multiplied. It has already been observed that the maze had been much in vogue as a feature of pleasure grounds in the sixteenth century: one at Theobalds, Herts, built by Burleigh about 1560, has been figured in the foregoing memoir. Books of practical instruction for planning such works were published at that time, and the following has been specially cited: “The Gardener’s Labyrinth, by Dydymus Mountaine. Wherein are set forth divers herbers, knottes, and mazes, cunningly handled for the beautifying of gardens,” 4to. 1577. Evelyn enumerates “labyrinths, dædals, cabinets,” &c., amongst the numerous topiary and other works in his scheme for a Royal Garden. (Memoirs, vol. iii p. 435.) In the popular cyclopedia of country occupations, the “Maison Rustique,” by Charles Estienne and Liebault, published at Paris in 1582, a figure of a square “Dædalus” is given amongst the plans for laying out gardens, and it is copied in the translation by Richard Surflet, entitled “The Country Farme.” See Gervase Markham’s edition, London, 1616, p. 276, where “The forme of a Labyrinth” will be found.
The topiary maze appears to have been sometimes termed a Wilderness, as at Hampton Court and elsewhere. The author of the Account of several Gardens near London, in 1691, commends “the very pretty maze or Wilderness” at Lord Fauconbergh’s garden at Sutton Court, near Chiswick. Archæologia. vol. iii. p. 184. The Wilderness at Hampton Court, with the compartment laid out as a maze, the design of which may be seen in Jesse’s Hampton Court, p. 77, was part of the gardens laid out there for William III. by London and Wise, about 1690. See further on this subject Walpole’s observations on Modern Gardening, in his Anecdotes of Painting in England.
The Institute is indebted to the kindness of the Author of the foregoing Memoir for the greater part of the illustrations by which it is accompanied.
