"The nine men's morris is filled up with mud,
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green
For lack of tread are undistinguishable."
_A Midsummer Night's Dream_, ii. 1.
"My old bones ache: here's a maze trod indeed,
Through forth-rights and meanders!"
_The Tempest_, iii. 3.
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--Maze at Sneinton, Nottinghamshire.]
There was such a maze at Comberton, in Cambridgeshire, and another,
locally called the "miz-maze," at Leigh, in Dorset. The latter was on
the highest part of a field on the top of a hill, a quarter of a mile
from the village, and was slightly hollow in the middle and enclosed by
a bank about 3 feet high. It was circular, and was thirty paces in
diameter. In 1868 the turf had grown over the little trenches, and it
was then impossible to trace the paths of the maze. The Comberton one
was at the same date believed to be perfect, but whether either or both
have now disappeared I cannot say. Nor have I been able to verify the
existence or non-existence of the other examples of which I am able to
give illustrations. I shall therefore write of them all in the past
tense, retaining the hope that some are still preserved.
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--Maze at Alkborough, Lincolnshire.]
In the next two mazes given--that at Saffron Walden, Essex (110 feet in
diameter, Fig. 4), and the one near St. Anne's Well, at Sneinton,
Nottinghamshire (Fig. 5), which was ploughed up on February 27th, 1797
(51 feet in diameter, with a path 535 yards long)--the paths must in
each case be understood to be on the lines, black or white, as the case
may be.
[Illustration: FIG. 7.--Maze at Boughton Green, Nottinghamshire.]
I give in Fig. 6 a maze that was at Alkborough, Lincolnshire,
overlooking the Humber. This was 44 feet in diameter, and the
resemblance between it and the mazes at Chartres and Lucca (Figs. 2 and
3) will be at once perceived. A maze at Boughton Green, in
Nottinghamshire, a place celebrated at one time for its fair (Fig. 7),
was 37 feet in diameter. I also include the plan (Fig. 8) of one that
used to be on the outskirts of the village of Wing, near Uppingham,
Rutlandshire. This maze was 40 feet in diameter.
[Illustration: FIG. 8.--Maze at Wing, Rutlandshire.]
[Illustration: FIG. 9.--Maze on St. Catherine's Hill, Winchester.]
The maze that was on St. Catherine's Hill, Winchester, in the parish of
Chilcombe, was a poor specimen (Fig. 9), since, as will be seen, there
was one short direct route to the centre, unless, as in Fig. 10 again,
the path is the line itself from end to end. This maze was 86 feet
square, cut in the turf, and was locally known as the "Mize-maze." It
became very indistinct about 1858, and was then recut by the Warden of
Winchester, with the aid of a plan possessed by a lady living in the
neighbourhood.
[Illustration: FIG. 10.--Maze on Ripon Common.]
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