Christian antiquities -- England; Churches -- England
At S. Omer are one or two examples of the labyrinth. One at the Church
of Notre Dame has figures of towns, mountains, rivers, and wild beasts
depicted along the pathway, to give, no doubt, greater realism to the
pilgrimage. The existing drawing of another, which has been destroyed,
is inscribed, "The way of the road to Jerusalem at one time marked on
the floor of the Church of S. Bertin." Many of these designs are not
only ingenious, but beautiful. In the Chapterhouse at Bayeux is one
enriched with heraldic figures; that at Chartres has its central circle
relieved with six cusps, while an engrailed border encloses the whole
work. A circular shape was apparently the most popular; the maze at
S. Quentin, with some others, however, is octagonal. The pathway is
usually marked by coloured marbles, sometimes the darker, sometimes the
lighter shades in the design being used for the purpose; at Sens, lead
has been employed to indicate it.
The Revolution, as we have seen, led to the destruction of several
ecclesiastical labyrinths; some, however, became a source of annoyance
to the worshippers, from children attempting to trace the true pathway
during the time of service, and they were removed in consequence.
Labyrinths of this kind do not appear to have been introduced into
England, the only instance known to the present writer being quite a
modern one. This is in the church porch at Alkborough, in Lincolnshire,
where, at the recent restoration, the design of a local maze (to be
noticed further hereafter) was reproduced.
If England, however, has not imitated the continent in this respect, she
has struck out a line no less interesting, which has remained almost
exclusively her own; namely, in the mazes cut in the green turf of her
meadows. Shakespeare has an allusion to these in the "Midsummer Night's
Dream," (Act iii., 3) where Titania says,
"The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud,
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green
For lack of tread are indistinguishable."
Some twenty of these rustic labyrinths have been noted as still
existing, or as recorded by a sound tradition, in England; and no doubt
there have been others which have disappeared, leaving no trace behind.
[Illustration: MAZE AT ALKBOROUGH, LINCOLNSHIRE.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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