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Title: Mazes and Labyrinths - A General Account of their History and Development
Author: Matthews, W. H.
Language: English
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MAZES AND LABYRINTHS
[Illustration:
[_Photo: G. F. Green_
Fig. 86. Maze at Hatfield House, Herts.
(_see page 115_)]
MAZES
AND LABYRINTHS
A GENERAL ACCOUNT OF THEIR HISTORY
AND DEVELOPMENTS
BY
W. H. MATTHEWS, B.Sc.
_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS_
LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON, E.C. 4
NEW YORK, TORONTO
BOMBAY, CALCUTTA AND MADRAS
1922
_All rights reserved_
_Made in Great Britain_
To
ZETA
whose innocent prattlings on the
summer sands of Sussex
inspired its conception
this book
is most affectionately
dedicated
PREFACE
Advantages out of all proportion to the importance of the immediate
aim in view are apt to accrue whenever an honest endeavour is made to
find an answer to one of those awkward questions which are constantly
arising from the natural working of a child's mind. It was an endeavour
of this kind which formed the nucleus of the inquiries resulting in the
following little essay.
It is true that the effort in this case has not led to complete success
in so far as that word denotes the formulation of an exact answer to
the original question, which, being one of a number evoked by parental
experiments in seaside sand-maze construction, was: "Father, who made
mazes first of all?" On the other hand, one hesitates to apply so
harsh a term as "failure" when bearing in mind the many delightful
excursions, rural as well as literary, which have been involved and the
alluring vistas of possible future research that have been opened up
from time to time in the course of such excursions.
By no means the least of the adventitious benefits enjoyed by the
explorer has been the acquisition of a keener sense of appreciation of
the labours of the archaeologist, the anthropologist, and other, more
special, types of investigator, any one of whom would naturally be far
better qualified to discuss the theme under consideration--at any rate
from the standpoint of his particular branch of learning--than the
present author can hope to be.
The special thanks of the writer are due to Professor W. M. Flinders
Petrie for permission to make use of his diagram of the conjectural
restoration of the Labyrinth of Egypt, Fig. 4, and the view of the
shrine of Amenemhat III, Fig. 2, also for facilities to sketch the
Egyptian plaque in his collection which is shown in Fig. 19 and for
drawing the writer's attention thereto; to Sir Arthur Evans for the
use of his illustrations of double axes and of the Tomb of the Double
Axe which appear as Figs. 9, 10, 11 and 12 respectively (Fig. 8 is
also based on one of his drawings); to M. Picard (of the _Librairie A.
Picard_) for leave to reproduce the drawing of the Susa mosaic, Fig.
37; to Mr. J. H. Craw, F.S.A. (Scot.), Secretary of the Berwickshire
Naturalists' Club, for the use of the illustrations of sculptured
rocks, Figs. 128 and 129; to the Rev. E. A. Irons for the photograph of
the Wing maze, Fig. 60, and to the Rev. G. Yorke for the figure of the
Alkborough "Julian's Bower," Fig. 59.
The many kind-hearted persons who have earned the gratitude of the
writer by acceding to his requests for local information, or by
bringing useful references to his notice, will perhaps take no offence
if he thanks them collectively, though very heartily, in this place. In
most cases where they are not mentioned individually in the text they
will be found quoted as authorities in the bibliographical appendix.
The present is, however, the most fitting place in which to express
a cordial acknowledgment of the assistance rendered by the writer's
friend, Mr. G. F. Green, whose skill and experience in the photographic
art has been of very great value.
Grateful recognition must also be made of the help and courtesy
extended to the writer by the officials of several libraries, museums,
and other institutions, notably the British Museum, the Society of
Antiquaries, Sion College, and the Royal Horticultural Society.
W. H. M.
_Ruislip, Middlesex._
1922.
CONTENTS
PAGES
PREFACE vii-viii
CONTENTS ix-xiv
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xv-xviii
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
The Lure of the Labyrinth--Difficulties of Definition--The
Subject and Object of this Book--The Lore of the Labyrinth--
Some Neglected British Monuments--Destructive Dogmatism: a
Plea for Caution 1-5
CHAPTER II
THE EGYPTIAN LABYRINTH
(i) _Accounts of the Ancient Writers_
Enormous Edifices of Egypt--Herodotus: his Account of the
Labyrinth, its Vastness and Complexity, and its Lake--
Strabo's Description--The Sacred Crocodiles--Accounts of
Diodorus, Pomponius Mela, and Pliny 6-10
CHAPTER III
THE EGYPTIAN LABYRINTH (_continued_)
(ii) _Accounts of Later Explorers_
Decay of the Labyrinth--Travels of Lucas and Pococke--French
and Prussian Expeditions--Researches of Flinders Petrie--
Speculations regarding Original Plan--Purpose and Date of
Construction 11-16
CHAPTER IV
THE CRETAN LABYRINTH
(i) _The Story of Theseus and the Minotaur_
Plutarch's Life of Theseus; the Cretan Exploit--The Athenian
Tribute--The Labyrinth of Daedalus--The Clue of Ariadne--
The Fight with the Minotaur--The Crane Dance--Tragedies
of the Hero's Return--Other Accounts of the Legend--
Speculations concerning Minos and Daedalus 17-22
CHAPTER V
THE CRETAN LABYRINTH (_continued_)
(ii) _The Caverns of Gortyna_
Statements by Later Classic Writers--Tournefort's Voyage--
Visits of Pococke and Savary--Cockerell's Diary--Travels of
Capt. Spratt--Connection of Gortyna Caverns with Traditional
Labyrinth very improbable 23-28
CHAPTER VI
THE CRETAN LABYRINTH (_continued_)
(iii) _Knossos_
Explorations of Sir Arthur Evans--Momentous Discoveries--
Unearthing of the Palaces--Their Antiquity--Description
of the Great Palace--The Maze on the Wall--The Hall of
the Double Axes--The Cult of the Bull--Schliemann's
Researches--The Sport of Bull-Leaping--Possible Identity of
the Palace with the Labyrinth 29-36
CHAPTER VII
THE ETRUSCAN OR ITALIAN LABYRINTH
Other Labyrinths mentioned by Pliny--Varro's Description of the
Etruscan Labyrinth; the tomb of Lars Porsena--Speculations
regarding it--Travels of Dennis--Labyrinthine Caverns in
Etruria; Volterra and Toscanella--Extended use of the term
"Labyrinth" by Strabo and Pliny--Reference to Mazes formed
in Fields for Amusement 37-41
CHAPTER VIII
THE LABYRINTH IN ANCIENT ART
The Meander and other Rudimentary Forms--Seal-impressions--
Coins of Knossos--"Unicursal" Nature of the Knossian
Design--Graffito of Pompeii--The _Casa del Labirinto_--
Roman Mosaic Pavements--The _Tholos_ of Epidaurus--
Labyrinthine Structure at Tiryns--Greek Pottery--Etruscan
Vase--The Labyrinth on Gems and Robes 42-53
CHAPTER IX
CHURCH LABYRINTHS
Algeria, Orléansville--Italy: Lucca, Pavia, Piacenza, Cremona,
Rome and Ravenna--France: Chartres, St. Quentin, Amiens,
Rheims, Bayeux, Sens, Auxerre, Arras, St. Omer, Poitiers,
Chalons, Pont l'Abbé, Caen and Aix--Modern examples: Lille,
Ely, Bourn and Alkborough--Meaning of Church Labyrinths--
Lack of Support for Accepted Theory 54-70
CHAPTER X
TURF LABYRINTHS
Local Names--The Alkborough "Julian's Bower"--Juxtaposition
to Ancient Ecclesiastical Site--A Fragment of Folk-lore--
De la Pryme's Diary--The Breamore Mizmaze--Romantic
Situation--The Wing Maze--The Boughton Green Shepherd's
Race--Its Literary References--A Victim of the Great War--
Mazes of Ripon and Asenby--The Song of the Fairies--Other
Lincolnshire and Yorkshire Mazes--Stukeley on Julian's
Bowers--Wide Distribution of British Turf Mazes 71-78
CHAPTER XI
TURF LABYRINTHS (_continued_)
The Winchester Mizmaze--The Vanished Mazes of Dorset: Leigh,
Pimperne, Dorchester and Bere Regis--Aubrey's Notes on
Wiltshire and Cotswold Mazes--The Saffron Walden Maze--
The Comberton "Mazles"--The Hilton Maze and its Obelisk--
The Cumberland "Walls of Troy": Burgh and Rockcliffe--
The Nottingham Mazes: Sneinton and Clifton--The Somerton
"Troy-town"--Records of Old Mazes at Guildford, the
Malverns, and in Kent--"Julaber's Barrow" 79-91
CHAPTER XII
THE ORIGIN OF TURF MAZES
An old Welsh Custom--"Troy" or "Turnings"?--Dr. Trollope on
the Ecclesiastical Origin of Turf Mazes--The Welsh Figure--
Criticism of the Ecclesiastical View--"Treading the Maze"
in Tudor Times--Shakespearean References--Alchemy and the
Labyrinth of Solomon--Figure in a Greek Monastery--Heraldic
Labyrinths--The Question of the Roman Origin of Turf Mazes 92-99
CHAPTER XIII
THE FLORAL LABYRINTH AND THE DWARF-SHRUB MAZE
The Dwarf Box--Its use by Tudor and Roman Gardeners--Floral
Labyrinths by De Vries--Some Quaint Horticultural Books:
Parkinson, Estienne, Hill, and Lawson--Designs of Islip and
Commelyn--"Queen Mary's Bower" 100-109
CHAPTER XIV
THE TOPIARY LABYRINTH, OR HEDGE MAZE
Topiary work of the Romans--Pliny's "Hippodromus"--Dubious
Mediaeval References--Rosamond's Bower--Early French
"Daedales"--Mazes painted by Holbein and Tintoretto--
Du Cerceau's Sketches--Elizabethan Mazes: Theobalds and
Hatfield--Versailles and other Famous Labyrinths of France--
Some German Designs--Belgian, Spanish, Italian and Dutch
Mazes--William III and his Gardeners 110-127
CHAPTER XV
THE TOPIARY LABYRINTH, OR HEDGE MAZE (_continued_)
Hampton Court: the Maze and the Little Maze--Other English
Mazes of the Period--Batty Langley and Stephen Switzer--
Allegorical Labyrinth of Anhalt--A Wimbledon Maze--The
Mazes of Westminster and Southwark 128-136
CHAPTER XVI
THE TOPIARY LABYRINTH, OR HEDGE MAZE (_continued_)
_Latter-day Developments_
Decline of the Hedge-Maze Vogue--Mazes in "Pleasure Gardens":
North London, South London--Modern Mazes in Essex, Suffolk,
Cheshire, Lincolnshire, and Gloucestershire--Some Modern
Continental Mazes--The Case For and Against the Hedge Maze
137-146
CHAPTER XVII
STONE LABYRINTHS AND ROCK ENGRAVINGS
The Stone Labyrinths of Finland--Their Local Traditions and
Nomenclature--Their Antiquity--Aubrey's Acute Observation--
Some Maze-like Rock Engravings in England, Ireland, and
Brittany--A Curious Discovery in Arizona and a Spanish
Manuscript--American Indians and the Cretan Labyrinth--
Another Indian Pictograph--Zulu Mazes--Distribution of
Labyrinth Cult 147-155
CHAPTER XVIII
THE DANCE OR GAME OF TROY
"Troy" in Labyrinth Names--An old French Reference--The Vase
of Tragliatella--Virgil's Account of the Troy Game--The
Delian Crane Dance--Knossos and Troy--Ariadne's Dance--
Spring-Rites--"Sympathetic Magic"--Sword and Morris
Dances--Troy-dances in Mediaeval Germany and in Modern
Serbia--Preservation of the English Traditions 156-163
CHAPTER XIX
THE BOWER OF "FAIR ROSAMOND"
"Fair Rosamond," Henry, and Eleanor--The Dagger or the Bowl--
History of the Legend--Accounts of Brompton and Higden--
Delone's Ballad--Rosamond in Verse and Prose--Her Epitaph--
A Question of Taste--Late Remains of the Bower--A Modern
Play--Rosamond's Alleged Portrait 164-169
CHAPTER XX
MAZE ETYMOLOGY
The Question of Definition again--Bowers and Julian-Bowers--
What was a Bower and who was Julian?--The Labyrinth and the
Double Axe--Chaucer and the Maze--Metaphorical Labyrinths--
The Labyrinth in Scientific Nomenclature--The Meanings of
"Maze"--Troy-towns and the New Troy 170-181
CHAPTER XXI
LABYRINTH DESIGN AND THE SOLUTION OF MAZES
The Need of a Definition--Practical Limitations--Classification
of Mazes and Labyrinths--Unicursal and Multicursal, Compact
and Diffuse Types--Modes of Branching--Straight-line
Diagrams--Speculations on the Knossian Figure--Hints
on Maze Design--Principles of Maze Solution--A Word on
Mnemonics--Harris at Hampton Court 182-192
CHAPTER XXII
THE LABYRINTH IN LITERATURE
Romance, Mystery, and Allegory--Labyrinthine Book Titles--
Some Literary Monstrosities--Spiritual and Theological
Labyrinths--Love, Labyrinths, and Anonymity--The Labyrinth
in Modern Book Titles--Emblems--Melancholy Meditations in
the Maze 193-200
CHAPTER XXIII
MISCELLANEA AND CONCLUSION
A Maze Collector--The Labyrinth in Queer Places--The Maze
on Paper and on the Sands--Mirror Mazes--A Temporary
Hedge Maze--Maze Toys--A Verbal Labyrinth--The Maze in
Place-names--A Plea for the Preservation of some Ancient
Monuments 201-213
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX 215-235
INDEX 237-254
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
MAZE AT HATFIELD, HERTS. (Photo, G. F. Green) _Frontispiece_
1. EGYPTIAN LABYRINTH. Portion of Ruins, _circ._ 1700.
(P. Lucas) _facing page_ 12
2. EGYPTIAN LABYRINTH. Shrine of Amenemhat III.
(Flinders Petrie) _f.p._ 14
3. EGYPTIAN LABYRINTH. Restored Plan. (Canina) 15
4. EGYPTIAN LABYRINTH. Restored Plan. (Flinders Petrie) 16
5. CRETAN LABYRINTH. (Florentine Picture Chronicle) _f.p._ 18
6. CRETAN LABYRINTH. (Italian Engraving: School of
Finiguerra) 21
7. CAVERN OF GORTYNA. (Sieber) _f.p._ 28
8. KNOSSOS. Maze-pattern on Wall of Palace. (After Evans) 32
9. DOUBLE-AXE AND SOCKET FROM DICTAEAN CAVE. (Evans) _f.p._ 31
10. TOMB OF DOUBLE AXES. Plan. (Evans) 33
11. TOMB OF DOUBLE AXES. View of the Cist. (Evans) _f.p._ 33
12. BRONZE DOUBLE AXE FROM TOMB OF DOUBLE AXES. (Evans) _f.p._ 43
13. TOMB OF LARS PORSENA AT CLUSIUM. Restoration. (Q. de
Quincy) _f.p._ 38
14. POGGIO CAJELLA. Labyrinthine Cemetery. (Dennis) _f.p._ 40
15, 16, 17, 18. EARLY EGYPTIAN SEALS AND PLAQUES.
(British Museum) _f.p._ 43
19. EARLY EGYPTIAN PLAQUE OR AMULET. (Prof. Flinders
Petrie's Collection, Univ. Coll., London) 43
20 to 25. COINS OF KNOSSOS. (British Museum) _f.p._ 44
26 to 31. COINS OF KNOSSOS. (British Museum) _f.p._ 46
32. GRAFFITO AT POMPEII. (Mus. Borb. XIV. 1852) 46
33. MOSAIC AT SALZBURG. (Kreuzer) 47
34. MOSAIC AT CAERLEON. (O. Morgan) _f.p._ 48
35. MOSAIC AT VERDES, LOIR-ET-CHER. (De Caumont) 49
36. MOSAIC AT CORMEROD, SWITZERLAND. (Mitt. Ant. Ges.
Zurich, XVI) _f.p._ 48
37. MOSAIC AT SUSA, TUNIS. (C. R. Acad. Inscriptions,
Paris, 1892) 50
38. GREEK KYLIX, SHOWING EXPLOITS OF THESEUS. (British
Museum) _f.p._ 52
39. ANOTHER THESEUS KYLIX. (British Museum) _f.p._ 52
40. LABYRINTH ENGRAVED ON ANCIENT GEM. (Maffei) 53
41. BRONZE PLAQUETTE. Italian XVIth Century. (British
Museum) _f.p._ 61
42. LABYRINTH IN CHURCH OF REPARATUS, ORLÉANSVILLE,
ALGERIA. (Prevost) 55
43. LABYRINTH IN LUCCA CATHEDRAL. (Durand) 55
44. LABYRINTH IN S. MICHELE, PAVIA. (Ciampini) 56
45. LABYRINTH IN S. MARIA-DI-TRASTAVERA, ROME. (Durand) _f.p._ 56
46. LABYRINTH IN S. VITALE, RAVENNA. (Durand) _f.p._ 56
47. LABYRINTH IN CHARTRES CATHEDRAL. (Gailhabaud) 58
48. LABYRINTH IN AMIENS CATHEDRAL. (Gailhabaud) 59
49. LABYRINTH IN PARISH CHURCH, ST. QUENTIN. (Gailhabaud) 60
50. LABYRINTH IN RHEIMS CATHEDRAL. (Gailhabaud) _f.p._ 61
51. LABYRINTH IN AMIENS CATHEDRAL, CENTRAL PLATE.
(Gailhabaud) _f.p._ 62
52. LABYRINTH IN BAYEUX CATHEDRAL. (Amé) _f.p._ 62
53. LABYRINTH IN SENS CATHEDRAL. (Gailhabaud) 62
54. LABYRINTH IN ABBEY OF ST. BERTIN, ST. OMER. (Wallet) 63
55. LABYRINTH IN POITIERS CATHEDRAL. (Auber) 64
56. LABYRINTHS ON TILES. Toussaints Abbey, Chalons. (Amé) _f.p._ 74
57. LABYRINTH IN ELY CATHEDRAL. (W. H. M.) 66
58. LABYRINTH IN CHURCH AT BOURN, CAMBS. (W. H. M.) 69
59. "JULIAN'S BOWER," ALKBOROUGH, LINCS. (Litho., Rev.
G. Yorke) 72
60. TURF LABYRINTH AT WING, RUTLAND. (Photo, W. J. Stocks;
by permission of Rev. E. A. Irons) _f.p._ 74
61. "SHEPHERD'S RACE," BOUGHTON GREEN, NORTHANTS. (After
Trollope) 76
62. "MIZMAZE," ST. CATHERINE'S HILL, WINCHESTER. (W. H. M.) 80
63. TURF LABYRINTH, PIMPERNE, DORSET. (Hutchins) 81
64. TURF LABYRINTH, SAFFRON WALDEN, ESSEX. (W. H. M.) 83
65. "THE MAZLES," COMBERTON, CAMBS. (Photo, W. H. M.) _f.p._ 84
66. TURF LABYRINTH, HILTON, HUNTS. (W. H. M.) 85
67. TURF LABYRINTH, HILTON, HUNTS. (Photo, W. H. M.) _f.p._ 84
68. "WALLS OF TROY," ROCKCLIFFE MARSH, CUMBERLAND.
(After Ferguson) 87
69. "TROY-TOWN," SOMERTON, OXON. (From sketch by O. W.
Godwin) 89
70. "CAERDROIA." (After P. Roberts) 94
71. LABYRINTH DEVICE OF ARCHBISHOP OF EMBRUN. (After
C. Paradin) 97
72. FLORAL LABYRINTH. (De Vries) _f.p._ 100
73. FLORAL LABYRINTH. (De Vries) 102
74. FLORAL LABYRINTH. (De Vries) _f.p._ 101
75, 76. HERBAL LABYRINTHS. (T. Hill) 104
77, 78. MAZE DESIGNS IN XVIITH CENTURY MANUSCRIPT.
(Harley MS., Brit. Mus.) 106
79. MAZE DESIGN BY ADAM ISLIP, 1602 107
80. MAZE DESIGN BY J. COMMELYN, 1676 108
81. MAZE DESIGN BY J. SERLIO. (XVIth Century) 113
82. MAZE AT CHARLEVAL. (After Du Cerceau) 114
83, 84. MAZES AT GAILLON. (After Du Cerceau) 114
85. MAZE AT THEOBALDS, HERTS. (After Trollope) 115
86. MAZE AT HATFIELD, HERTS. (Photo, G. F. Green) _Frontispiece_
87. MAZE AT HATFIELD, HERTS. Plan. (W. H. M.) 116
88. LABYRINTH OF VERSAILLES. (Perrault) _f.p._ 118
89. LABYRINTH OF VERSAILLES. Fable Group: "Hare and
Tortoise" 118
90. LABYRINTH OF VERSAILLES. Fable Group: "Fox and Crow" 119
91. LABYRINTH OF VERSAILLES. Fable Group: "Snake and
Porcupine" 120
92. LABYRINTH AT THE TUILERIES, PARIS. (After Du Cerceau) 121
93. LABYRINTH AT CHOISY-LE-ROI. (Blondel) _f.p._ 121
94. LABYRINTH AT CHANTILLY. (Blondel) _f.p._ 121
95, 96. MAZE DESIGNS BY ANDRÉ MOLLET. ("Le Jardin de
Plaisir," 1651) _f.p._ 123
97 to 106. MAZE DESIGNS BY G. A. BOECKLER.
("Architectura Curiosa Nova," 1664) 122-126
107. MAZE AT GUNTERSTEIN, HOLLAND. (Nicholas Visscher) _f.p._ 126
108. MAZE AT GUNTERSTEIN, HOLLAND. Plan. (Visscher) _f.p._ 126
109. GARDENS AT LOO, HOLLAND, WITH MAZES. (W. Harris) _f.p._ 127
110. MAZE AT HAMPTON COURT. (Photo, G. F. Green) _f.p._ 128
111. MAZE AT HAMPTON COURT. Plan. (W. H. M.) 129
112. HAMPTON COURT. Mazes and "Plan-de-Troy" in XVIIIth
Century. (Engraving, J. Rocque, 1736) 130
113. HAMPTON COURT. "The Little Maze." (Photo, G. F.
Green) _f.p._ 128
114. LABYRINTH DESIGN BY L. LIGER. (From London and Wise) 131
115. MAZE DESIGN BY BATTY LANGLEY. ("New Principles of
Gardening," 1728) _f.p._ 131
116. MAZE DESIGN BY BATTY LANGLEY. ("New Principles of
Gardening," 1728) _f.p._ 130
117. LABYRINTH AT TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD. (Williams) _f.p._ 133
118. WREST PARK, BEDS., WITH TWO MAZES. (Kip) _f.p._ 134
119. MAZE DESIGN BY STEPHEN SWITZER. ("Ichnographia
Rustica," 1742) 133
120. MAZE IN R.H.S. GARDENS, STH. KENSINGTON. (After
Nesfield) 139
121. MAZE IN BRIDGE END GARDENS, SAFFRON WALDEN. Looking S.
(Photo, W. H. M.) _f.p._ 140
122. MAZE IN BRIDGE END GARDENS, SAFFRON WALDEN. Looking N.
(Photo, W. H. M.) _f.p._ 140
123. MAZE AT SOMERLEYTON HALL, SUFFOLK. (W. H. M., from
sketch by G. F. Green) 141
124. STONE LABYRINTH ON WIER ISLAND, GULF OF FINLAND.
(Von Baer) 148
125. STONE LABYRINTH ON FINNISH COAST. (Aspelin) 148
126. STONE LABYRINTH AT WISBY, GOTHLAND. (Aspelin) 149
127. SCANDINAVIAN STONE LABYRINTH. (Rudbeck) 150
128. OLD DANISH STONE CROSS, WITH LABYRINTH. (O. Worm) 151
129. ROCK ENGRAVINGS, ROUTING LINN, NORTHUMBERLAND.
(G. Tate) _f.p._ 152
130. ROCK ENGRAVINGS, OLD BEWICK, NORTHUMBERLAND.
(G. Tate) _f.p._ 152
131. INDIAN LABYRINTH, FROM XVIIITH CENTURY SPANISH
MANUSCRIPT. (After Cotton) 154
132. LABYRINTHINE PICTOGRAPH, MESA VERDE. (After Fewkes) 155
133. ETRUSCAN WINE-VASE FROM TRAGLIATELLA. (After Deecke) 157
134, 135. ETRUSCAN WINE-VASE FROM TRAGLIATELLA. "Troy
Dance" Details. (After Deecke) 157-158
136. STRAIGHT-LINE DIAGRAM. Hampton Court Maze 187
137. STRAIGHT-LINE DIAGRAM. Hatfield Maze 187
138, 139. DERIVATION OF LABYRINTH TYPES FROM ROCK-ENGRAVING
FIGURES. (After Krause) 188
140. ALLEGORICAL LABYRINTH. (Old German Print) _f.p._ 194
141, 142. SEA-SIDE SAND MAZES. (W. H. M.) _f.p._ 202
143. TEMPORARY MAZE AT VILLAGE FÊTE. (W. H. M.) 203
144. MAZE TOY BY A. BRENTANO. (After Patent Specification) 204
145. MAZE TOY BY S. D. NIX. (After Patent Specification) 205
146. MAZE TOY BY J. M. ARNOT. (After Patent Specification) 206
147. MAZE TOY BY J. PROCTOR. (After Patent Specification) 206
148. MAZE TOY BY H. BRIDGE. (After Patent Specification) 207
149, 150, 151. PATH OF RAT IN LABYRINTH. Three Stages.
(After Szymanski) 208
_Erratum_
Page 78, line 21, _for_ Ackerman's _read_ Ackermann's.
MAZES AND LABYRINTHS
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A delightful air of romance and mystery surrounds the whole subject of
Labyrinths and Mazes.
The hedge-maze, which is the only type with which most of us have
a first-hand acquaintance, is generally felt to be a survival of a
romantic age, even though we esteem its function as nothing higher
than that of a playground for children. Many a tender intrigue has
been woven around its dark yew alleys. Mr. Compton Mackenzie, for
example, introduces it most effectively as a lovers' rendezvous in "The
Passionate Elopement," and no doubt the readers of romantic literature
will recall other instances of a like nature. The story of fair
Rosamond's Bower is one which will leap to the mind in this connection.
This type of maze alone is worth more than a passing thought, but it is
far from being the only, or even the most interesting, development of
the labyrinth idea.
What is the difference, it may be asked, between a _maze_ and a
_labyrinth_? The answer is, little or none. Some writers seem to
prefer to apply the word "maze" to hedge-mazes only, using the word
"labyrinth" to denote the structures described by the writers of
antiquity, or as a general term for any confusing arrangement of paths.
Others, again, show a tendency to restrict the application of the term
"maze" to cases in which the idea of a puzzle is involved.
It would certainly seem somewhat inappropriate to talk of "the Cretan
Maze" or "the Hampton Court Labyrinth," but, generally speaking, we may
use the words interchangeably, regarding "maze" as merely the northern
equivalent of the classic "labyrinth." Both words have come to signify
a complex path of some kind, but when we press for a closer definition
we encounter difficulties. We cannot, for instance, say that it is "a
tortuous branched path designed to baffle or deceive those who attempt
to find the goal to which it leads," for, though that description
holds good in some cases, it ignores the many cases in which there is
only one path, without branches, and therefore no intent to baffle or
mislead, and others again in which there is no definite "goal." We
cannot say that it is a winding path "bounded by walls or hedges,"
for in many instances there are neither walls nor hedges. One of the
most famous labyrinths, for example, consisted chiefly of a vast and
complicated series of rooms and columns. In fact, we shall find it
convenient to leave the question of the definition of the words, and
also that of their origin, until we have examined the various examples
that exist or are known to have existed.
It may be necessary, here and there, to make reference to various
archæological or antiquarian books and other writings, but the outlook
of the general reader, rather than that of the professed student, has
been mainly borne in mind.
The object of this book is simply to provide a readable survey of a
subject which, in view of the lure it has exercised throughout many
ages and under a variety of forms, has been almost entirely neglected
in our literature--the subject of mazes and labyrinths treated from a
general and not a purely archæological, horticultural, mathematical, or
artistic point of view.
Such references as have been made have therefore been accompanied in
most cases by some explanatory or descriptive phrase, a provision which
might be considered unnecessary or out of place in a book written for
the trained student.
For the benefit of such as may wish to verify, or to investigate more
fully, any of the matters dealt with, a classified list of references
has been compiled and will be found at the end of the book.
The first summary of any importance to be published in this country
on the subject was a paper by the Venerable Edward Trollope, F.S.A.,
Archdeacon of Stow, which appeared in the _Archaeological Journal_ and
in the "Proceedings" of a provincial archaeological society in 1858.
Nearly all subsequent writers on the subject--in this country at any
rate--have drawn largely upon the paper in question and have made
little advance upon it.
The "Encyclopaedia Britannica" contains an illustrated article, written
originally by a botanist and chiefly concerned with hedge-mazes.
Such books as Rouse Ball's "Mathematical Recreations," Andrews'
"Ecclesiastical Curiosities," and Dudeney's "Amusements in Mathematics"
devote each a chapter or so to the matter, and from time to time
there have been brief displays of interest in some aspect or other of
the topic in popular periodicals, the most notable being a pair of
richly illustrated articles in _Country Life_ in 1903. A condensed and
scholarly review of the subject, in so far as it is relevant to his
main _thesis_, is contained in the first volume of Mr. A. B. Cook's
ponderous work on "Zeus" (1914). A similar remark applies to the
recently published (1921) Volume I of Sir Arthur Evans's magnificent
summary of his Cretan researches, "The Palace of Minos at Knossos."
There is a characteristically Ruskinian discourse on Labyrinths in
"Fors Clavigera" (Fors No. 23); and an interesting, if not convincing,
section of Mr. E. O. Gordon's "Prehistoric London" adduces a certain
amount of labyrinth lore in support of the Trojan origin of the
metropolis. So far as the writer has been able to ascertain, no book
dealing solely with the subject has hitherto appeared in our language.
In 1915-16 there appeared posthumously in the _Revue Archéologique_
a very remarkable series of articles on "Les Fallacieux Détours du
Labyrinthe" by a brilliant young French archaeologist, M. Robert de
Launay, who was killed on the field of honour at Neuville-St.-Vaast
in May 1915. The articles are characterised by great boldness and
enthusiasm and show a wide range of knowledge, but it is probable
that, if the author had lived, mature consideration would have led
him to modify some of his conclusions. This is the most recent work
of importance on the subject, though the new work by Sir A. Evans
mentioned above contains much interesting and valuable information on
certain aspects.
In the following chapters an attempt is made to set forth, as
readably as may be, an account of the various devices in which the
labyrinth-idea has been embodied, to indicate where examples may be
found, to give some notion of the speculations which have been made
regarding their origins, and to consider the possibilities of the idea
from the point of view of amusement and recreation.
The earliest labyrinths of which mention is made by the classic writers
are those of Egypt and Crete, and we shall find it convenient to
consider these first of all. We will then notice the other labyrinths
alluded to by the writers of antiquity, and pass on to a consideration
of labyrinthine designs introduced by way of ornament or symbolism
in various objects of later classic art. We shall see that the
labyrinth-idea was adopted and developed by the Christian Church in the
Middle Ages, and will note its progress as a medium of horticultural
embellishment. It will be interesting to examine the mathematical
principles, such as they are, which underlie the construction
or solution of mazes, also to see in what a number of ways these
principles may be applied.
We shall find that our inquiry will bring us into contact with a
greater variety of subjects than one would at first be inclined to
imagine, and that labyrinths and mazes need not by any means be
considered as exclusively a concern of archaeologists and children.
Incidentally we may help to rescue from threatened oblivion a certain
class of native antiquities, small and diminishing in number, but
surely worth sufficient attention to ensure their preservation, namely,
the _turf labyrinths_.
As to the actual origin and primary purpose of these devices we cannot
be dogmatic on the evidence before us, and herein, perhaps, lies a
good deal of their charm. When we can classify and date with precision
any object which is not of a utilitarian nature we relegate it at
once to our mental museum, and a museum is only too apt to become an
_oubliette_. But when there is a considerable margin for speculation,
or, as we usually say, a certain amount of "mystery" in the case, we
are more likely to find pleasure in rehandling it, looking at it from
different points of view and wondering about it. Let us grant, by all
means, that there are quite sufficient unsolved riddles in nature and
life without raising up artificial mysteries. Let us even admit that
when evidence is available (which, by the way, is not the same thing
as _existent_) it is better to settle a question straight away than
to leave it open to further argument. At the same time, let us not be
too hasty in accepting speculations, however shrewd, as proved facts.
Antiquarian books should naturally be as free as possible from actual
misstatements, but they have lost all their charm when they become
collections of bald dogmatic statements or mere descriptive catalogues.
CHAPTER II
THE EGYPTIAN LABYRINTH
(i) _Accounts of the Ancient Writers_
The earliest structure of any kind to which we find the word
_labyrinth_ applied was a huge building situated in the North of Egypt,
a land always noted for its stupendous monuments, and was probably
constructed more than 2000 years before the commencement of the
Christian era.
We live in an age when the use of constructional steel enables the
dreams of the architect to materialise in many ways that would astonish
the builders of old; nevertheless, the modern citizen, whatever his
nationality, can rarely resist a feeling akin to awe when making his
first acquaintance with such works as the Pyramids of Egypt. One can
imagine, then, what a profound effect these massive edifices must have
exerted on the minds of travellers in earlier ages.
We find, as we might expect, many wild exaggerations in individual
descriptions and corresponding discrepancies between the various
accounts of any particular monument, and this is to some extent the
case with regard to the Egyptian Labyrinth.
A fairly detailed and circumstantial account has come down to us from
the Greek writer Herodotus.
Herodotus, who is rightly spoken of as the Father of History, was
born about 484 B.C. and lived about sixty years, of which he spent a
considerable number in travelling about over most of the then known
world. Those who are fortunate enough to be able to read his works in
their original tongue are charmed by their freshness, simplicity, and
harmonious rhythm, but those who look to him for accurate information
on any but contemporary events or matters with which he was personally
acquainted are apt to find a rather too credulous acceptance of the
wonderful. No doubt the poetical instinct in Herodotus was stronger
than the critical spirit of the true historian, but, so far as the
records of his personal observations are concerned, there seems to be
no reason to accuse him of gross exaggeration.
The Labyrinth of Egypt he himself visited, as he tells us in his second
book, and seems to have been considerably impressed by it. After
describing how the Egyptians divided the land into twelve parts, or
_nomes_, and set a king over each, he says that they agreed to combine
together to leave a memorial of themselves. They then constructed the
Labyrinth, just above Lake Moeris, and nearly opposite the city of
crocodiles (Crocodilopolis). "I found it," he says, "greater than words
could tell, for, although the temple at Ephesus and that at Samos are
celebrated works, yet all of the works and buildings of the Greeks
put together would certainly be inferior to this labyrinth as regards
labour and expense." Even the pyramids, he tells us, were surpassed by
the Labyrinth. "It has twelve covered courts, with opposite doors, six
courts on the North side and six on the South, all communicating with
one another and with one wall surrounding them all. There are two sorts
of rooms, one sort above, the other sort below ground, fifteen hundred
of each sort, or three thousand in all." He says that he was allowed
to pass through the upper rooms only, the lower range being strictly
guarded from visitors, as they contained the tombs of the kings who had
built the Labyrinth, also the tombs of the sacred crocodiles.
The upper rooms he describes as being of super-human size, and the
system of passages through the courts, rooms, and colonnades very
intricate and bewildering. The roof of the whole affair, he says, is
of stone and the walls are covered with carvings. Each of the courts
is surrounded by columns of white stone, perfectly joined. Outside
the Labyrinth, and at one corner of it, is a pyramid about 240 feet
in height, with huge figures carved upon it and approached by an
underground passage.
Herodotus expresses even greater admiration, however, for the lake
beside the Labyrinth, which he describes as being of vast size and
artificially constructed, having two pyramids arising from its bed,
each supporting a colossal seated statue. The water for the lake, he
says, is brought from the Nile by a canal.
The Labyrinth and the lake are also described at some length by
another great traveller, Strabo, who lived about four centuries after
Herodotus. He wrote, amongst other works, a Geography of the World in
seventeen volumes, the last of which treats of Egypt and other parts
of Africa. Like Herodotus, he speaks of the Labyrinth from personal
observation. After referring to the lake and the manner in which it
is used as a storage reservoir for the water of the Nile, he proceeds
to describe the Labyrinth, "a work equal to the Pyramids." He says it
is "a large palace composed of as many palaces as there were formerly
_nomes_. There are an equal number of courts, surrounded by columns
and adjoining one another, all in a row and constituting one building,
like a long wall with the courts in front of it. The entrances to the
courts are opposite the wall; in front of these entrances are many long
covered alleys with winding intercommunicating passages, so that a
stranger could not find his way in or out unless with a guide. Each of
these structures is roofed with a single slab of stone, as are also the
covered alleys, no timber or any other material being used." If one
ascends to the roof, he says, one looks over "a field of stone." The
courts were in a line, supported by a row of twenty-seven monolithic
columns, the walls also being constructed of stones of as great a size.
"At the end of the building is the royal tomb, consisting of a square
pyramid and containing the body of _Imandes_."
Strabo says that it was the custom of the twelve _nomes_ of Egypt to
assemble, with their priests and priestesses, each _nome_ in its own
court, for the purpose of sacrificing to the gods and administering
justice in important matters.
He mentions that the inhabitants of the particular _nome_ in the
vicinity worshipped the crocodile which was kept in the lake and
answered to the name of Suchus (Sebek). This animal was apparently
quite tame and used to be presented by visitors with offerings of
bread, flesh, wine, honey, and milk.
In certain parts of his works Strabo speaks rather disrespectfully of
Herodotus as a writer, classing him as a marvel-monger, but it will
be seen that in several important respects these two accounts of the
Egyptian Labyrinth are in fair agreement.
Another writer of about the same period as Strabo, known as Diodorus
the Sicilian, wrote a long, rambling compilation which he called a
"Historical Library" and in which he describes the Egyptian Labyrinth
and Lake Moeris. He says the latter was constructed by King Moeris, who
left a place in the middle where he built himself a sepulchre and two
pyramids--one for himself and one for his queen--surmounted by colossal
seated statues. Diodorus says that the king gave the money resulting
from the sale of the fish caught in the lake, amounting to a silver
talent a day, to his wife "to buy her pins."
A generation or so later the Roman writer Pomponius Mela gives a short
account of this labyrinth, probably at second-hand, and early in the
first century of the Christian era Pliny, in his "Natural History,"
has a good deal to say on the subject. He refers to labyrinths
generally as "the most stupendous works on which mankind has expended
its labours."
Regarding the Egyptian Labyrinth he says, "there exists still, in the
_nome_ of Heracleopolites, a labyrinth first built, it is said, three
thousand six hundred years ago, by King Petesuchis or Tithoës," but
he goes on to quote Herodotus, to the effect that it was built by
twelve kings, the last of whom was Psammetichus, and two other writers
who give the king's name as Moiris and Moteris respectively, "whilst
others, again, assert that it was a building dedicated to the Sun-god,
an opinion which is generally accepted."
He also refers to the fact that the roof was of stone, and notes as a
surprising point that the parts around the entrance were constructed of
Parian marble, whilst the columns of the other parts were of syenite.
"This great mass is so solidly built that the lapse of time has been
quite unable to destroy it, but it has been badly ravaged by the people
of Heracleopolites, who have always detested it. To describe the whole
of it in detail would be quite impossible, as it is divided up into
regions and prefectures, called _nomes_, thirty in number, with a great
palace to each; in addition it must contain temples of all the gods
of Egypt and forty statues of Nemesis in the same number of sacred
shrines, as well as numerous pyramids." He describes it further as
having "banquet halls reached by steep ascents, flights of ninety steps
leading down from the porticoes, porphyritic columns, figures of gods
and hideous monsters, and statues of kings. Some of the palaces are so
made that the opening of a door makes a terrifying sound as of thunder.
Most of the buildings are in total darkness. Outside the labyrinth
there is another great heap of buildings, called the 'Pteron,' under
which are passages leading to other subterranean palaces."
CHAPTER III
THE EGYPTIAN LABYRINTH (_continued_)
(ii) _Accounts of Later Explorers_
A structure which evoked so much wonder and admiration in ancient times
can hardly fail to have aroused the curiosity of later generations, but
no serious attempts to locate it seem to have been made by Europeans
until several centuries later. It was then far too late to observe any
of its glories, for it was all but destroyed in Roman times, and a
village sprang up on its site, largely constructed from its debris.
The Italian traveller Gemelli-Careri, who visited Egypt in 1693, refers
to a subterranean labyrinth which he saw in the neighbourhood of the
Pyramids. In the English version of his account we read: "... the Arabs
conducted us to see a Labyrinth, where the Ancients bury'd Birds. We
went down a narrow Passage into a Room out of which we crept on our
Bellies through a Hole to certain ways where a man may walk well enough
upright. On both sides of these there are Urns, in which the Birds were
bury'd; there is now nothing in them but a little dust. These Ways
are cut out of a _nitrous_ Stone, and run several miles like a City
under ground, which they call a Labyrinth." There is nothing in this
description, however, to suggest that these works had any connection
with the Labyrinth of the ancients.
In 1700 Paul Lucas, the Antiquary to Louis XIV, went on a voyage to
Egypt, and, in the book in which he subsequently published the account
of his travels, gives us some idea of the state of the remains in his
time, but his account is very rambling and unreliable. Fig. 1 is a view
which he gives of part of the ruins of the alleged labyrinth.
Lucas states that an old Arab who accompanied his party professed to
have explored the interior of the ruins many years before, and to have
penetrated into its subterranean passages to a large chamber surrounded
by several niches, "like little shops," whence endless alleys and
other rooms branched off. By the time of Lucas's visit, however, these
passages could not be traced, and he concluded that they had become
blocked up by debris.
The next explorer to visit the spot seems to have been Dr. Richard
Pococke, whose "Description of the East" appeared in 1743. "We observed
at a great distance," he says, "the temple of the Labyrinth, and being
about a league from it, I observed several heaps as of ruins, covered
with sand, and many stones all round as if there had been some great
building there: they call it the town of Caroon (Bellet Caroon). It
seemed to have been of a considerable breadth from east to west, and
the buildings extended on each side towards the north to the Lake
Moeris and the temple. This without doubt is the spot of the famous
Labyrinth which Herodotus says was built by the twelve kings of Egypt."
He describes what he takes to be the pyramid of the Labyrinth as a
building about 165 feet long by 80 broad, very much ruined, and says it
is called the "Castle of Caroon."
The neighbourhood was also explored by the archaeologists who
accompanied that remarkable expedition sent out by Napoleon at the end
of the eighteenth century, and one of them, Jomard, believed that he
had discovered the ruins of the Labyrinth.
[Illustration: Fig. 1. Egyptian Labyrinth. Portion of Ruins, _circ._
1700. (_Paul Lucas_)]
In 1843 a Prussian expedition, under K. R. Lepsius, carried out
considerable excavations in the locality and claimed to have
established the actual site of the Labyrinth, attaching great
importance to a series of brick chambers which they unearthed. The data
furnished by this party, however, were not altogether of a convincing
character, and it was felt that further evidence was required before
their conclusions could be accepted.
G. M. Ebers, a pupil of Lepsius, and one who did much to popularise the
study of Egyptology by a series of novels, said that, if one climbed
the pyramid hard by, one could see that the ruins of the Labyrinth had
a horseshoe shape, but that was all.
The actual site of the Egyptian Labyrinth was finally identified by
Professor Flinders Petrie in 1888. He found that the brick chambers
which Lepsius took to be part of the Labyrinth were only remains of
the Roman town built by its destroyers, the Labyrinth itself being so
thoroughly demolished that only a great bed of fragments remained. Even
from this dreary waste of stone chips, however, a few items of interest
were discovered, including scattered bits of foundations, a great well,
two door-jambs--one to the north and one to the south--two granite
shrines and part of another, several fragments of statues and a large
granite seated figure of the king who is now generally recognised to
have been the builder of the Labyrinth, namely Amenemhat (or Amenemhe)
III of the XIIth Dynasty (also known as Lampares), who reigned about
twenty-three centuries B.C. Fig. 2, which, like the diagram shown in
Fig. 4, is reproduced by the kind permission of Professor Petrie from
his book "The Labyrinth, Gerzeh and Mazghuneh" (1912), represents one
of the shrines dedicated to the founder. Sufficient of the original
foundations remained to enable the size and orientation of the building
to be roughly determined.
The Labyrinth must have covered an area of about 1000 feet from east to
west by 800 feet from north to south, and was situated to the east of
Lake Moeris, opposite the ancient town of Arsinoë (Crocodilopolis),
and just to the south of the pyramid of Hawara, in the district known
nowadays as the Fayûm.
The mummified remains of the builder of the Labyrinth, King Amenemhat
III, and of his daughter Sebekneferu, have been discovered in this
pyramid, which is symmetrical about the same N.-S. meridian as the
Labyrinth.
Professor Petrie reviewed all that the classic writers had reported
concerning the Labyrinth, and concluded that, in spite of their
differences, each had contributed some item of value. The discrepancies
between the descriptions of Herodotus and Strabo he attributes to the
probable decay or destruction of the upper storey in the intervening
centuries.
Many attempts have been made to visualise the Labyrinth as it
existed in the time of Herodotus. Fig. 3 shows, in plan, one such
reconstruction, according to the Italian archaeologist Canina. The
actual plan of the Labyrinth would appear to have differed from this in
many respects, judging by the indications found by Professor Petrie.
The latter drew up a tentative restoration based upon the descriptions
of Herodotus and Strabo so far as these tallied with the remains
discovered by him.
He suggests that the shrines which he found formed part of a series
of nine, ranged along the foot of the pyramid, each attached to a
columned court, the whole series of courts opening opposite a series of
twenty-seven columns arranged down the length of a great hall running
east and west; on the other side of this hall would be another series
of columned courts, six in number and larger than the others, separated
by another long hall from a further series of six (Fig. 4).
[Illustration: Fig. 2. Egyptian Labyrinth. Shrine of Amenemhat III.
(_Flinders Petrie_)]
In spite of the scantiness of the present remains and the discrepancies
between the various reports that have reached us from ancient times, we
can at least be reasonably certain that this, the earliest structure
to which the term "labyrinth" λαβύρινθος [Greek: labyrinthos] is
known to have been applied, did actually exist; that it was of the
nature of a stupendous architectural monument, that it is of great
antiquity--having been built over 4000 years ago at any rate--and that
its site is definitely known.
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Egyptian Labyrinth. Restored Plan. (_Canina._)]
Its original object is still a matter of conjecture. It is quite
possible that it was used as a meeting-place for the nomes, which would
have been about twenty-two in number at the time of the XIIth Dynasty,
but it is perhaps more probable that it was intended as a sepulchral
monument. In any case it is plain, from the fragments of various gods
and goddesses found on the site, that it was a centre of worship of a
great variety of deities.
From an almost illegible inscription on a great weather-beaten block of
granite, deciphered, with great difficulty, as a dedication by a King
Ptolemy to a Queen Cleopatra, Professor Petrie concluded that as late
as the beginning of the second century B.C. the building was still in
royal care, but not very long afterwards it was considerably despoiled.
Whatever may have been its original object, it afforded several
generations the advantages of a most convenient stone-quarry.
[Illustration: FIG. 4.--Egyptian Labyrinth. Restored Plan of Western
Half. (_Flinders Petrie._)]
CHAPTER IV
THE CRETAN LABYRINTH
(i) _The Story of Theseus and the Minotaur_
Charles Kingsley in "The Heroes" and Nathaniel Hawthorne in "Tanglewood
Tales" have familiarised most English-speaking people with the story of
the exploits of Theseus, and doubtless most folk have some acquaintance
with the first volume of Plutarch's "Lives," but it will not be out of
place here to recall the portions of the legend which are associated
with our particular theme, the parts, that is to say, which concern the
Labyrinth of Crete. In doing so we will follow the version given by
Plutarch.
This Greco-Roman historian flourished in the latter half of the first
century of our era. His information as to the deeds of Theseus, already
for many centuries a staple ingredient in popular legendry, was drawn
from the accounts of the early Greek writers Bacchylides (fifth century
B.C.), Cleidemus (circ. 420-350 B.C.), Philochorus (circ. 306-260
B.C.), and others.
The Cretan exploit was perhaps the most romantic of the long series of
heroic acts attributed to Theseus. Let us briefly recall it.
Aegeus, the father of Theseus, was King of Athens. At that time
there reigned at Knossos, in Crete, a monarch called Minos, who held
sway over what was then the most powerful maritime state in the
Mediterranean. Minos had a son named Androgeos, who, during his travels
in Attica, was treacherously set upon and slain, or so his father
was informed. In consequence of this Minos imposed a penalty on the
Athenians in the form of a tribute to be paid once every nine years,
such tribute to consist of seven youths and seven maidens, who were to
be shipped to Knossos at the appointed periods.
There was at the court of Minos an exceedingly clever and renowned
artificer or engineer, Daedalus by name, to whom all sorts of
miraculous inventions are ascribed. This Daedalus had devised an
ingenious structure, the "Labyrinth," so contrived that if anybody were
placed therein he would find it practically impossible to discover the
exit without a guide.
The Labyrinth was designed as a dwelling for, or at any rate was
inhabited by, a hideous and cruel being called the Minotaur, a
monstrous offspring of Queen Pasiphaë, wife of Minos. The Minotaur
is described as being half man and half bull, or a man with a bull's
head, a ferocious creature that destroyed any unfortunate human beings
who might come within its power. According to report, the youths and
maidens of the Athenian tribute were periodically, one by one, thrust
into the Labyrinth, where, after futile wanderings in the endeavour to
find an exit, they were finally caught and slain by the Minotaur.
When Theseus arrived at the court of Aegeus, having been brought up
hitherto by his mother in a distant seclusion, he was distressed to
find that his father's joy in the reunion was overcast by a deepening
sadness. On inquiring the reason for this, he learned of the vindictive
tribute laid upon the kingdom, and that the time for the third payment
was approaching.
"Let me make one of the fourteen," said the valiant youth. "I will find
a way to slay this Minotaur, and then there will be no further need for
the tribute."
[Illustration: Fig. 5. Cretan Labyrinth. (_Florentine Picture
Chronicle._)]
After various attempts to dissuade him, Aegeus at length consented, but
stipulated that if Theseus were successful in his design the tribute
ship should, on its return voyage, hoist a white sail in place of the
black one which it customarily bore.
In due course Theseus came to Knossos, where, shortly after his
arrival, he attracted the attention of Ariadne, the fair-haired
daughter of Minos. Youth and love conspired against age and rancour,
and the fair damsel arranged to provide the hero with a clue of thread
and a sword before he was cast into the Labyrinth. One end of this
thread was to be fastened at the entrance and the rest unrolled as he
advanced.
Theseus followed his instructions, met the Minotaur in its lair and,
after a terrific combat, overcame and slew it, after which he retraced
his steps by means of the thread and made his escape from the Labyrinth.
By some means or other he contrived to liberate the other prisoners and
to obtain possession of the tribute ship. Then, with the fair Ariadne
on board, they set sail for Athens.
They do not appear to have been too eager to reach their destination,
however, for the party found time to celebrate their escape with dance
and song on the islands _en route_. It is said that on the island
of Delos they performed a peculiar dance called the _Geranos_, or
"Crane Dance," in which they went through the motions of threading the
Labyrinth, and that this dance was perpetuated by the natives of that
island until fairly recent times.
Theseus seems to have marred his home-coming by two little displays of
thoughtlessness that might be considered reprehensible in anybody but
a Greek hero. In the first place, he left fair Ariadne behind on the
island of Naxos; secondly, he entirely overlooked his father's request
concerning the change of sail, with the result that poor old Aegeus,
on the look-out for the returning ship, saw the black sail in the
distance, concluded that his son had failed in his encounter with the
Minotaur, threw himself into the sea and was drowned. Hence that sea
was called the Aegean, and is so called to this day.
In Fig. 5 we reproduce an early Italian drawing in which the various
incidents in the story are seen simultaneously. This picture is one
of a remarkable series, attributed to Baccio Baldini and known as the
Florentine Picture Chronicle. The collection was for many years the
property of John Ruskin, but is now jealously treasured by the British
Museum. A contemporary engraving, of the school of Finiguerra, seems to
be based on this picture (Fig. 6).
There are many versions of the legend, some of them greatly at variance
with others. For instance, Philochorus, an eminent writer on the
antiquities of Athens, gives in his "Atthis" a very rationalistic
account of the affair, stating that the Labyrinth was nothing but a
dungeon where Minos imprisoned the Athenian youths until such time as
they were given as prizes to the victors in the sports that were held
in honour of his murdered son. He held also that the monster was simply
a military officer, whose brutal disposition, in conjunction with his
name, Tauros, may have given rise to the Minotaur myth.
The Cretan poet Epimenides, who lived in the sixth century B.C., says
that Theseus was aided in his escape from the dark Labyrinth by means
of the light radiated by a crown of blazing gems and gold which Bacchus
gave to Ariadne.
Aristotle, according to Plutarch, stated in a work which has not come
down to us his belief that the Athenian youths were not put to death
by Minos but were retained as slaves. Plutarch, moreover, deplores the
abuse which Greek tradition had heaped upon the name of Minos, pointing
out that Homer and Hesiod had referred to him in very honourable terms,
and that he was reputed to have laid down the principles of justice.
According to the classic faith, he was born of Zeus, the supreme God of
the Greeks, and Europa, daughter of man, both marriage and birth taking
place in the Dictaean Cave, not far from Knossos. He received the laws,
like another Moses, direct from God, and after administering them
during his life on earth continued to do so in the underworld after his
death.
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--Cretan Labyrinth. (Italian Engraving; School of
_Finiguerra._)]
The probability is, as Professor Murray has suggested, that Minos was
a general name, like "Pharaoh" in Egypt, or "Caesar" in Rome, bestowed
upon each of a number of Cretan kings of a certain type. A mark either
of the respect in which the name was held or of the colonising power of
the monarch or monarchs in question is seen in the application of the
name Minoa to several towns and villages scattered along the northern
shores of the eastern Mediterranean.
The name Daedalus has likewise been thought by some to have been
applied indiscriminately to various artificers and inventors of
unusual ingenuity. The principal feats associated with this name
are, in addition to the planning of the Labyrinth, the construction
of a _Choros_, or dancing-place, for Ariadne, the modelling of a
great hollow cow for Pasiphaë, wife of Minos, in order that she might
interview the great white bull for which she had conceived an unnatural
affection (the outcome being, in the words of Euripides, "A form
commingled, and a monstrous birth, half man, half bull, in twofold
shape combined"), and the invention of wings, wherewith Daedalus
escaped from the Labyrinth when imprisoned there by Minos for his share
in the Pasiphaë episode. Daedalus was also credited with the invention
of the auger, the plumb-line and other tools, and of masts and sails
for ships.
The Theseus-Minotaur incident has been often celebrated in ancient
and mediaeval art, instances of which we shall later have occasion
to mention. Modern artists, also, have not disdained the theme; a
particularly fine example is the colossal marble group by Canova
(1819), now at the Museum of Art History at Vienna, formerly in the
Theseus Temple in the Volksgarten.
The question naturally arises: Was there actually such a thing as the
Labyrinth, and, if so, where was it and what was its nature?
CHAPTER V
THE CRETAN LABYRINTH (_continued_)
(ii) _The Caverns of Gortyna_
According to the Romano-Greek writer Apollodorus,[1] whose
"Bibliotheke" consisted of a history of the world from the fall of
Troy onwards, Daedalus built the Labyrinth at Knossos for King Minos
on the lines of the Egyptian Labyrinth, but of only one-hundredth part
of the magnitude of the latter. This statement, which was repeated
by various other ancient writers such as Pliny and Diodorus, caused
many subsequent inquirers to look for evidence in Crete of a building
similar to, though smaller than, that described by Herodotus and Strabo.
[1] Often erroneously alluded to as "the Athenian Grammarian."
Nothing corresponding to such a description appeared to exist, but at
Gortyna, on the south side of Crete, there was a remarkable series of
winding passages, opening on the side of Mount Ida. Some authors of
antiquity, such as the Roman poets Catullus and Claudian, held the
opinion that this cavern, or one of the many other caves or quarries
in Crete, was the real Labyrinth, and this view has been largely
entertained in recent times, right up to the beginning of the present
century.
The first modern traveller of note to explore the cavern was the French
botanist, G. P. de Tournefort, who spent three years, from 1700 to
1702, travelling about Asia Minor and the Levant.
Tournefort's book, as well as being a mine of information on various
subjects, makes delightful reading, whether in the original French or
in John Ozell's English translation of 1718, from which we quote.
"This famous place," he says, referring to the Labyrinth, which he
visited on July 1, 1700, "is a subterranean Passage in manner of a
Street, which by a thousand Intricacies and Windings, as it were by
mere Chance, and without the least Regularity, pervades the whole
Cavity or Inside of a little Hill at the foot of Mount Ida, southwards,
three miles from Gortyna. The Entrance into this Labyrinth is by a
natural Opening, seven or eight Paces broad, but so low that even a
middle-siz'd Man can't pass through without stooping.
"The Flooring of this Entrance is very rugged and unequal; the Ceiling
flat and even, terminated by divers Beds of Stone, laid horizontally
one upon another.
"The first thing you come at is a kind of Cavern exceeding rustick,
and gently sloping: in this there is nothing extraordinary, but as you
move forward the place is perfectly surprizing; nothing but Turnings
and crooked By-ways. The principal Alley, which is less perplexing
than the rest, in length about 1200 Paces, leads to the further end
of the Labyrinth, and concludes in two large beautiful Apartments,
where Strangers rest themselves with pleasure. Tho' this Alley divides
itself, at its Extremity, into two or three Branches, yet the dangerous
part of the Labyrinth is not there, but rather at its Entrance, about
some thirty paces from the Cavern on the left hand. If a Man strikes
into any other Path, after he has gone a good way, he is so bewildered
among a thousand Twistings, Twinings, Sinuosities, Crinkle-Crankles and
Turn-again Lanes, that he could scarce ever get out again without the
utmost danger of being lost."
He refers to various inscriptions in charcoal, mostly names of former
visitors, and notes various dates ranging from 1444 to 1699. "We too,"
he says, "wrote the Year of the Lord 1700 in three different places,
with a black stone." "After a thorow Examination of the Structure
of this Labyrinth we all concurred in Opinion, that it could never
have been what _Belonius_ and some other of the Moderns have fancy'd;
namely, an antient Quarry, out of which were dug the Stones that built
the Towns of Gortyna and Gnossus. Is it likely that they would go
for Stone above a thousand paces deep, into a place so full of odd
Turnings?... Again, how could they draw these Stones through a place
so pinch'd in, that we were forc'd to crawl our way out for above a
hundred paces together? Besides, the Mountain is so craggy and full
of Precipices that we had all the difficulty in the World to ride up
it.... It is likewise observable, that the Stone of this Labyrinth has
neither a good Hue nor a competent Hardness; it is downright dingy, and
resembling that of the Mountains near which Gortyna stands.
"... It is therefore much more probable, that the Labyrinth is a
natural Cavity, which in times past some body out of curiosity took
a fancy to try what they could make of, by widening most of those
Passages that were too much straitened.... Doubtless some Shepherds
having discovered these subterraneous Conduits, gave occasion to more
considerable People to turn it into this marvellous Maze to serve for
an Asylum in the Civil Wars or to skreen themselves from the Fury of a
Tyrannical Government: at present it is only a Retreat for Bats and the
like."
Tournefort stayed for a while with an ignorant priest, "who would
have persuaded us in his balderdash Italian that there was an ancient
Prophecy wrote on the Walls of the Labyrinth importing that the Czar
of Muscovy was very soon to be Master of the Ottoman Empire and
deliver the Greeks from the Slavery of the Turks." He adds: "Whatever
Scrawlings are made upon the Walls of the Labyrinth by Travellers,
these Simpletons swallow down for Prophecies." He mentions also
a labyrinth at Candia, but says it must not be confused with the
Labyrinth of tradition, "which, from antique Medals, appears to have
been in the town of Gnossus."
Dr. Richard Pococke, to whose description of the Egyptian Labyrinth
we referred in Chapter III, paid a visit to Gortyna about forty years
after Tournefort. He says that the "labyrinth" was shown to him, but
that it was evidently nothing more than the quarry out of which the
town was built. He points out that the real Labyrinth was at Knossos
and that nothing was left of it in Pliny's time.
Another French traveller, C. E. Savary, visited the spot about 1788.
He came to the conclusion that this was the Labyrinth of the Minotaur,
but regarded it as something distinct from that built by Daedalus at
Knossos.
A very interesting account of the Gortyna cavern is that contained in
the Journal of C. R. Cockerell, R.A.,[2] who travelled in Southern
Europe and the Levant during the years 1810 to 1817. He and his party
entered the "labyrinth" by an inconspicuous hole in the rock in a steep
part of the hill (Mount Ida) and found themselves in an intricately
winding passage. They had taken the precaution to bring with them a
great length of string wound upon two sticks, and it was fortunate that
they did so, for "the windings," says Cockerell, "bewildered us at
once, and, my compass being broken, I was quite ignorant as to where I
was. The clearly intentional intricacy and apparently endless number
of galleries impressed me with a sense of horror and fascination I
cannot describe. At every ten steps one was arrested, and had to turn
to right or left, sometimes to choose one of three or four roads.
What if one should lose the clue!" He relates how a poor lunatic had
insisted on accompanying them all the way from Candia and following
them into the cavern. This man, together with a boy who had a lantern,
wandered off and caused the rest of the party--except some Turks, who
philosophically remarked that God takes care of madmen--to feel much
alarm on their account. They were, however, discovered again an hour
later, the boy half dead with fright.
[2] Edited and published by his son, S. P. Cockerell, in 1903.
Chambers opened off from the passages, and contained much evidence of
former visitors, in the shape of names scratched on the walls, such as
"Spinola," "Hawkins, 1794," "Fiott," and many of a Jewish character.
All of the passage ends were infested with bats, which rose in
thousands when one of the party fired a pistol. Lichens grew here and
there, and in one place arose a spring. There were signs of metallic
substances in the rock, but not sufficient, thought Cockerell, to
warrant the supposition that the place was a mine. The stone was sandy,
stratified and easily cut, and the air was dry. The surface of the rock
appeared to have been prepared with a chisel.
The passage was 8 or 10 feet wide, and from 4 to 10 feet high; in
many places it had fallen in. Cockerell concluded that the excavation
was probably made in the days of Minos as a storehouse for corn and
valuables. He mentions that he was informed by natives that the cavern
extended right through the mountain and was three miles in length; also
that a sow once wandered in and emerged some years later with a litter
of pigs!
About fifty years after Cockerell's visit, the cavern was explored
by Capt. T. A. B. Spratt, R.N., who, in his "Travels and Researches
in Crete" (1865), tells us that the Cretans "have long since walled
and stopped up its inner and unknown extremes, so as not to be lost
in its inner intricacies." He discusses the probable location of the
traditional Labyrinth and concludes that probably the latter is to
be found in some similar cavern in the neighbourhood of Knossos. He
mentions that there is, in fact, an excavation in the side of the ridge
overlooking Knossos which the natives state to be the entrance to
extensive catacombs, but that it is choked up by the falling in of its
sides.
He reproduces a sketch by Sieber of the Gortyna Cavern (Fig. 7);
this, he says, took the artist three days to make. Capt. Spratt, by
the way, points out that the meander pattern, which is so common a
feature of Greek ornament, and is associated by some writers with the
origin of the labyrinth idea, may very well have been derived from
the square-spiral trenches which are commonly constructed by Eastern
gardeners for irrigational purposes. (See also Chapter VIII.)
Whatever the original purpose and function of the Gortyna Cavern may
have been, it was certainly a "labyrinth" in the extended sense, and no
doubt the classic writers themselves would have had no hesitation in
admitting the use of that word to describe it, but, as we shall see,
discoveries of recent years have considerably diminished its claim to
be considered as the original Labyrinth of the Minotaur.
[Illustration: Fig. 7. Cavern of Gortyna. (_Sieber_)]
CHAPTER VI
THE CRETAN LABYRINTH (_continued_)
(iii) _Knossos_
A few miles to the north-east of Gortyna, and not far south of the
north coast town of Candia, lay, at the base of the hill of Kephala, a
few ruined walls indicating the site of the ancient city of Knossos.
These walls consisted of large blocks of gypsum and bore curious
engraved marks.
For many years Dr. A. J. Evans (now Sir Arthur Evans) had been
convinced that excavation of this site would probably bring to
light evidence of a system of writing which might be of interest in
connection with the origin of the Greek system, but it was not until
the year 1900 that he finally obtained a concession enabling him to
explore the spot. The resulting discoveries were of such an astonishing
nature, and of such absorbing interest, that one is greatly tempted to
digress and to mention them in some detail. However, they have been
summarised and discussed by many able writers (see Appendix III, ii.),
and it must suffice here to refer simply to the main points in which
they bear upon the story of the Labyrinth.
After about two months' work, with a staff of from 80 to 150 men, about
two acres of the remains of a great prehistoric building, showing
strong evidence of having been destroyed by fire, were uncovered,
and later excavations showed that it was yet more extensive, covering
altogether about five acres. Not only this palace, but the multitude
of objects found within it, or associated with it, were of surpassing
importance in their bearing on the nature of the ancient civilisation
of which they demonstrated the existence, and to which Sir A. Evans has
given the name "Minoan." Vast quantities of pottery of widely different
designs and workmanship, written tablets, wall paintings--often
of great beauty--reliefs, and sculptured figures, shrines, seals,
jewellery, a royal gaming-board, and even a throne, were discovered as
the work went on, and eventually the whole area was excavated down to
the virgin rock, remains of an earlier and smaller palace being found
beneath the other, and below this again a great thickness of deposits
containing many remains of neolithic man.
By means of occasional discoveries of imported Egyptian objects, by
comparison of Minoan pottery and paintings with some found in Egyptian
tombs, and by various other indications, it was possible to date the
upper remains, say from 1580 B.C. onwards, fairly nearly. The dating
of the older remains is much more difficult, chiefly because, although
they can often be equated with certain periods of Egyptian culture, the
chronology of the latter admits of widely different views, but it seems
safe to say that the earliest traces of the Minoan civilisation date
from quite 3000 years B.C., and possibly many centuries before that.
The earlier palace and town seem to have been built before 2000 B.C.
and destroyed a few centuries after that date. The later palace was
begun somewhere in the eighteenth or nineteenth century B.C., was
elaborated in succeeding centuries, and was sacked and burned, just as
it had attained the height of its glory, about 1400 B.C.
[Illustration: Fig. 9. Double Axe and Stepped Steatite Socket from
Dictaean Cave. (Psychro)
(From _Archæologia_, by kind permission of the Society of Antiquaries,
and Sir Arthur Evans)]
The discovery of this palace was one of the first-class "finds" of
archaeology. Those who based their estimates of the architectural
capabilities of ancient Crete on their knowledge of the development of
the builder's art in classic Greece, a millennium later, were amazed to
find that in many respects the product of the older civilisation was
superior.
To mention but a few of the most remarkable facts about the palace,
it was of _several storeys_, grouped around a central court and
pierced by "light-wells"; it contained several staircases, one of them
at least being of a very imposing character and composed of _many
flights_. Moreover, it possessed a quite modern system of drainage,
with _jointed underground pipes_ and with inspection manholes to the
main drains. Along the west side of the basement ran a long straight
gallery flanked by a series of great storage-rooms or magazines. It
was near one end of this gallery that Dr. Evans discovered a store of
tablets with pictographic inscriptions, in proof of his suspicion that
the Phoenician script was not the original parent of European written
language.
Not far from this spot was the room containing the throne (or
Worshipful Master's Chair, as the masonic Dr. Churchward prefers to
call it) which may actually have been occupied by King Minos.
A definite distinction can be recognised between state and domestic
apartments and subsidiary offices and workshops.
To the north-west of the palace was a "stepped theatral area"
(_orchestra_), which suggests the "dancing ground" of Ariadne.
From the point of view of our subject, however, the most interesting
features were the frequent occurrence of the sign of the double axe,
which was obviously an object of great importance in Minoan worship,
and the profusion of evidence concerning the cult of the bull. On the
fallen plaster of one of the walls of a corridor, too, was a repeated
meander pattern, painted in red on a white ground, very suggestive of a
sort of maze (Fig. 8).
The significance of the axe symbol from our point of view lies in its
bearing on the derivation of the word "labyrinth," a question that will
be referred to in rather more detail in a later chapter.
[Illustration: FIG. 8.--Knossos. Maze-pattern on Wall of Palace. (After
_Evans._)]
[Illustration: Fig. 11. Knossos. View of Cist, showing shape of Double
Axe. (From _Archæologia_, by kind permission of the Society of
Antiquaries and Sir Arthur Evans.)]
One room of the palace, a stately hall about 80 ft. in length by 26
ft. in breadth, traversed by a row of square-sectioned pillars, has
been named by its discoverer "the Hall of the Double Axes," from the
frequent occurrence of this symbol therein. Not only does the sacred
axe occur as a more or less crude engraving on the stone blocks
composing certain pillars in the palace, but little models of it
were found associated with an altar, and, in the Dictaean cave, some
miles distant, several bronze specimens of the axe were discovered in
circumstances which show that they were votive offerings. Sometimes the
sacred symbol was set up on a socketed pedestal (Fig. 9). Moreover,
in more recent excavations a curious "tomb" was found (Figs. 10 and 11)
which was double-axe shaped in plan and was evidently the repository of
a giant emblem (Fig. 12. See plate, p. 42).
[Illustration: FIG. 10.--Knossos. Plan of Tomb of Double Axes, showing
position in which relics were found.
(_From "Archaeologia," by kind permission of the Society of Antiquaries
and Sir Arthur Evans._)]
Long before Dr. Evans' excavations in Crete the great German
archaeologist Schliemann, during his researches at Mycenae on the
mainland, unearthed from one of the graves an ox-head of gold plate,
with a double axe between the upright horns. The double axe was also
the sign of the Zeus worshipped at Labraunda in Caria, a country to the
north-east of Crete, on the mainland of Asia Minor, where the implement
was known as the _labrys_.
The cult of the bull was also much in evidence in the palace remains.
Schliemann, in excavating the site of Tiryns in 1884, came across an
extraordinary wall-painting depicting a man holding one horn of a great
bull whilst he leaps over its back, the animal meanwhile charging at
full speed. Several examples of such scenes have since been discovered,
painted upon walls, engraved on gems, or stamped on seal-impressions.
Amongst the debris of one of the rooms in the palace at Knossos was
found a painting of a scene in which two girls are engaged in dodging
the charge of a bull, whilst a boy, who has evidently just left hold of
its horns, turns a somersault over its back.
Near the main north entrance to the palace was brought to light a large
plaster relief of a bull's head, no doubt originally forming part of
the complete beast. This relief was a masterpiece of Minoan art. It was
of life-size and beautifully coloured, and particular attention had
been given to the modelling and colour of the eye, the fierce stare of
which, in conjunction with the open mouth, conveys a fine effect of
frenzied excitement.
These are only a few examples, amongst many, which go to demonstrate
that the sport of "bull-leaping"--or ταυροκαθαψια [Greek:
taurokathapsia], as it was called by the Greeks--was beloved of the
Minoans and was probably practised in the precincts of the palace.
In the light of these discoveries Dr. Evans concludes that the palace
of Knossos was the Labyrinth, or House of the Labrys, which gave rise
to the classic legend, the idea of the Minotaur originating in the
practice of training captives to participate in the dangerous sport
of bull-leaping. (_Tauros_ = bull, hence _Minotaur_ = Bull of Minos.)
We will refer further to the etymology of "labyrinth" in a later
chapter. The palace was certainly of sufficient complexity to render
it difficult for the uninitiated to find their way about it, but the
plan of its remains exhibits no resemblance to a designed labyrinth of
the conventional type. There is, however, a suggestion of the latter in
the meander pattern painted on one of the walls, to which reference has
been made above. The notion as to the Labyrinth having been a prison
from which escape was impossible may also have some connection with
two deep pits beneath the palace, whose function was possibly that of
dungeons for prisoners.
In considering the origin of the legend, we must remember that a period
of several centuries elapsed between the destruction of the Knossian
buildings and the first written account of the Labyrinth, and must take
into account the probability that the people who in later ages became
the dominant race in Crete would be likely to make ample use of their
imagination in formulating an explanation of the vast and complicated
ruins of the burnt city, with their mysterious frescoes and enigmatic
symbols.
It may also be borne in mind that the excavations in Crete have by
no means reached a final stage, and that, although no architectural
remains of a plan conforming to the usual conception of a formal
labyrinth are yet forthcoming, there is a possibility that something of
the kind may yet turn up, though indeed the chance seems very remote.
Even as this book is going to press appears an article in _The Times_
by Sir Arthur Evans announcing yet further enthralling discoveries; he
finds abundant signs of a great earthquake, causing ruin over the whole
Knossian area, about 1600 B.C., also evidence--including portable
altars and huge ox-skulls--indicating an expiatory sacrifice recalling
Homer's words, "in bulls doth the Earthshaker delight"; and finally, on
a floor-level about thirty feet down, the opening of an artificial cave
with three rough steps leading down to what was apparently the lair of
some great beast. "But here, perhaps," says Sir Arthur, "it is better
for imagination to draw rein."
CHAPTER VII
THE ETRUSCAN OR ITALIAN LABYRINTH
In addition to the Egyptian and Cretan labyrinths, a few other
structures are referred to as being in the same category, but not until
a fairly late period.
Pliny (died A.D. 79) mentions one built by Smilis of Aegina, after the
Egyptian model, on the island of Lemnos, and says that it was renowned
for the beauty of its 150 columns and that remains of it existed in
his time. He also mentions one at Samos, said to have been built by
Theodorus, and says that "all of these buildings are covered with
arched roofs of polished stone." No other details concerning these
edifices have come down to us, but Pliny quotes from Varro (116-27
B.C.) a detailed description of a very extraordinary tomb at Clusium
(the modern Chiusi), said to be that of the great Etruscan general
Lars Porsena. This is the only Etruscan tomb described by the ancient
writers, and is mentioned by Pliny solely because it was alleged to
contain a subterranean labyrinth. It must have been a most elaborate,
not to say extravagant, monument. Even Pliny feels some qualms about
accepting responsibility for the description, and therefore makes it
clear that he is simply quoting from information received.
"It is but right that I should mention it," he says, "in order to show
that the vanity displayed by foreign princes, great though it is, has
been surpassed. But in view of the exceedingly fabulous nature of the
story I shall use the words given by M. Varro himself in his account of
it: 'Porsena was buried below the city of Clusium in the place where
he had built a square monument of dressed stones. Each side was three
hundred feet in length and fifty in height, and beneath the base there
was an inextricable labyrinth, into which, if anybody entered without a
clue of thread, he could never discover his way out. Above this square
building there stand five pyramids, one at each corner and one in the
centre, seventy-five feet broad at the base and one hundred and fifty
feet high. These pyramids so taper in shape that upon the top of all of
them together there is supported a brazen globe, and upon that again
a petasus[3] from which bells are suspended by chains. These make a
tinkling sound when blown about by the wind, as was done in bygone
times at Dodona. Upon this globe there are four more pyramids, each a
hundred feet in height, and above them is a platform on which are five
more pyramids.' The height of the latter, Varro is ashamed to add, but,
according to the Etruscan stories, it was equal to that of the rest of
the building. What utter madness is this, to attempt to seek glory at
a great cost which can never be of use to anyone; not to mention the
drain upon the resources of the country. And all to the end that the
artist may receive the greater share of the praise!"
[3] A sort of low-crowned round hat with a broad brim.
There have been many discussions as to the possibility of a monument
of this nature having existed, and various reconstructions have been
attempted, notably one (Fig. 13), based on Varro's account, by a
celebrated French scholar of a century ago, M. Quatremère de Quincy.
[Illustration: Fig. 13. Tomb of Lars Porsena at Clusium.
Conjectural restoration by Quatremère de Quincy after Varro's
description.]
One enthusiast, a certain Father Angelo Cortenovis, even wrote a
treatise to prove that the whole contrivance was nothing more nor less
than a huge electrical machine!
Most writers on the subject have been inclined to look upon Varro's
description as at best a gross exaggeration, but Professor Müller gave
it as his opinion that the labyrinth described did actually exist,
and that the upper part, though no doubt highly embellished in the
description, was not the mere offspring of fancy. He thought it quite
probable that there was a square basement of regular masonry supporting
five pyramids as recounted by Varro, but that the latter described the
upper part from hearsay. He drew attention to the fact that a tomb
somewhat of this nature is still in existence on the Appian Way at
Albano, the pyramids being represented in this case by cones. It is
commonly called the Tomb of the Horatii and Curiatii.
In the early part of last century a British traveller, G. Dennis, made
a study of the antiquities of Etruria and gave particular attention to
the remarkable rock-cut labyrinths of which that province furnishes
several examples.
He pointed out that the possession of a labyrinth was the
distinguishing feature of Porsena's tomb which alone caused Pliny to
mention it. The expression "Sub Clusio" used by Pliny, he says, led
subsequent writers to infer that the subterranean passages beneath
Chiusi were intended, but such an arrangement would be at variance
with the general sepulchral practice of the Etruscans, and the tomb of
Porsena must be looked for outside the city walls. Dennis then goes on
to describe the great cemetery that had recently been discovered in
the hill called Poggio Gajella, about three miles to the north-east
of Chiusi. His sketch of the principal "storey" of this labyrinthine
excavation is shown in Fig. 14.
Here again we may note that the design of the passages, although
perhaps puzzling to a stranger, especially with imperfect illumination,
in no respect approaches the traditional "labyrinth" pattern. That
the conventional form was not unknown to the Etruscans, however, is
shown by the occurrence of a design of this type on a vase found at
Tragliatella which we shall mention later.
It is, of course, possible that the tomb of Porsena was erected on the
hill above this labyrinth, but we have not much evidence on the point.
If the tomb possessed a labyrinth, no doubt the latter would have been
something of this type. Dennis also mentions various other labyrinths
of this nature in Etruria--for example, one near Volterra, "a long
passage cut in the rock, six feet wide but only three high, so that you
must travel on all-fours. From time to time the passage widens into
chambers, yet not high enough to permit you to stand upright, or it
meets the passages of similar character opening in various directions
and extending into the heart of the hill, how far no one can say. In
short, this is a perfect labyrinth in which, without a clue, one might
very soon be lost."
He also mentions one at San Pietro, Toscanella, "in the cliffs below
the Madonna dell' Olivo, about half a mile from the town. Here a long,
sewer-like passage leads into a spacious chamber of irregular form,
with two massive columns supporting its ceiling and a rude pilaster on
the wall behind. But the peculiarity of the tomb lies in a _cuniculus_
or passage cut in the rock, just large enough for a man to creep
through on all-fours, which, entering the wall on one side after a long
gyration and sundry branchings, now blocked with earth, opens in the
opposite wall of the tomb."
[Illustration: Fig. 14. Poggio Cajella. Labyrinthine Cemetery. (Dennis)]
These Etruscan labyrinths were all of a sepulchral character, and one
is naturally reminded of the catacombs of Rome, Paris, and Naples, to
which, however, the term "labyrinth" is not customarily applied. Strabo
uses the word in reference to a catacomb near Nauplia, which he calls
the Labyrinth of the Cyclops. In Pliny's time the word would appear to
have been used to denote a winding path following a more or less formal
design of intricate pattern, but not necessarily connected with
sepulchral purposes.
When speaking of the Labyrinth of Crete he says, "We must not compare
this to what we see traced upon our _mosaic pavements_ or to the _mazes
formed in the fields_ for the entertainment of children, and thus
suppose it to be a narrow path along which we may walk for many miles
together, but we must picture to ourselves an edifice with many doors
and galleries which mislead the visitor...." This passage shows that
the term "labyrinth" had come to have a fairly broad significance. It
had long been used in a metaphorical sense, even as we find Plato, over
four centuries earlier, employing it to describe an elaborate argument.
We also find it applied by extension to other objects, such as traps
for fish, to judge by a certain passage in the works of Theocritus.
The only buildings to which the ancient writers applied the term,
however, were those to which we have already referred.
Of the two phrases which we have italicised in the above quotation from
Pliny, the second is of interest in connection with a matter we shall
deal with later on, whilst the former brings us to the subject of our
next chapter.
CHAPTER VIII
THE LABYRINTH IN ANCIENT ART
There has been considerable speculation as to how the typical labyrinth
form first came into existence. It became stereotyped long before the
Christian era and retained its character for many centuries.
[Illustration: Fig. 12. Bronze Double Axe from Tomb of the Double Axes.
(From _Archæologia_, by kind permission of the Society of Antiquaries
and Sir Arthur Evans)
(_see page 33_)]
[Illustration: Figs. 15, 16, 17, 18. Early Egyptian Seals and Plaques.
(British Museum)]
The coins of Knossos furnish us with abundant examples of it, and, from
the fact that in certain of the earlier specimens the corresponding
figure is a simple repeated meander, it has been supposed that the
typical labyrinth design arose by elaboration of the meander. The
resemblance between this form and the very widespread and primitive
sign known as the _fylfot_ or _svastika_ has also attracted some
attention. It is a somewhat long step, however, from a loose
combination of meanders like that shown in, say, Fig. 20, to the
compact conventional labyrinth of Fig. 30. The adoption of the former
design may possibly have been inspired by the fresco on one of the
walls of the Minoan palace, to which we have made reference in Chapter
VI (Fig. 8), portions of which may have been visible among the ruins
for several generations. There does not appear to be any evidence that
the complex meander pattern of the fresco was an allusion on the part
of the Minoans to an actual constructional labyrinth; it may quite
well have been a purely ornamental conception, without any symbolical
significance. Meander designs were used by the Minoans at a much
earlier date than this, one example, though of simpler character,
having been found in the older palace, and others, either snake-like or
of a squarish nature, on ivory seals unearthed at other Minoan sites
(Zakro and Hagia Triada). Similar designs exist on certain Egyptian
"button-seals" of an approximately contemporary period--from the VIth
Dynasty onwards--and Sir Arthur Evans has expressed the opinion that
these will possibly prove to constitute the source of the Labyrinth in
Art. Figs. 15, 16, 17, 18 show specimens of early Egyptian seals and
plaques of this character in the British Museum. Professor Flinders
Petrie very kindly drew the writer's attention to a steatite plaque
in his collection at University College, London, which is somewhat
similar to one of those mentioned above, but of rather more elaborate
design (Fig. 19). The labyrinthine pattern on this is surmounted by a
representation, in the peculiar "linear" fashion often adopted by early
Egyptian artists, of two seated human figures facing one another, the
knees being drawn up. Professor Petrie acquired the plaque at Memphis.
He considers that it dates from a period round about 3000 B.C., and
points out that if the broken lines be completed there would appear to
be five false turns to be avoided before reaching the centre.
[Illustration: FIG. 19.--Early Egyptian Plaque or Amulet. (Prof.
Petrie's Collection, University College, London.)]
In discussing the designs on these seals and plaques, Sir A. Evans
alludes to a possible connection with two of the hieroglyphs of the
period, which are of the nature of simple square meanders of a kind
extensively employed in ancient ornament. One of them (_mer_) is the
sign used for indicating irrigated land. The other (_aha_) is a
simplified form of a more elaborate sign representing the plan of a
palace court, a figure to which one of the Minoan signs bears a close
resemblance.
The Knossian coins shown in Figs. 20 to 31 are from the British Museum
collection and are reproduced by the courtesy of the Keeper of the
Coins and Medals Department, who supplied the writer with plaster casts
for the purpose. They date, of course, from times greatly posterior to
those of the Minoan civilisation, from times when the culture of Greece
had long replaced that of the Mycenaeans, or whatever similar race it
was that succeeded the Minoans (see Appendix IV, i.).
Figs. 20, 21, and 22 show silver coins dating from about 500 to
430 B.C. They portray on one side the Minotaur and on the other a
symmetrical meander pattern which, it needs very little imagination to
see, has reference to the labyrinth in which the monster was alleged to
dwell.
Fig. 23 shows a silver coin of a rather later date, representing on
its obverse a female head which is thought to be that of Demeter or
Persephone, and on the reverse a meander-labyrinth containing a star at
its centre.
Fig. 24 shows a similar obverse, but on the reverse we see a bull's
head surrounded by a simple meander frame.
Fig. 25, the obverse of which is likewise adorned with a female
head, gives on the reverse the design of a square labyrinth of the
conventional type that thereafter predominates.
Fig. 26 shows a bronze coin having on one side the head of Apollo and
on the other a labyrinth with a star.
The four coins last described date from a period between 430 and 350
B.C. The next (Fig. 27) is rather later in date and shows on its
obverse the head of Hera and on the reverse a square labyrinth together
with an arrow-head and thunderbolts and the Greek characters ΚΝΩΣΙΩΝ
[Greek: KNÔSIÔN].
[Illustration: Figs. 20 to 25. Coins of Knossos. (British Museum)]
The bronze coin of about 220 B.C., shown in Fig. 28, bears on its
obverse the figure of Europa seated on a bull, with two dolphins below,
and on the reverse a square labyrinth, the Knossian superscription
being again evident.
The remaining three figures represent silver coins of the two
succeeding centuries, but not later than 67 B.C.
Fig. 29 exhibits on one side the head of Pallas, and on the reverse a
little square labyrinth placed beside an owl standing upon a prostrate
amphora.
In Fig. 30 the obverse is occupied by the head of Apollo, the reverse
by a labyrinth of circular shape, but conforming to the conventional
plan.
The head on the coin shown in Fig. 31 may be intended for that of Minos
or Zeus. On the reverse is a square labyrinth.
Labyrinthine designs are also found on certain Lydian, Phrygian, and
Ionian coins.
It will be noticed that when once the labyrinth pattern has been
definitely conventionalised it remains very constant in principle,
whether its general conformation be rectangular or circular. Starting
from the exterior, the "path" runs inwards a short distance, turns so
as to run parallel with the outer wall until nearly a full circuit
has been completed, then doubles back on itself and runs round in
the opposite direction, doubles upon itself again, and so on until
it finally comes to a stop in a blind end, having traversed all of
the space within the outer walls without covering any part twice and
without forming any branches or loops.
Obviously there is no "puzzle" about this kind of labyrinth; one has
simply to follow the one path, either to penetrate to the inner goal or
to escape thence to the exterior.
A labyrinth of precisely this type was discovered traced on the surface
of a crimson-painted pillar in the peristyle of the building known
as the House of Lucretius, in the excavated portion of Pompeii (Fig.
32). It was evidently scratched with a nail or stylus by some idler
of 2000 years ago (Pompeii was overwhelmed by Vesuvius in A.D. 79) and
is accompanied by the words "LABYRINTHUS. HIC HABITAT MINOTAURUS,"
possibly in waggish reference to the owner or occupier of the premises.
[Illustration: FIG. 32.--_Graffito_ at Pompeii. (Museo Borbonico.)]
Another house has, in consequence of its mosaic and pictorial
references to the Cretan Labyrinth, received the name of the Casa del
Labirinto or House of the Labyrinth. One mosaic discovered therein
depicts Theseus and the Minotaur struggling on the ground, watched by a
group of affrighted maidens.
[Illustration: Figs. 26 to 31. Coins of Knossos. (British Museum)]
The Romans excelled in the art of designing and executing mosaic
pavements, abundant remains of which have been preserved. These were
of various kinds. There was the _pavimentum sectile_, composed of
pieces of marble of various sizes, shapes, and colours arranged in
uniform sets, so as to form when put together an ornamental pattern;
the _pavimentum tessellatum_, in which the pieces of marble, though
variously coloured, were all of the same size and shape, generally
small squares; the _pavimentum vermiculatum,_ composed of very small
pieces of coloured marble of irregular shape so arranged as to
portray objects in their natural shapes and colours; and finally the
_pavimentum scalpturatum_, in which the design was engraved or inlaid.
_Opus alexandrinum_ is a variant of _sectile_.
[Illustration: FIG. 33.--Mosaic at Salzburg. (Kreuzer.)]
Several Roman pavements embodying labyrinthine devices, and in some
cases commemorating the victory of Theseus over the Minotaur, or other
exploits of the hero, have come to light from time to time, not only on
the continent of Europe but also in England; they are usually executed
in _opus alexandrinum_.
Fig. 33 shows in outline a beautiful specimen, 18 ft. long and 15 ft.
broad, discovered at Salzburg, in Austria. It bears the device of a
labyrinth, with, at the centre, a representation of Theseus about to
give the fatal blow to the Minotaur.
On the left side we see Theseus and Ariadne joining hands over the
altar. In the upper panel Theseus appears to be putting Ariadne
ashore, and to the right we see the disconsolate maiden deserted by her
lover, presumably on the Isle of Naxos.
A labyrinth of the type shown also occurs on a Roman mosaic which was
unearthed in the churchyard at Caerleon-on-Usk. It was in a poor state
of preservation, but sufficient remains to show that the labyrinth, of
a design similar to that of the Salzburg specimen, is surrounded by
scrolls proceeding from two vases (Fig. 34).
A very fine specimen of this type of labyrinth was discovered in 1904
beneath a ploughed field at Harpham, in the East Riding of Yorkshire.
Another, of which details are not to hand, is said to have been found
in Northamptonshire.
In 1790 a pavement, about eighteen feet by twelve, was unearthed at
Aix, near Marseilles. It portrayed the combat between Theseus and
the Minotaur, within a framed square, the remainder of the mosaic
consisting of a complicated interlaced meander representing the
labyrinth.
In Fig. 35 is reproduced from A. de Caumont's "Abécédaire
d'Archéologie" a rough sketch of the Roman baths at Verdes
(Loir-et-Cher), showing a pavement with a labyrinth mosaic.
A pavement found in 1830 at Cormerod, in the Canton of Friburg,
Switzerland, is shown in Fig. 36. A few years afterwards another was
brought to light in the neighbouring Canton of Vaud, from beneath the
ruins of the ancient town of Orbe.
[Illustration: Fig. 34. Mosaic at Caerleon, Mon. (O. Morgan, in Proc.
Mon. and Caerleon Ant. Ass'n, 1866)]
[Illustration: Fig. 36. Mosaic at Cormerod, Switzerland. (Mitt. Ant.
Ges. Zurich, XVI.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 35.--Roman Baths at Verdes, Loir-et-Cher, showing
Labyrinth Mosaic. (From De Caumont's "Abécédaire.")]
A splendid mosaic labyrinth of Roman times was found some forty or
fifty years ago on a family tomb in the ancient necropolis of Susa,
Tunis (_Hadrumetum_). It was afterwards destroyed by looters, but a
careful drawing of it was fortunately made on its first discovery
(Fig. 37). The whole mosaic measured about seventeen feet by ten, and
contained a very finely executed labyrinth of four paths, like the
Harpham and Caerleon examples mentioned above, the central space
being occupied by the Minotaur, who is shown in an attitude of defeat.
Sailing towards the labyrinth was a boat containing figures which
presumably represented Theseus and his companions. The design was
accompanied by the words "HIC INCLUSUS VITAM PERDIT."
[Illustration: FIG. 37.--Mosaic at Susa, Tunis. (C. R. Acad.
Inscriptions, Paris.)]
Another well-preserved mosaic of this character was discovered in
1884 at Brindisi, and placed in the municipal museum of that town. It
measures 17 ft. by 10 ft. 6 in., and shows within a square labyrinth
Theseus in the act of clubbing the Minotaur, who has fallen on his
knees. Around the labyrinth are various perches with birds thereon,
perhaps in allusion to the automatic birds reputed to have been made by
Daedalus (_cf._ Fig. 36).
We shall examine other mosaic and pavement labyrinths when we come to
consider the question of the use of this symbol by the Church.
Apart from the designs on Knossian coins, Greek art does not appear to
have left us any definite representations of the labyrinths, although
with the Romans, who acquired the idea at a later date, it was a
favourite _motif_.
We cannot, however, ignore the suggestion that has been made that
certain structures discovered in the ruins of Tiryns and Epidaurus,
two cities in that part of ancient Greece known as the Argolid, are
architectural labyrinths, used for ritual purposes. The foundations
of the _tholos_, or rotunda, of the sanctuary of Aesculapius at
Epidaurus, which was excavated by P. Kabbadias, Director of the
Greek Archaeological Society, in the 'eighties, do certainly suggest
something of the kind. They consist of concentric circular walls, the
three innermost being connected by a radial wall, separated by narrow
spaces which intercommunicate by an opening or doorway in each wall,
forming in plan a figure somewhat in the style of the "Pigs in Clover"
toy mentioned in a later chapter. When the peculiar nature of the upper
part of the building is considered, however, it seems very reasonable
to suppose that these walls, with their passages, were designed only
with a view to the requirements of the superstructure which they had to
support.
As for the slightly similar concentric foundations unearthed by German
excavators at Tiryns in 1912, the analogy is too imperfect to afford
reliable grounds for the statement in question.
Greek ceramic art, on the other hand, furnishes us with very many
allusions to the Theseus-Minotaur myth, and also with a profusion of
frets and meanders, which are thought in some cases to be symbolical of
the labyrinth.
Consider, for instance, the "_kylix_" or bowl in the British Museum
which is shown in Fig. 38. (A similar bowl is preserved in Harrow
School Museum.) On it are represented most of the exploits of the hero
up to his Knossian adventure. All who are familiar with the legend
will recognise at a glance Periphetes the Club-bearer, Sinis the
Pine-bender, the Wild Sow of Krommyon, Kerkyon the Wrestler, Procrustes
of the Standard Bed, and other gentlefolk that Theseus successively
encountered and appropriately dealt with on his initial journey to
Athens. In the centre of the bowl is shown the adventure of the
Labyrinth, the hero being seen in the act of despatching the monster
at the very door of his lair. The meander on the door-post has been
thought to symbolise the Labyrinth, but there is more reason to suppose
that it is purely decorative.
The Minotaur exploit is also shown on the smaller bowl shown in Fig. 39.
In the previous chapter we have already referred to an Etruscan vase
found at Tragliatella. This was very roughly decorated with incised
figures, representing amongst other things a circular labyrinth of
the traditional type and some horsemen who are thought to be engaged
either in the attack on Troy or in the game known as the _Lusus
Trojae_ or Game of Troy. That there can be no doubt about the artist's
identification of the labyrinth in some way with the celebrated city in
question is clear from the word _Truia_ scratched within it (Fig. 133).
Representations of the labyrinth were sometimes engraved on ancient
gems, a fine specimen of which is figured in P. A. Maffei's "Gemme
Antiche" (Fig. 40), published in 1707. The Minotaur in this case
is shown as a centaur. A similar representation appears on a
sixteenth-century bronze plaquette of Italian workmanship exhibited in
the Plaquette Room at the British Museum (Fig. 41. See plate, p. 60).
[Illustration: Figs. 38, 39. Greek Kylices shewing Exploits of Theseus.
(British Museum)]
Before leaving the subject of the Labyrinth in ancient art we must
take notice of a reference in an ancient manuscript which tends to show
that the symbol figured on the robes of Roman Emperors. This manuscript
was discovered by A. F. Ozanam in the Laurentian Library at Florence.
It is entitled "Graphia Aurea Urbis Romae" and contains, under the
heading "De diarodino imperatoris," the following passage:
_Habeat et in diarodino laberinthum fabrefactum ex auro et margaritis,
in quo sit Minotaurus, digitum ad os tenens ex smaragdo factus, quia
sicut non valet quis laberinthum scrutare, ita non debet consilium
dominatoris propalare._
"Let there be represented on it (the Emperor's robe) a labyrinth of
gold and pearls, in which is the Minotaur, made of emerald, holding his
finger to his mouth, thus signifying that, just as none may know the
secret of the labyrinth, so none may reveal the monarch's counsels."
[Illustration: FIG. 40.--Labyrinth engraved on an ancient gem.
(Maffei.)]
It has been pointed out by Mr. A. B. Cook that in the Fitzwilliam
Museum at Cambridge is a painting by Bartolommeo Veneto (1502-1530)
representing an unknown man who wears on his breast a labyrinth
resembling that described above.
CHAPTER IX
CHURCH LABYRINTHS
The consideration of labyrinths worked in Roman mosaic pavements leads
us on to a very interesting development of the subject which deserves a
chapter to itself, namely, the Labyrinth in the Church.
Probably the oldest known example of this nature is that in the ancient
basilica of _Reparatus_ at Orléansville (Algeria), an edifice which
is believed to date from the fourth century A.D. In the pavement
near the north-west entrance of the church is the design shown in
outline in Fig. 42. It measures about 8 ft. in diameter and shows
great resemblance to the Roman pavement found at Harpham and the
tomb-mosaic at Susa. At the centre is a _jeu-de-lettres_ on the
words SANCTA ECLESIA, which may be read in any direction, except
diagonally, commencing at the centre. But for the employment of these
words the labyrinth in question might well have been conceived to
be a Roman relic utilised by the builders of the church to ornament
their pavement. Such pavement-labyrinths, however, with or without
central figures or other embellishments, and of various dimensions and
composition, are found in many of the old churches of France and Italy.
[Illustration: FIG. 42.--Labyrinth in Church of Reparatus,
Orléansville, Algeria. (Prevost.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 43.--Labyrinth in Lucca Cathedral. (Durand.)]
They seem to have been constructed chiefly during the twelfth century,
and although several of them have been destroyed many fine examples
still remain. Some are formed on the walls instead of the pavements,
and in such cases are of smaller dimensions.
[Illustration: FIG. 44.--Labyrinth in S. Michele, Pavia. (Ciampini.)]
On the whole, too, those in the Italian churches are much smaller
than the French specimens. On the wall of Lucca Cathedral (Fig. 43)
is one of a diameter of only 1 ft. 7-1/2 in. It formerly enclosed at
the centre a representation of Theseus and the Minotaur, but owing to
the friction of many generations of tracing fingers this has become
effaced. Opposite the "entrance" is the inscription:
HIC QUEM CRETICUS EDIT
DAEDALUS EST LABERINTHUS,
DE QUO NULLUS VADERE
QUIVIT QUI FUIT INTUS,
NI THESEUS GRATIS ADRIANE
STAMINE JUTUS.
A similar small labyrinth, with a central Theseus-Minotaur design,
is to be found on the wall of the church of San Michele Maggiore at
Pavia (Fig. 44). It is thought to be of tenth-century construction.
This is one of the few cases where the Minotaur is represented with a
human head and a beast's body--as a sort of Centaur, in fact. It is
accompanied by the words "TESEUS INTRAVIT MONSTRUMQUE BIFORME NECAVIT."
[Illustration: Fig. 45. Labyrinth in S. Maria-di-Trastavera, Rome.
(Durand)]
[Illustration: Fig. 46. Labyrinth in S. Vitale, Ravenna. (Durand)]
Of about the same period was the example in the church of San Savino at
Piacenza. It is described by P. M. Campi in his "Ecclesiastical History
of Piacenza" (1651), under the year A.D. 903. The signs of the Zodiac
were placed in juxtaposition to it. The accompanying legend in this
case consisted of four hexameters, to the effect that the labyrinth
represented the world we live in, broad at the entrance, but narrow at
the exit, so that he who is ensnared by the joys of this world, and
weighed down by his vices, can regain the doctrine of life only with
difficulty.
HVNC MVNDVM TIPICE LABERINTHVS DENOTAT ISTE:
INTRANTI LARGUS, REDEUNTI SET NIMIS ARTVS
SIC MVNDO CAPTVS, VICIORVM MOLLE GRAVATVS
VIX VALET AD VITE DOCTRINAM QVISQVE REDIRE.
In the Cathedral of Cremona, which, like Pavia and Piacenza, is on the
banks of the River Po, is a mutilated mosaic of early date--possibly
eighth or ninth century--showing part of an interlaced pattern which
was evidently intended to refer to the Cretan Labyrinth, as it was
placed close to two figures in fighting attitudes and armed with swords
and shields, the right-hand figure having the head of a beast and the
label "CENTAVRVS." (There was apparently little distinction between a
Minotaur and a Centaur in the minds of some mediaeval artists.)
A rather larger specimen, 5 ft. in diameter, may be seen in the church
of Sta. Maria-in-Aquiro, Rome. It is composed of bands of porphyry
and yellow and green marble, surrounding a central plate of porphyry,
and is similar in design to that at Lucca. Another church in the same
city, Sta. Maria-di-Trastavera, has a labyrinth composed of variously
coloured marbles worked in the floor. It is 11 ft. across and was
probably constructed about 1190 A.D. (Fig. 45). It is now somewhat
mutilated, but was originally a most beautiful example. The fact that
the inner paths consist of a series of concentric rings rather suggests
that it has at some time been repaired without regard to the original
design; unless we accept the hypothesis of M. Durand that they bore a
symbolic reference to the various degrees of beatitude by which the
soul approaches heaven, as figured by Dante. Fig. 46 shows another old
Italian specimen. It is nearly 11-1/2 ft. in diameter and is to be
found in the church of San Vitale, Ravenna.
[Illustration: FIG. 47.--Labyrinth in Chartres Cathedral. (Gailhabaud.)]
Designs of this nature were widely employed by the mediaeval church
builders in France, and, although many of them were destroyed at the
Revolution and at other times, several fine examples still exist. They
seem to have been mostly built at a rather later date than those
already described. The largest now remaining is that in Chartres
Cathedral (Fig. 47). It is formed of blue and white stones and is about
40 ft. in diameter. The French poet Bouthrays, in his "Histoire de
Chartres" (1624), describes it in a set of Latin verses. A fine sketch
of it appears in the "Album" of the thirteenth-century architect,
Villard de Honnecourt. In a ninth-century French manuscript, formerly
belonging to the Abbey of St.-Germain-des-Prés, there is a sort of
frontispiece consisting of a labyrinth of similar type, with a funny
little horned Minotaur at the centre, seated, hands on knees, on a kind
of throne.
[Illustration: FIG. 48.--Labyrinth in Amiens Cathedral. (Gailhabaud.)]
The Chartres labyrinth formerly went by the name of "La Lieue,"
an expression which would ordinarily be rendered as "the league."
The French league, however, was about 2282 yards, a much greater
length than the total extent of the path in any of the existing
pavement-labyrinths, that at Chartres, for example, having a length
of only about 150 yards. Possibly the term had some etymological
connection with the old Gaulish measure _leuca_, _leuga_ or _leuva_,
which was 1500 paces.
[Illustration: FIG. 49.--Labyrinth in Parish Church, St. Quentin.
(Gailhabaud).]
In other cases the labyrinth was known as a "_Chemin de Jérusalem_,"
"_daedale_," or "_meandre_," terms which need no explanation. The
centre was called "_ciel_" or "_Jérusalem_." The labyrinth formerly in
the nave of Amiens Cathedral was larger than that at Chartres, being 42
ft. in diameter (Fig. 48). It was constructed in 1288 and was destroyed
in 1825. In plan it was similar to that at the entrance to the parish
church of St. Quentin (Fig. 49). The latter, however, is only 34-1/2
ft. in diameter.
[Illustration: Fig. 41.
Bronze Plaquette, Italian, XVIth Century. (British Museum)]
[Illustration: Fig. 50. Labyrinth in Rheims Cathedral. (Gailhabaud)]
Rheims Cathedral formerly possessed a fine design of this class (Fig.
50). It was laid down in 1240 and was composed of blue stones
or marbles. It was destroyed in 1779 by order of a certain Canon
Jacquemart, who objected to the noise made by children and others in
tracing its course during the progress of divine service.
The labyrinths of Rheims, Chartres, and Amiens possessed in common a
feature which has given rise to much discussion, namely, a figure or
figures at the centre representing, it is believed, the architects of
the edifices.
That of Amiens is preserved in Amiens Museum and consists of an
octagonal grey marble slab (Fig. 51) with a central cross, between the
limbs of which are arranged figures representing Bishop Evrard and the
three architects, Robert de Luzarches, Thomas de Cormont and his son
Regnault, together with four angels. A long inscription accompanied it,
relating to the foundation of the Cathedral.
There is a very fine labyrinth in the chapter-house of Bayeux Cathedral
(Fig. 52). It measures 12 ft. across and is composed of circles of
tiles ornamented with shields, griffins and fleur-de-lis, separated by
bands of small, plain, black tiles.
Sens Cathedral formerly possessed a circular labyrinth (Fig. 53), 30
ft. in diameter and formed of incised lines filled in with lead, but
it was destroyed in 1769. A similar specimen in Auxerre Cathedral was
demolished about 1690.
In _The Builder_ for May 12, 1916, appeared a diagram accompanied by a
note from a firm of publishers who stated that they had received the
sketch from one of their travellers who was then serving on the Arras
front. "He informs us," they state, "that it is not a puzzle, but a
plan of the labyrinth under the cathedral. He found the prints in a
ruin in the vicinity, a house which appears to have been occupied by a
librarian from what he saw among the débris." The sketch in question is
of an octagonal pattern resembling that of the St. Quentin labyrinth,
and represents the pavement-labyrinth that formerly existed in the now
ruined cathedral, not, of course, a system of subterranean passages,
as the correspondent evidently inferred. It was about 34-1/2 ft.
in diameter and was composed of small blue and yellow squares. The
destruction of this labyrinth cannot be debited to the account of the
aggressors in the Great War, as it was carried out during the French
Revolution.
[Illustration: FIG. 53.--Labyrinth in Sens Cathedral. (Gailhabaud.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 51. Amiens. Central Plate of Labyrinth.
(Gailhabaud)]
[Illustration: Fig. 52. Labyrinth in Bayeux Cathedral. (Amé)]
A labyrinth of rather striking design (Fig. 54) was formerly in the
pavement of the old Abbey of St. Bertin, an edifice which has long
been a picturesque ruin, in the lower part of the town of St. Omer. A
description of it was first published nearly a century ago by Emmanuel
Wallet (or Vallet). Our figure, which accords with his notes, differs
slightly from that which has usually accompanied the references of
subsequent writers--many of whom, by the way, erroneously speak of it
as being in the cathedral, which is in the upper part of the town,
and at some distance from St. Bertin. Most illustrations of the
labyrinth in question show the path as crossing itself at one point, an
arrangement which is most unlikely to have been adopted. Wallet based
his description on a manuscript which, judging by the watermark in the
paper, he attributed to a former English student at the college in the
vicinity.
[Illustration: FIG. 54.--Labyrinth in Abbey of St. Bertin, St. Omer.
(Wallet.)]
This labyrinth was apparently destroyed at about the same time as that
at Rheims, and for a similar reason.
In the cathedral there is no pavement-labyrinth, although it may
possibly have possessed one in former times, but beneath the organ, at
the west end of the nave, is a curiously engraved slab which is worth
mentioning in this connection, for it represents a sort of "chemin de
Jérusalem," though not indeed of the usual type. It shows, around a
large circle, mountains, rivers, towns, roads, and animals, together
with the word IhERVSALEM, whilst the interior of the circle is divided
into three horizontal compartments, in each of which are placed various
objects indistinguishable through wear. The slab was very much worn
when described by Wallet and has possibly been replaced by now.
[Illustration: FIG. 55.--Labyrinth in Poitiers Cathedral. (Auber.)]
A queer type of labyrinth was formerly represented in the Cathedral of
Poitiers. It perished long ago, but for some time subsequently there
remained on the wall of the north aisle a sketch of it (Fig. 55),
which, however, gave no clue to the dimensions of the original. It
will be seen that the construction is such that he who traces the path
eventually emerges--like the poet of the "Rubaiyat"--by that same door
at which he entered; he will have encountered no "stops," but he may
have "looped the loop" an indefinite number of times.
In the old abbey of Toussaints, Châlons-sur-Marne, which was destroyed
in 1544, there was a series of tiles each bearing a small labyrinth
of the conventional Cretan type (Fig. 56. See plate, p. 74).
Pavement-tiles with labyrinths were also found in the Abbaye de Pont
l'Abbé (Finistère).
A pavement labyrinth has been described as existing in the floor of
the guard chamber of the Abbey of St. Stephen at Caen. Dawson Turner,
in his "Tour in Normandy," thus refers to it: "The floor is laid with
tiles, each near five inches square, baked almost to vitrification.
Eight rows of these tiles, running east to west, are charged with
different coats of arms, said to be those of the families who attended
Duke William in his invasion of England. The intervals between these
rows are filled up with a kind of tessellated pavement, the middle
whereof represents a maze or labyrinth, about ten feet in diameter, and
so artfully contrived that, were we to suppose a man following all the
intricate meanders of the volutes, he could not travel less than a mile
before he got from one end to the other. The remainder of the floor is
inlaid with small squares of different colours, placed alternately and
formed into draught or chess boards, for the amusement of the soldiers
while on guard." The pavement was destroyed in 1802.
It has frequently been stated that a pavement labyrinth existed in a
church at Aix near Marseilles, but probably this is due to confusion
with the Roman pavement already referred to.
The only examples recorded as having existed in Germany were situated
in two churches at Cologne, but these have long since disappeared.
In view of the widespread occurrence of these devices in mediaeval
churches it would be surprising if the idea were not sometimes utilised
by modern architects attempting to reproduce the spirit of the old
buildings, and in fact this was done in the case of the prize plans
submitted[4] by the English architects Clutton and Burges for the
Church of Notre-Dame de la Treille at Lille. Burges designed for the
nave a "Chemin de Jérusalem" of a wonderful pattern, the topography
of "Jerusalem" being based upon the account in the "Ecclesiastical
History" of the Venerable Bede (V. ch. 16). A good modern example, 20
ft. square, may be seen in the pavement of Ely Cathedral, near the west
door (Fig. 57). It was constructed by Sir Gilbert Scott during his
restorations in 1870. Some other modern specimens will be mentioned
presently.
[4] These plans, although awarded the prize, were not adopted,
the designs actually carried out being some by a native
architect who obtained tenth place in the competition.
[Illustration: FIG. 57.--Labyrinth in Ely Cathedral. (W. H. M.)]
As to the function and meaning of the old church labyrinths, various
opinions have been held. Some authorities have thought that they were
merely introduced as a symbol of the perplexities and intricacies
which beset the Christian's path. Others considered them to typify the
entangling nature of sin or of any deviation from the rectilinear path
of Christian duty. It has often been asserted, though on what evidence
is not clear, that the larger examples were used for the performance of
miniature pilgrimages in substitution for the long and tedious journeys
formerly laid upon penitents. Some colour is lent to this supposition
by the name "Chemin de Jérusalem." In the days of the first crusades it
was a common practice for the confessor to send the peccant members of
his flock either to fight against the infidel, or, after the victory of
Geoffrey of Bouillon, to visit the Holy Sepulchre. As enthusiasm for
the crusades declined, shorter pilgrimages were substituted, usually to
the shrine of some saint, such as Our Lady of Loretto, or St. Thomas of
Canterbury, and it is quite possible that, at a time when the soul had
passed out of the crusades and the Church's authority was on the ebb, a
journey on the knees around the labyrinth's sinuosities was prescribed
as an alternative to these pilgrimages. Perhaps this type of penance
was from the first imposed on those who, through weakness or any other
reason, were unable to undertake long travels.
In the case of the wall labyrinths, of course, the journey would be
less arduous still, being performed by the index finger.
Whether such practices ever obtained or not, most writers who have had
occasion to mention church labyrinths during the past century have
adopted, more or less without question, the view that not only were the
labyrinths used in this way, but that they were in fact designed for
the purpose.
This view seems to rest chiefly on a statement by J. B. F. Géruzez in
his "Description of the City of Rheims" (1817), to the effect that
the labyrinth which formerly lay in the cathedral was in origin an
object of devotion, being the emblem of the interior of the Temple of
Jerusalem, but Géruzez quotes no authority for his assertion. Another
explanation, based upon the occurrence of the figures of the architects
or founders in certain of the designs, is that the labyrinth was a sort
of masonic seal, signifying that the pious aim of the builder had been
to raise to the glory of God a structure to vie with the splendours
of the traditional Labyrinth. It is also said that in some cases the
"Chemins" were used for processional purposes.
Some writers have held that the labyrinth was inserted in the church as
typifying the Christian's life or the devious course of those who yield
to temptation. Some have thought that it represented the path from the
house of Pilate to Calvary, pointing out that Chateaubriand, in his
"Itinéraire de Paris à Jérusalem," mentioned two hours as the period
which he took to repeat Christ's journey, and that the same time would
be taken in traversing the average pavement labyrinth on the knees.
The use of the labyrinth as a simile for the Christian's life is shown
in a stone inscription in the Museum at Lyons:
HOC SPECVLO · SPECVLARE LEGENS · QVOD SIS MORITVRVS:
QVOD CINIS IMMOLVTVM QVOD VERMIBVS ESCA FVTVRVS:
SED TAMEN VT SEMPER VIVAS · MALE VIVERE VITA:
XPM QVESO ROGA · SIT VT IN XPO MEA VITA:
ME CAPVT APRIL' · EX HOC RAPVIT LABERINTO:
PREBITVM · DOCEO VERSV MÃ FVNERA QÑTO:
STEPHANVS · FECIT OC.
Whether this inscription was ever attached to a labyrinthine design is
not known.
It is strange if, amongst all the great mass of mediaeval
ecclesiastical literature, there is actually no indication of the use
or significance of these monuments in the service of the Church; but
no light appears to be forthcoming from this source, and certainly the
writings of the chief authorities of these times give no support to any
of the theories mentioned above.
[Illustration: FIG. 58.--Labyrinth in Church at Bourn, Cambs. (W. H.
M.)]
It is noteworthy that in none of the known examples do any
distinctively Christian emblems occur, and that, amongst all the myriad
inscriptions, paintings, and carvings of the early Christians, in the
catacombs of Rome and elsewhere, the labyrinth never once figures.
So far as these islands are concerned the practice of placing
labyrinths in churches does not seem to have become common.
In the "Architectural Dictionary" (1867) mention is made of one
formerly existing in Canterbury Cathedral, but no particulars are given.
On the floor below the tower of the church at Bourn, Cambridgeshire,
is a maze (Fig. 58) worked in black and red tiles, the centre being
occupied by the font, the step of which forms the terminus of the path.
From the fact that an intermediate portion of the path is concealed
beneath the base of the font it is plain that the position of the
latter is an after-thought, and from the design of the maze, no less
than from the character of the tiles of which it is composed, the work
would appear to be of comparatively modern date. The modern specimen at
Ely has already been mentioned.
There is also a labyrinth, in this case engraved on the floor of the
church porch, at Alkborough, Lincolnshire, but this is a modern replica
of the turf maze in the locality--a point which brings us to the
subject of our next chapter.
CHAPTER X
TURF LABYRINTHS
We have just remarked that the custom of placing labyrinth designs in
churches does not appear to have become general on this side of the
English Channel. We have in England, however, a class of survivals
peculiar to this country which may be regarded as the equivalent of the
former. These are the _turf mazes_ which are to be found in various
counties, usually under some local name, such as "Mizmaze," "Julian's
Bower," "Troy Town," or "Shepherd's Race."
One of the best-preserved examples is that at Alkborough, or
Aukborough, a pretty village on the east side of the Trent falls, where
the Ouse and Trent join to form the Humber. Crowning the hill is a
square earthwork called the Countess Close, supposed to be the remains
of a Roman Camp, and possibly the site of the ancient Aquis. On the
side of the hill is a basin-shaped depression, in the turf of which is
cut, to a depth of about 6 in., a labyrinth known as "Julian's Bower,"
or "Gilling Bore," about 40 ft. in diameter. Our illustration (Fig.
59) is reproduced from a drawing kindly supplied by the Rev. G. Yorke,
Vicar of Alkborough. The configuration of the maze is exactly the same
as in a figure published about a century ago in a little book called
"Terra Incognita of Lincolnshire," by Miss S. Hatfield.
In recent years it has been several times cleared out and trimmed up
at the expense of Mr. J. Goulton Constable, J.P., F.S.A., of Walcot
Hall, who is lord of the manor. Mr. Constable also caused the design of
the maze to be cut in the stone floor of the church porch, the grooves
being filled with cement, when the church was restored in 1887.
[Illustration: FIG. 59.--"Julian's Bower," Alkborough, Lincs. (From a
litho. supplied by Rev. G. Yorke.)]
In Saxon and Norman times, from about A.D. 1080 to 1220, there was
a small monastic grange in the neighbourhood, an offshoot of a
Benedictine Monastery at Spalding. Its site is now occupied by a
farm-house belonging to Magdalene College, Cambridge. The proximity
of the maze to an ancient ecclesiastical site is not peculiar to this
particular specimen, as we find a similar juxtaposition in the case of
many of the other earth-mazes.
A correspondent, "J. F.," writing to _Notes and Queries_ about the
Alkborough Julian's Bower in 1866, says that he has lively impressions
of the oft-repeated pleasure derived from the feat of "running it in
and out," in company with others, sixty years previously, and of seeing
the villagers playing May-eve games about it, "under an indefinite
persuasion of something unseen and unknown co-operating with them." If
this last-quoted phrase is anything more than a whim of retrospective
old age it affords an interesting fragment of material for the student
of "folk-memory." There is a description of this maze, under the name
of Gillian's Bore, in the Diary, written between 1671 and 1704, of
Abraham de la Pryme, "the Yorkshire Antiquary." He mentions at the same
time one situated at Appleby, about six miles away, towards Brigg.
This, he says, is called "Troy's Walls." He describes them both as
Roman games and says "they are nothing but great labarinths cut upon
the ground with a hill cast up round them for the spectators to sit
round about on to behold the sport." The Appleby maze was placed close
to the Roman road that runs through there, and has long since perished.
No trace of it remained when Allen's "History of Lincolnshire" was
published in 1834.
There is a turf labyrinth of a design similar to that at Alkborough
in a secluded romantic spot on land forming part of the estate of the
Hulse family, to the rear of their beautiful country seat, Breamore
House, Hants. It is known as the Mizmaze, and consists of a grassy
path 3 ft. in width, the overall diameter being 87 ft. The "goal" in
the centre is 18 ft. in diameter, and forms a low mound. Every curved
portion of the path is slightly inclined towards the centre of the
maze, as if to afford a firmer footing to runners. When the writer
visited it in July 1920 the grooves were rather overgrown, but the maze
receives periodical attention from its owners, and is in no present
danger of becoming obliterated. It lies in that sparsely populated
corner of Hampshire which protrudes into Wiltshire, between Salisbury
and Cranborne Chase, and is somewhat difficult to discover without
directions, as it is on a hilltop, and is surrounded by a thick copse,
with many other wooded hilltops in the neighbourhood. In the few
references that have been made to it by writers, it has been variously
described as being situated at Breamore, at Rockbourne, Hants, and
at Wickdown Hill, Wilts. It is remote from the villages, but is best
approached from Breamore (pronounced _Bremmer_ or _Brimmer_), which is
on the main road from Fordingbridge to Salisbury. From this village to
Breamore House is a pleasant twenty-minutes' walk, and thence through
the beautifully wooded and gently rolling grounds of the estate to
the Mizmaze, a delightful half-hour's stroll. It is advisable to seek
precise directions before setting out, because the path through the
woods disappears after a while in a meadow, and the copse in which the
maze is embedded appears at first impenetrable, having a narrow opening
on one side only, on the side remote from the direction of approach.
A local tradition says that a man could run from the maze to Gallows
Hill, more than half a mile distant, and back again, while another ran
round the maze.
A charming little sketch of this maze, by Heywood Sumner, accompanies a
reference in Williams-Freeman's "Field Archaeology in Hants."
[Illustration: Fig. 56. Labyrinths on Tiles, Toussaints Abbey,
Châlons-sur-Marne. (Amé)
(_see page 65_)]
[Illustration: Fig. 60. Turf Labyrinth at Wing, Rutland. (Photo, W. J.
Stocks. By permission of Rev. E. A. Irons)]
Near Wing, in Rutland, a few miles to the north-east of Uppingham,
there is preserved a maze of very similar design (Fig. 60). It is
maintained in good condition and is still the object of periodical
visits by the village folk on certain holidays. Just to the south of it
is a flat-topped bowl-shaped tumulus, over 70 ft. in diameter and 4
ft. high. It may be that the frequent association of turf mazes with
ancient earthworks of various kinds is something more than accidental,
but we do not seem to have sufficient evidence to establish a necessary
connection between the two things.
Lyddington, another Rutland village, has also been mentioned as
possessing a turf maze. A writer in the _Rutland Magazine_ in 1907,
for instance, says, in speaking of Priestly Hill, which overlooks the
village on the east, "at one time there was a turf maze on its slope,
where, as our old people tell us, their grandparents, when children,
used to play." The writer in question, however, does not make it clear
whether he is really quoting an oral tradition of the locality or is
basing his statement on the brief mention of Lyddington as a reputed
maze-site which appears in Trollope's 1858 memoir. It is at any rate
very difficult to trace any reliable evidence of such a maze, and it
seems not unlikely that Trollope's reference, which is quite devoid of
detail, may have had its origin in a misinterpretation of the elaborate
series of ancient trenches situated in a field to the north-east of
the church. These trenches have been identified as the "fish-stews"
belonging to the old manor-house of the Bishops of Lincoln.
The similarity between the designs of the turf mazes mentioned above
and those of some of the French pavement labyrinths, that in Chartres
Cathedral for example, cannot fail to be noticed.
At Boughton Green, in Northamptonshire, about half a mile from the
village of Boughton and near the ruined church of St. John the Baptist,
was, until recently, a turf maze of like design but having the
innermost convolutions of purely spiral form (Fig. 61). It was 37 ft.
in diameter and was called the "Shepherd Ring" or "Shepherd's Race."
The "treading" of it was formerly a great feature of the three days'
fair in June, an event dating from a charter by Edward III. in 1353.
In a "Guide-book to Northampton" by G. N. Wetton, published in 1849,
the maze is spoken of as being in a neglected condition. In a later
book, however, a novel named "The Washingtons," written by the Rev. J.
N. Simpkinson in 1860, occurs the following passage: "He had just been
treading the 'Shepherd's Labyrinth,' a complicated spiral maze traced
there upon the turf; and was boasting of his skill, how dexterously and
truly he could pursue its windings without a single false step, and how
with a little more practice he would wager to go through it blindfold."
[Illustration: FIG. 61.--"Shepherd's Race," Boughton Green, Northants.
(After Trollope.)]
Another novel, "The Last of the Climbing Boys," by George Elson,
contains a reference to it, in which it is spoken of as being "An
attraction which was the origin of the fair"--a statement which it
would be interesting to verify if possible.
Unfortunately, this famous relic was destroyed by some of our soldiers
in training during the Great War; trenches were driven right across it,
and practically all traces of it are now obliterated.
There was formerly a specimen of somewhat similar design on Ripon
Common, Yorkshire, but this was ploughed up in 1827. One of identical
pattern at Asenby, in the same county, was preserved until recent
times. According to Mr. A. H. Allcroft ("Earthwork of England," 1908),
it was sunk in a hollow at the top of a hillock called "The Fairies'
Hill," and is in a ruinous condition, being quite unknown to most of
the villagers, although persons still living (in 1908) relate that they
have often trodden it on a summer's evening and knelt at the centre "to
hear the fairies singing."
The counties of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire seem to have been
particularly rich in records of these devices, for in addition to
those already mentioned we read of one on the wold overlooking Louth,
one at Horncastle, a dozen miles to the south-west of Louth, one in
Holderness, between Marfleet and Paul, about four miles from Hull,
and another at Egton, near Whitby, where the late Canon Greenwell in
1872 saw traces of it near the main road to the north of the village.
"July Park," or "St. Julian's," near Goathland, is also said to have
possessed a specimen, a fact which probably accounts for the name of
the place. The Horncastle maze is referred to by Dr. Stukeley, a noted
eighteenth-century antiquary, as a "Julian's Bower" which is "much
talked of." He also mentions the Alkborough specimen and others, coming
to the conclusion that they were ancient British relics, having been
constructed as places of exercise, or _cursus_, for the soldiery of
those times. He observes, somewhat contemptuously, that "lovers of
antiquity, especially of the inferior classes, always speak of 'em with
great pleasure, as if there was something extraordinary in the thing,
though they cannot tell what."
The Louth "Gelyan Bower" is mentioned in a record of 1544, "To nych
mason for making at gelyan bower a new crose, iijs." In an old hostelry
in Mercer Row, Louth, stood for some centuries a boulder of dolerite
called the "Blue Stone," which is stated to have formerly occupied the
centre of the maze. Trees planted at the maze served as a landmark to
ships out at sea.
The Horncastle example occupied a site to the south-west of the town
still known as the Julian Bower Close. It has long been effaced by the
agriculturist, and numerous coins, fibulæ, and other Roman remains
which have been turned up on the spot have lent colour to the theory,
still maintained in the current county directory, that the maze was a
Roman work. The question whether this, or any other turf maze in this
country, is a relic of Roman times we will discuss presently.
The maze near Hull was dodecagonal in outline, 40 ft. across, and
formed of grass paths 14 in. wide. Its plan was much like that of the
Alkborough maze, but the paths were straight instead of curved. It was
called "The Walls of Troy." A coloured illustration of it was given in
Ackermann's "Repository of Arts" in 1815.
Although, as we have seen, Lincolnshire furnishes us with records of
more of these labyrinths than any other county, there is no conclusive
evidence that they were in fact more numerous there than elsewhere.
The reason for our comparative wealth of information concerning their
existence in that part of the country may be due to the fact that Dr.
Edward Trollope, who first made a serious study of these antiquities,
and whose paper in the _Archaeological Journal_ for 1858 has been
a fount of inspiration to subsequent writers on the subject, was
Archdeacon of Stow, afterwards Bishop of Nottingham.
Turf labyrinths were formerly of general occurrence throughout the
country, for, in addition to those we have already described, we find
remains of them in counties so widely separated as Kent and Cumberland.
They are also recorded as having existed in Wales and Scotland.
CHAPTER XI
TURF LABYRINTHS (_continued_)
A mile or two outside Winchester and rising up above the village of
Chilcombe is the rounded shoulder of St. Catherine's Hill, on the
summit of which lies a curious squarish "Mizmaze," the execution
of which is often ascribed by guide-books to a Winchester boy who,
detained at school during the vacation, beguiled his time by the
fashioning of this earthwork and by the composition of the Wintonian
"Dulce Domum." The interest of this maze lies not so much in the
fanciful ascription of its origin as in the fact that it has apparently
been cut, or re-cut, by somebody who did not understand the meaning
of the plan given him to work upon. For, as will be seen from our
illustration (Fig. 62), the actual labyrinth is made, not by the
turfed path, but by the narrow channel by which it is delimited. In
the few drawings of this maze which the writer has been able to find
the lines are all straight, instead of being slightly curved as in our
figure, which was sketched on the spot, and it seemed possible that
they might represent an earlier condition of it, but in each instance
the labyrinth is formed by the groove, which is hardly likely to have
been the case in the original design. The maze was re-cut by the Warden
of Winchester, who was guided by a plan in the possession of a lady
residing in the neighbourhood, about the middle of last century, when
it had become almost effaced. Possibly the misinterpretation of the
plan occurred on this occasion. The maze is backed by a clump of pines,
planted by Lord Botetourt in 1770.
[Illustration: FIG. 62.--"Mizmaze," St. Catherine's Hill, Winchester.
(W. H. M.)]
There used to be, until a generation ago, a turf maze at Leigh, in the
north-west of Dorset. A writer in _Notes and Queries_ in 1868 describes
it as being slightly hollow, circular, thirty-three paces in diameter,
and enclosed by a bank three feet high. He adds: "I am sorry to say the
turf has grown over the little trenches and that it is now impossible
to trace the pattern of the maze." Sir Frederick Treves, in his
"Highways and Byways in Dorset," 1906, speaks of this maze as having
consisted of "low banks and trenches arranged in an intricate figure,
which the youths of the village, accompanied no doubt by the maidens,
were wont to thread at certain seasons of the year." He states that it
is on high ground in an open field and that of the winding passages no
trace now survives. Only the low bank and ditch surrounding the maze
remain visible.
[Illustration: FIG. 63.--"Troy-town," Pimperne, Dorset. (Hutchins.)]
At Pimperne, not far from Blandford, there was formerly a maze of a
unique design (Fig. 63). John Aubrey, writing in 1686, says it was
"much used by the young people on Holydaies and by ye School-boies."
The path was bounded by ridges about a foot in height. The maze was
destroyed by the plough in 1730. The memory of another turf maze in
the same country is preserved in the name of Troy-town, applied to a
locality about three miles north-east of Dorchester. One is also said
to have existed near Bere Regis. Aubrey goes on to refer to another at
West Ashton, near Trowbridge, Wiltshire, and one "on the Cotteswold
Downes, where Mr. Dover's Games were celebrated." He mentions them also
in his "Natural History and Antiquities of Surrey," and concludes his
reference by quoting what he calls a "Poetical Description" of them, by
Thomas Randolph, a poet and dramatist of the seventeenth century, the
so-called description being nothing more than an indictment of the lazy
shepherd swain, who prefers to spend his leisure in sleeping under a
bush when, according to the poet, he ought
"... to tune his Reed and chant his layes
Or nimbly run the windings of the Maze."
This is from Thomas Randolph's (or Randall's) "Eglogue on the Palilia
and Noble Assemblies revived on Cotswold Hills by Mr. Robert Dover,"
one of a collection of eulogies--the _Annalia Dubrensia_--by various
poets of the day of the then famous annual sports organised by Captain
Dover on the hills near Chipping Campden. Mazes, or "laborinths,"
are referred to in the contributions of several of the other poets
concerned, of whom we may mention Francis Izod, Nicholas Wallington,
William Bellas and William Denny. A figure in the crude frontispiece
conveys a similar allusion.
In Essex we have an example of rather larger dimensions than the
majority, namely, that on the east side of the common at Saffron Walden
(Fig. 64). A tall bank hides it from the Thaxted road, which runs
within a few yards of it. The four bastions (or "bellows") and the
centre are slightly raised. The overall dimensions are approximately 91
ft., excluding the bastions, and 138 ft. from corner to corner.
This maze is referred to in the Corporation account books for the
year 1699, when it was apparently re-cut. On several subsequent
occasions it became neglected and almost obliterated, but fortunately
there has always been some person sufficiently interested to cause
its renovation. According to a local record, re-cuttings have taken
place in 1828, 1841, 1859, 1887, and 1911. On the last occasion it was
underlaid with bricks, to facilitate future renovations.
[Illustration: FIG. 64.--Turf Labyrinth, Saffron Walden, Essex. (W. H.
M.)]
As in the case of the Winchester example, the "path" consists of the
narrow and shallow groove instead of the raised turf, and this gives
some weight to the tradition that it is only a copy of a much larger
maze which formerly existed further to the east.
In a manuscript book of the latter part of the eighteenth century the
maze is spoken of as a favourite resort for the young bloods of the
town, a complicated system of rules and wagers (in gallons of beer)
being laid down in connection with walking the maze.
It is stated that a large ash tree at one time occupied the centre, but
that it perished by fire in the Guy Fawkes celebrations of November 5,
1823.
A few years ago some boys, playing on the central mound, discovered a
Roman coin. This does not, of course, prove that the work is of Roman
origin.
In the 1789 edition of Camden's "Britannia" a drawing of the maze
exhibits merely a series of concentric circles with extensions on the
outermost pair forming the "bastions." This illustration could hardly
have been prepared on the spot.
About twenty miles to the north-west of Saffron Walden and a few
miles to the west of Cambridge lies the little village of Comberton
(Cambs). The playground of the village school occupies one corner at
the cross-roads, and in the south-west angle of this, enclosed by iron
railings, lies a turf maze of a pattern similar to that at Alkborough.
Owing to the use which the school children make of it the paths are
nearly denuded of grass, but the ridges are well defined, as shown by
the photograph (Fig. 65), which was taken in March 1921. The present
maze is a faithful copy of that which was formerly situated a few yards
away, and which, when the school was built, occupied an inconvenient
position just outside the scholars' entrance. The old maze was known as
the "Mazles." It used to be the custom in the village to have a feast
once every three years, and at such times the maze was re-cut.
Comberton, by the way, is almost the next village to Bourn, where, as
we have seen, a peculiar pavement maze occupies the floor of the church
tower.
[Illustration:
[_Photo: W. H. M._
Fig. 65. "The Mazles," Comberton, Cambs.]
[Illustration:
[_Photo: W. H. M._
Fig. 67. Turf Labyrinth, Hilton, Hunts.]
In the neighbouring county of Huntingdon we find a splendidly
preserved maze, of curious plan, in a corner of the green in the
rambling and out-of-the-way but charming village of Hilton (Fig. 66).
[Illustration: FIG. 66.--Turf Labyrinth, Hilton, Hunts. (W. H. M.)]
These turf labyrinths are in most cases liable to escape the notice of
all but the intentional seeker, owing to their flat and grassy nature,
and the difficulty is accentuated in the case of Hilton by reason of
the fact that the maze is at some little distance from the road, and
is, moreover, sunk to a depth of several inches below the general
level of the surrounding turf. It may easily be located, however, if
one remembers that the centre is marked by a square stone obelisk
surmounted by a ball. This obelisk has indications of a sun-dial on
the north face, with the words "A.B. hoc." On its south face it bears
a coat of arms, engraved within a circle, and the inscription: "Sic
transit gloria mundi. Gulielmus Sparrow, Gen., natus ano. 1641. Aetatis
sui 88 quando obiit, hos gyros formavit anno 1660." On the east face
is engraved, "William Sparrow departed this life the 25th August, Anno
Domini 1729, aged 88 years." The west face bears only the words "Dep.
hoc." Our photograph (Fig. 67) shows the obelisk and as much of the
maze as could conveniently be included with the camera used. It will be
noticed that the trenches between the paths are fairly wide and deeply
cut.
The good state of preservation is no doubt greatly due to the fact,
remarked by a writer of half a century ago, that the paths are made up
with pebbles. No sign of the latter is now evident amongst the thick
turf. The plan of the maze shows some interesting variations on the
older and more conventional designs of Alkborough, Comberton, etc.,
the most remarkable point being that the path from the exterior to the
centre is almost direct, the labyrinth proper being composed of paths
which commence and terminate at the central plot. The Hilton maze
appears to be unique in this respect.
Whatever may have been the original purpose of turf labyrinths in this
country as a whole, it is fairly clear that the Hilton example at any
rate was not made for ecclesiastical purposes if, as stated on the
obelisk, it was constructed in 1660. On the other hand, the reflection
that at that date Puritan influences were on the decline and the
restoration of the Monarchy was imminent leads one to conclude that
this somewhat exuberant design of a youth of nineteen was intended for
purposes of rustic enjoyment.
[Illustration: FIG. 68.--"Walls of Troy," Rockcliffe Marsh, Cumberland.
(After Ferguson.)]
Fig. 68 shows a labyrinth formerly incised in the turf of the marshes
of Rockcliffe in Cumberland, near the shores of the Solway Firth. It
covered a space of 26 ft. by 24 ft. and had a 9-in. path bounded by
an 8-in. groove. It went by the name of "The Walls of Troy." The two
villages of Burgh and Rockcliffe are distant from one another about two
miles and a half, and the river Eden bisects the intervening marshes
and occasionally floods them. A certain point on the marsh is known as
"Willie of the Boats," from the fact that prior to 1816, when the main
road from Carlisle to Glasgow passed this way, a man of that name lived
here and acted as guide through the marshes and over the river fords.
A maze existed close to this spot and is said to have been cut in 1815
by a man named Christopher Graham. Whether Graham designed the maze
himself or whether he copied an already existing specimen cannot now
be determined, but it is stated that a smaller and probably older maze
existed side by side with his. Both have now entirely disappeared. The
maze figured, however, was about a mile from this spot and was still in
existence in 1883, though much overgrown. The local tradition declared
it to have been cut by Robert Edgar, a sailor, who was subsequently
drowned at sea. All three of the mazes mentioned were apparently of
similar design. A friend of the writer was unable to find any traces of
a maze in the locality in 1920.
On the summit of a hill by St. Anne's Well, Sneinton, Nottingham, there
formerly existed a maze called "Robin Hood's Race," or "Shepherd's
Race." It was of a design somewhat similar to that at Saffron Walden,
but having each of the four bastions ornamented with an incised figure
of the type known in heraldry as a "Cross, crosslet, fitchy." The
path was stated to be 535 yards in total length. When the lordship of
Sneinton was enclosed, in February 1797, the maze was ploughed up. An
enterprising printer of Nottingham, J. Wigsby by name, preserved for us
the plan by publishing in the following month an illustrated pamphlet
in commemoration of the maze, "Sixpence plain, eightpence coloured."
Another turf maze used to exist in the same neighbourhood, namely, at
Clifton, about four miles or so from Sneinton, on the opposite side of
Nottingham. This was of a square design similar to that of the garden
maze shown in Fig. 75.
At Somerton, near Banbury, Oxfordshire, there has been well preserved
a very good "Troy-town" (Fig. 69), of a plan which recalls that on
the tiles of Toussaints Abbey. It is situated in the garden of a
farm-house, named after it "Troy," and is surrounded by beautiful trees
and shrubs. Our drawing is made from a sketch kindly supplied by the
brother of the present occupier, Mr. J. F. Godwin. Its dimensions are
57 ft. by 50 ft., and the turf path, one foot in width, has a total
length of 400 yards.
[Illustration: FIG. 69.--"Troy-town," Somerton, Oxon. (From sketch by
O. W. Godwin.)]
Near Piddington, on the border of the same county, rises to a height
of nearly 400 ft. above the village the eminence known as Muswell
Hill. Close to the summit of the hill is an earthwork having the form
of a square turfed level surrounded by a low bank and bearing the
traditional name of "The Wilderness." It is often spoken of locally as
a Roman camp, but there is nothing in its structure to suggest such an
origin: no satisfactory explanation of its origin or purpose has, in
fact, been hitherto forthcoming. Now the word "wilderness," as we shall
see in a subsequent chapter, was employed during a certain period to
denote a maze of the horticultural type, and it is not improbable that
it was used in connection with mazes in general. May we not, therefore,
allow it to be within the realms of legitimate surmise that this
mysterious work constitutes the remains of a square turf maze, perhaps
of a design similar to that of the Clifton maze mentioned above? The
situation, the enclosing bank, and the regular outline of the latter
accord well with this supposition, though the dimensions--250 ft.
square--are rather excessive unless we allow for a considerable margin
between the bank and the maze itself.
Another Oxfordshire locality, Tadmarton Heath, is mentioned as a turf
maze site in a manuscript by the Rev. T. Leman, quoted in a county
history published in 1861, but if such a work ever existed there all
traces of it have now disappeared; the same is true with regard to
another reputed maze site to which reference is made in the manuscript,
namely, the Herefordshire Beacon, in the Malvern Hills. In both cases
the situations are such as might well have been selected for the
purpose, judging by analogy with other known turf maze sites. Sixty
years is none too long a period to allow of the complete obliteration
of the turf figures, if such existed, in the absence of care and
attention, so that it is not surprising if we now find ourselves unable
to trace them, especially if they possessed no circumscribing bank or
ditch.
In Surrey a "Troy-town" was formerly well known in the neighbourhood of
Guildford. It was cut in the turf on Hillbury, between Guildford and
Farnham. It may be that the earth-rings of which traces are yet visible
on St. Martha's Hill, on the other side of Guildford, constitute the
remains of a similar work. It is said that the youths and maidens
of the town used to congregate here on Good Friday and indulge in
boisterous celebrations, the origin of which is not known. Another
Surrey spot formerly alluded to as having a turf maze is Putney Heath.
Unfortunately, however, we cannot at present point to any authentic
traces of a single specimen in the whole of the county.
At Chilham, near Godmersham, in Kent, is an earthwork on the downs
known as Julaber's Barrow or Juliberry's Grave. It bears no traces
of mazy paths, but the name carries strong suggestion of "Julian's
Bower," and there is perhaps as much force in this suggestion as in the
opposing view that the mound is the grave of Quintus Laberius Durus,
one of Julius Caesar's tribunes (hence _Julii Laberius_), who was
killed by the Britons. The latter theory was, however, maintained by
a writer to _The Times_ as recently as April 5, 1920. The fact that
as late as 1893, according to a letter to _Notes and Queries_ of that
year, traces of a "bower" or "Troy-town" were still observable in
the neighbourhood of Walmer, shows that the Chilham work, if a turf
maze, would not have been unique in the county. It is also said that
one formerly existed near Westerham; the name "Troy-town," moreover,
survives in other parts of the county (see p. 211). Additional
support for the theory of a turf maze site at Chilham is found in the
occurrence of the name Bowerland, applied to a district to the north of
the village. We find, too, a hamlet of Bower, only a few miles to the
south-west.
In Bedfordshire, not far from Dunstable, there is a circular earthwork
on the downs called "Maiden Bower." Stukeley refers to it in his
discussion on Julian's Bowers as being in his opinion the site of
a former turf maze, and there is some force in this contention. He
mentions in the same reference a similar work at Ashwell.
Dr. Trollope stated that specimens had been reported also from the
county of Devonshire and in Scotland, but actual details are not at the
moment available.
There is no doubt that the custom of cutting these devices in the
turf was formerly very widespread throughout the land, although
comparatively few examples now exist. Even during the past generation,
as we have seen, some are known to have disappeared. Let us therefore
hope that all possible care will be taken to preserve those that remain
to us.
CHAPTER XII
THE ORIGIN OF TURF MAZES
In 1858--the year in which Archdeacon Trollope published the results of
his researches--Capt. W. H. Mounsey drew attention to the description
in a Welsh history book ("Drych y Prif Oesoedd," published in 1740) of
a curious custom formerly prevalent among the Welsh shepherds. This
custom consisted of cutting in the turf a figure in the form of a
labyrinth, which they called Caerdroia, _i.e._ the walls, or citadel,
of Troy. He also remarked that the herdsmen of Burgh and Rockcliffe "at
the present day are in the habit of cutting this labyrinthine figure,
which they also call 'the Walls of Troy.'" He drew the tentative
conclusion that this name "would seem to be an after-thought of pure
Cymric origin, suggested by the similarity between _Caerdroia_, the
City of Troy, and _Caer y troiau_, the city of windings or turnings."
A similar suggestion had already been made in the _Transactions of the
Cymmrodorion Society_ in 1822, the writer ("Idrison") holding that the
turf figures, and also those on the Knossian coins, had reference to
the courses of the sun as conceived by ancient worshippers of that orb.
Captain Mounsey was promptly answered by Dr. Trollope, who referred to
the wide distribution of these devices throughout England and commented
on their total absence from Brittany, where, if they were of ancient
Cymric origin, one would have expected to find at least some trace of
them. He also stated that they first received the name of "Troy-towns"
in Tudor days, when "subtleties" of all kinds were in vogue, the term
being used simply to indicate, by analogy with the Troy of legend, the
difficulties to be overcome before the centre could be reached. Dr.
Trollope gave it as his considered opinion that they were originally
cut for penitential purposes by ecclesiastics, and this opinion has
since his time remained practically unchallenged. In his memoir on the
subject he reproduces a sketch showing the St. Anne's Hill maze with
two gowned and kneeling persons in the act of performing a penitential
circuit. Both the sketch and Dr. Trollope's conclusion are based on
inference, however; there does not appear to be any direct evidence in
the matter.
The theory of an ecclesiastical origin of the turf mazes is chiefly
supported by analogy with the continental church labyrinths which many
of them so strongly resemble. Against the argument of their frequent
proximity to an ecclesiastical site we may place that of their equally
frequent proximity to known Roman remains and the fact that many of our
old churches were founded on Roman sites.
The Welsh custom above referred to was also described by P. Roberts
in his "Cambrian Popular Antiquities," published in 1815. He gives a
plan of the figure as usually cut--a design resembling the circular
labyrinths on Knossian coins, but flattened on the side where the
entrance is situated--and expresses dissatisfaction with it because
there are "no means of losing the way into the citadel, the supposed
way continuing regularly through all its windings unbroken, which could
scarcely have been the design of the inventor" (Fig. 70).
This figure, he says, is the plan of a labyrinth which is sometimes cut
out in the turf by shepherd boys whilst they are tending their flocks
on the mountains of Wales, and is sometimes drawn and presented as a
puzzle by boys to exercise the ingenuity of their school-fellows,
either in finding their way to the citadel at the centre or in drawing
the plan. The tradition which accompanies the plan is that the city
of Troy was defended by seven walls represented by the seven exterior
lines and the entrance made as intricate as possible in order to
frustrate an attacking force.
[Illustration: FIG. 70.--"Caerdroia." (After P. Roberts.)]
On the question whether turf mazes were, as Dr. Trollope affirmed,
constructed by ecclesiastics for penitential purposes, there does not
appear to be sufficient evidence to form a final decision. Even if it
be true that they, and the pavement labyrinths, were actually used in
the manner mentioned--a statement for which we do not seem to have
definite proof--it by no means follows that they were designed with
that object. We do know for certain that they were, from Tudor times
onwards, used for recreational purposes. In his "Midsummer Night's
Dream" (Act II., Sc. i.) Shakespeare makes Titania say, in her reply to
Oberon (after the latter had twitted her with her love for Theseus):
"... the quaint mazes in the wanton green,
For lack of tread are undistinguishable."
In "The Tempest" also (Act III., Sc. iii.) he makes the old counsellor
Gonzalo say:
"By'r lakin, I can go no further, sir,
My old bones ache: here's a maze trod indeed
Through forth-rights and meanders: by your patience
I needs must rest me";
and further on (Act V., Sc. i.) he puts a similar phrase into the mouth
of Alonso:
"This is as strange a maze as e'er man trod:
And there is in this business more than nature
Was ever conduct of."
It is most likely that the turf mazes were in existence long before
Shakespeare's time. The similarity of design between some of them
and certain of the continental church labyrinths, which has already
been alluded to, furnishes some grounds for supposing that they were
contemporary with the latter in origin, in which case they would most
probably have been constructed in the twelfth or thirteenth centuries.
The fact that several of them were situated in the neighbourhood of
some religious institution also lends support to the assertion that
they were of monastic workmanship. There is no reason, however, to
suppose that their construction and the handing on of the labyrinth
tradition was confined to ecclesiastics.
According to M. Berthelot, who made a special study of the work of the
ancient and mediaeval alchemists, a similar figure was employed by
the latter. At any rate he found in an eleventh-century alchemistic
manuscript, which he refers to as the Manuscript of St. Mark, Venice,
a labyrinth drawing closely resembling the ecclesiastical type,
accompanied by a commentary in Greek verse. He, however, expresses the
opinion that both the labyrinth and the verses are an addition of the
fourteenth or fifteenth century. The figure, he says, is referred to as
"The Labyrinth of Solomon."
The name of Solomon was in use at least as late as 1844 in connection
with labyrinthine figures. In that year M. Didron, a noted French
archaeologist, whilst making a tour through Greece, visited the
convent of St. Barlaam, a building perched high up on a huge crag and
approached only by a rope. On the wall of the guestroom he observed
a red tracing of a labyrinth resembling that on the floor of Chartres
Cathedral. M. Didron inquired as to the origin of it, and was informed
that it was called the "Prison de Salomon" and that it had been copied
on the wall long before by a monk who had found the design in a book.
The monk was dead and the book lost. This "Solomon's Prison" was of the
same character as the "Solomon's Labyrinth" described by M. Berthelot,
but very probably these and similar terms were at one time as popular
as "Chemin de Jérusalem," "Julian's Bower," and so on, in their
application to all sorts of labyrinthine devices.
A simple "interrupted-circle" type of labyrinth was adopted as a
heraldic device by Gonzalo Perez, a Spanish ecclesiastic who acted
as Secretary to Charles V and Philip II, and published in 1566
a translation of Homer's "Odyssey." The labyrinth was shown in
perspective, with the Minotaur, in fighting attitude, at the centre. It
was surmounted by the motto _In silentio et spe_.
No doubt continental heraldry could furnish us with many similar
references of the sort, although nothing of the kind seems to occur
in English heraldry. In Fig. 71, for instance, is shown one used by
Bois-dofin de Laval, Archbishop of Embrun. The motto in this case was
_Fata viam invenient_ ("The Fates will find a way"), a motto adopted
in England by the Berkshire Vansittarts. Our illustration is copied
from an early seventeenth-century book entitled "Devises Héroïques et
Emblèmes," by Claude Paradin.
In the text it is stated that "par ce labyrinthe ... se pourroit
entendre que pour rencontrer la voye, & chemin de vie eternelle, la
grace de Dieu nous adresse: nous mettant entre les mains le filet de
ses saincts commandemens. A ce que le tenans & suivans tousiours nous
venions a nous tirer hors des dangereux foruoyemens des destroits
mõdains." In other words, the device may be taken as emblematical of
the temptation-labyrinth of this worldly life, which can only be
safely traversed by means of the Ariadne thread of divine grace.
The design in this case is of a peculiar type, but it may be very
easily derived from the simple split-ring or "Pigs in Clover" design
(Fig. 144).
[Illustration: FIG. 71.--Labyrinth Device of Archbishop of Embrun.
(After C. Paradin.)]
We have in the two cases just mentioned, as in the case of the pavement
labyrinths, an association with the Church or with ecclesiastics. At
the same time we know that, in England at any rate, the turf mazes
were used for sportive purposes in the days of Elizabeth, and there
is, so far, a lack of contemporary reference to their employment in a
devotional or penitential capacity. "Treading" or "threading" the maze
was a favourite game for several generations. Seeing that the path in
the turf maze has as a rule no branches or dead-ends, the sport in
question would appear to have been rather simple in character, unless
we imagine the participants to have been blindfolded for the purpose or
primed with a tankard or two of some jocund beverage.
Let us refer once more to that chapter of Pliny's "Natural History"
in which he says that we must not compare the Egyptian and other
labyrinths with "what we see traced on our mosaic pavements _or to the
mazes formed in the fields for the entertainment of children_." The
italicised words clearly show that the construction of something akin
to our turf mazes was practised by the Romans. It seems very reasonable
to infer that, if the custom were so common as Pliny seems to imply,
it would have been carried to the Roman colonies in these islands.
An argument which has often been brought forward in this connection
is that from very early times the game of Troy, the _lusus Trojae_,
was played by Roman youths. Virgil describes it in the fifth book of
his "Aeneid," and draws attention to the similarity between the mazy
windings of this sport--which was performed on horseback--and the
sinuous path of the Cretan labyrinth (see Chapter XVIII). The inference
drawn from this is that our "Troy-towns" and the sports connected with
them are in the direct line of descent from this classic game and are
therefore a legacy of the Roman occupation of Britain.
Dr. Stukeley, whom we had occasion to mention with reference to the
Horncastle maze, suggested that the term Julian's Bower was derived
from the name of Iulus, the son of Aeneas, who is described as having
taken part in the game. We see, then, that there is a good deal to be
said for the claim of a Roman origin.
Assuming for the moment that such was the case, we are faced with
some difficulty in accounting for the preservation throughout the
intervening ages of a class of earthwork which, without attention, is
liable to become effaced in a few decades.
Is it likely that the Britons, after the Roman recall, would trouble
to preserve the playgrounds of their late rulers' children? Is it at
all probable that the successive waves of immigrants, Anglo-Saxons,
Danes and Norsemen, would concern themselves with the maintenance of
such alien frivolities?
Is there not a chance that perhaps some of these invaders brought the
custom with them?
If we had to rely solely on our own historical records, we should find
it extremely difficult to arrive at any conclusion in the matter.
Researches of recent decades have, however, rendered it possible to
approach the matter from a much wider angle, and, before we attempt
any further to inquire into the origin of our own turf mazes, we shall
find it necessary to go back very far indeed in the history of European
civilisation, and to look at the question of labyrinth origins from
another point of view.
Before doing so, however, we will review a development which, in the
eyes of the archaeologist an insignificant side-line, is perhaps to
many readers a matter of greater interest than anything we have yet
dealt with, embracing as it does that type of labyrinth which is
familiar to all in the famous Hampton Court specimen.
CHAPTER XIII
THE FLORAL LABYRINTH AND THE DWARF-SHRUB MAZE
The mention of the word "maze" most frequently calls to mind a block of
tall shrubs penetrated by a puzzling branching path, which terminates
in an arbour or goal of some sort. But just as we have seen that the
horticultural maze is far from being the sole form of expression of the
idea, so we must now recognise that even in horticulture the well-known
hedge maze is not the only type of verdant labyrinth.
The dwarf box, although a favourite material for delimiting flower beds
and edging paths, is merely a subordinate or "accompanying" instrument,
so to speak, in the gardener's orchestra. Yet we do occasionally see it
employed as a soloist, executing its modest little arabesques between
the strepitant choruses of the chromatic parterres on the terrace of
some stately country home. In such cases we see a relic of the "knots"
which formed an important feature in the gardens of our forefathers.
[Illustration: Fig. 72. Floral Labyrinth (De Vries).]
[Illustration: Fig. 74. Floral Labyrinth (De Vries).]
These devices were composed of various herbs or low shrubs and great
ingenuity was displayed in their fashioning, amongst other forms being
several varieties of labyrinths. The praises of the dwarf box in this
connection were sung by John Parkinson, herbalist to Queen Elizabeth
and King James the First. In his "Paradisus" he mentions it thus: "...
Boxe, which lastly I chiefly and above all other herbs commend
unto you, and being a small, low, or dwarfe kind, is called French or
Dutch Boxe." This plant, he says, "serveth very well to set out any
knot or border out any beds, for besides that it is ever greene, it
being reasonable thicke set, will easily be cut and formed into any
fashion one will, according to the nature thereof, which is to grow
very slowly, and will not in a long time rise to be of any height,
but shooting forth many small branches from the roote, will grow very
thicke and yet not require so great tending, nor so much perish as any
of the former ...," and so on, in typical labyrinthine prose. The use
of dwarf box in this way was not, of course, a novelty in Parkinson's
time. In fact it was used by the Romans to border their paths and the
flower-beds of that little garden in front of the porticoes which went
by the name of the _xystus_.
In the sixteenth century, however, the planting of dwarf shrubs and
herbs in long narrow beds twisted into various complicated figures
seems to have become very fashionable.
Where maze patterns were introduced, a simple, unicursal form was
sometimes followed, but in many instances very elaborate mazes were
executed.
[Illustration: FIG. 73.--Floral Labyrinth. (De Vries.)]
In a few of our libraries are to be found copies of a curious book
of garden designs by Jan Vredeman De Vries, entitled "Hortorum
Viridariorumque Formae," published at Antwerp in 1583. In it are
represented many extraordinary and even fantastic plans for the lay-out
of gardens, including no less than nine in the form of labyrinths.
Some of the latter are designated by titles of a descriptive or of
a quasi-classic character, "La Roue," "Ionica," "Corinthia," and so
forth. We reproduce a few of these designs in Figs. 72, 73 and 74.
Several other horticultural or architectural books of about the same
period also mention labyrinths or figure them in their illustrations,
but it is not clear, in many cases, whether these are intended to
represent garden mazes or the flower-bed labyrinths that we have just
mentioned. In some instances, where the beds were occupied by shrubs,
we have a sort of link between the garden labyrinth and the hedge maze
proper. An illustration in a book of 1573 on the gardens of the Villa
d'Este at Tivoli, dedicated to Catherine de Medici by the author,
Stefano Duperac, shows four rectangular labyrinths, all of the same
pattern. It is unlikely that in such circumstances they would all have
been formed of tall hedges, and we may therefore judge them to have
been of the flower-bed type or perhaps of dwarf box.
We find a reference to the herbal labyrinth in "La Maison Rustique," by
Charles Estienne (Paris, 1573), under the heading of "Kitchen Garden
Planning":
"Et sera bon dresser a ceste fin une planche de sauge ... encore une
de sariette, & hyssope, de cost, de basilic, aspic, baume, pouliot &
une de camomille pour faire les siéges & labyrinthes, que l'on nomme
Daedalus."
One of the best-known and most often quoted of the Tudor gardening
books is that of Thomas Hyll, or Hill, whose work "A moste Briefe and
Pleasaunt Treatyse Teachynge How to Dress, Sowe and Set a Garden"
was published in 1563. It has a captivating charm, especially in the
earlier, black-letter editions. In later editions the name of the
author appears as "Didymus Mountaine" (Didymus = Thomas, Mountaine =
Hill), and the book becomes "The Gardener's Labyrinth."
He published two figures of mazes, which we reproduce as Figs. 75 and
76. In the 1579 edition--"The Profitable Art of Gardening"--they are
respectively placed at the heads of different chapters, the openings of
which are worth quoting:
[Illustration: FIG. 75.--Herbal Labyrinth. (T. Hill, 1579.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 76.--Herbal Labyrinth. (T. Hill, 1579.)]
"Here by the way (Gentle Reader) I do place two proper Mazes, the one
before this Chapter, and the other after, as proper adornments upon
pleasure to a Garden, that who so listeth, having such roomth in their
Garden, may place the one of them, which liketh them best, in that
voide place of the Garden that maye beste be spared for the onelye
purpose, to sporte in them at times, which mazes being workmanly
handled by the Gardner shal much beautifie them in devising four sundry
fruits to be placed in each of the corners of the Maze and in the
middle of it a proper Herber decked with Roses, or else some faire tree
of Rosemary, or other fruits, at the discretion of the Gardener."
"And here, I also place the other Maze, which may be lyke ordered and
used, as I spake before, and it may eyther be set with Isope and Time,
or with winter Savery and Tyme; for these do wel endure all ye winter
through greene. And there be some which set their mazes with Lavender,
Cotton Spike, Majerome and such like. But let them be ordered in this
point, as liketh best the Gardener, and so an end. For I doe not here
set forth this, or the other Maze afore expressed, for any necessarie
commoditie in a Garden, but rather appoint eyther of them (which liketh
you best) as a beautifying unto your Garden: for that Mazes and Knots
aptly made do much set forth a garden which neverthelesse I referre to
your discretion for that not all persons be of like abilitie."
One would have expected to find some word concerning mazes in Lord
Bacon's Essay on Gardening, but, strange to say, he makes no reference
whatever to mazes or labyrinths. He abhorred topiary work. "I, for my
part," he says, "do not like images cut out in juniper or other garden
stuff--they be for children." Mazes he apparently considered unworthy
even of mention.
Hill's square maze reappears, but with a tree at the centre, in another
gardening book which achieved much popularity in the seventeenth
century, namely, "A New Orchard and Garden," by William Lawson (1623),
afterwards published (1638, 1648, etc.), bound up with "A Way to get
Wealth," by Gervase Markham. This is a quaint little publication which
embodies amongst other things a "Table of Hard Words." "Mazes well
framed a man's height," says Lawson (ch. xvii.), "may perhaps make your
friend wander in gathering of berries, till he cannot recover himself
without your help." In the division entitled "The Country Hous-Wife's
Garden" we are told that "The number of Formes, Mazes and Knots is so
great, and Men are so diversly delighted that I leave every House-wife
to her selfe, expecially seeing to set downe many, had been but to fill
much Paper; yet lest I deprive her of all delight and direction, let
her view these few, choice, new Forms, and note these generally, that
all Plots are square, and all are bordered about with Privit, Rasins,
Fea-berries, Roses, Thorne, Rosemary, Bee-flowers, Isop, Sage or such
like."
[Illustration: FIGS. 77, 78.--Maze Designs in Seventeenth Century
Manuscript. (Harley MS.)]
Let us hope that the Hous-Wife whose duty was to prepare and keep in
order these "Choice new Forms" had plenty of time on her hands.
The two mazes included in a tiny book amongst the Harley Manuscripts
(Figs. 77 and 78) were probably intended for flower-bed mazes. The book
consists of a collection of 166 sketches of flower-beds, "knots," etc.,
and probably belonged to some seventeenth-century gardener.
These mazes, like most of the early forms, are of the "unicursal"
type; that is, they have only one path, without loops or branches.
It seems most likely that such mazes would be constructed either of
flower-beds or of some low-growing shrubs, such as box. If constructed
of high hedges the pattern would be invisible, except from a superior
eminence, and they would afford but a poor sort of entertainment to the
visitor, who would have nothing to do but to follow the path until he
came to a full stop, and then retrace his steps. Nevertheless there is
no doubt that some of them were made in this way. On the other hand the
flower-bed labyrinth was not necessarily unicursal, as we may see from
the plans of De Vries.
[Illustration: FIG. 79.--Maze Design by Adam Islip, 1602.]
The actual form of the unicursal type of labyrinth was, in all the
earlier designs, whether circular or square, in very close agreement
with the classic model, but in later designs monotony was avoided by
means of some ingenious modifications. One of the earliest of these is
shown in Fig. 79, which is copied from a very rare book called "The
Orchard and The Garden," gathered from French and Dutch sources and
published by Adam Islip in 1602. Fig. 80 shows one of several specimens
which are given in a Dutch book of about half a century later,
"Nederlantze Hesperides," by J. Commelyn (1676). It is perhaps as
likely, however, that these were intended as designs for a hedge maze,
or "Doolhof," as the Dutch call it.
[Illustration: FIG. 80.--Maze Design by J. Commelyn, 1676.]
The box-edged paths of "Queen Mary's Bower" on the island of
Inchmahome, by the Lake of Menteith, Stirlingshire, may mark the site
of a former dwarf-box labyrinth. Tradition maintains that the maze
was made for Mary Queen of Scots when she was staying there as a
child. The original maze-pattern, if such existed, is lost by reason
of the depredations of relic hunters, who for many years laid the
bower under contribution and so denuded it that it had to be entirely
replanted some fifty or sixty years ago. The box shrubs with which it
was repaired, however, are said to have been taken from the gardens of
Cardross, where they had been reared from cuttings derived from the
original bower. They have now grown to a height of several feet, and
the bower no doubt presents a very different appearance from that which
it had in the days of the ill-starred Mary.
It consists of a winding box-bordered walk leading to a central
thorn-bush, the whole affair being oval in outline, about thirty
yards in circumference and surrounded by a paling. Close at hand, and
enclosed within a square stone wall, is Queen Mary's garden, containing
at the centre an old box tree which is affirmed to have been planted by
the little princess herself.
Another Scottish relic which is said to mark the site of an old terrace
maze is that near Stirling Castle, known since the fourteenth century
as the "Round Tabill" or the "King's Knot."
There is a "Queen Mary's Bower," by the way, in the gardens at Hampton
Court, but this is only a straight walk shaded by an avenue of
pollarded elms, which forms a sort of verdant tunnel. It is situated at
the summit of a bank rising above one side of the King's Privy Garden.
An old tower planted with shrubs at Chatsworth bears the same name.
We shall have occasion to refer to "bowers" again later on, in another
connection. The present mention of them forms a convenient transition
from the subject of garden labyrinths to that of _hedge mazes_.
CHAPTER XIV
THE TOPIARY LABYRINTH, OR HEDGE MAZE
The art of trimming hedges of evergreens is of great antiquity;
probably it is almost as old as horticulture itself.
The Romans made much use of the services of the _topiarius_, or
hedge-trimmer--he is referred to by Cicero and other writers--and it
is quite possible that they had shrubs or bushes trained to enclose
winding paths in the manner of a hedge maze.
In Pliny's "Natural History" (Book XVI, Ch. 33) the cypress is spoken
of as being clipped and trimmed to form hedges or lengthened out in
various designs for ornamental purposes. In Book XV he tells us that
a shrub called _taxa_ is also used in ornamental gardening, from
which we might conclude that the yew (_taxus_) was intended. From the
description in the context, however, it is more likely that Pliny was
speaking of a plant something like our "butcher's broom" (_Ruscus
aculeatus_). He also mentions the box and a species of laurel as being
suitable for this kind of work.
A hint of something like a hedge maze is given in one of the epistles
of the younger Pliny, where he describes the gardens of his _villa_
in Tuscany. He speaks of having a _hippodromus_, a kind of circus
consisting of many paths separated by box hedges and ornamented with
topiary work.
We do not, however, find any actual description of an indubitable
hedge maze in the works of the classic writers. Amongst monastic
manuscripts of the middle ages occur a few passages which have been
thought to refer to something of the kind. For instance Henry, Abbot of
Clairvaux, in speaking metaphorically of labyrinthine entanglements,
says, "Non habent certos aditus, semitas ambulant circulares, et in
quodam fraudium labyrintho monstra saevissima reconduntur" ("They have
no definite approaches, but wander about in circular sidetracks, and
most savage monsters are concealed in their labyrinth of deceptions");
but he may very well have been alluding simply to the traditional
Cretan Labyrinth and not to actual constructions of his own period.
A perhaps more striking passage is that in a "History of the Counts of
Guines, A.D. 800 to 1200," by Lambert of Ardres (_Lambertus Ardensis_),
who lived in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Speaking of the
building of a large residence at Ardres for Count Arnold, in the
twelfth century, he says:
"Quam quidem Broburgensis artifex vel carpentarius, in hujus artis
ingenio parum discrepans a Dedalo fabrefecit et carpentavit nomina
Lodevicus et de ea fere inextricabilem fecit laberinthum et effigiavit,
penus penori, cameram camerae, diversorium diversorio concludens ...";
that is to say, a certain workman named Louis of Bourbourg, with a
skill in woodwork very little different from that of Daedalus, was
employed in building the house and made there a nearly inextricable
labyrinth, containing recess within recess, room within room, turning
within turning. Here again the description hardly answers to that of a
hedge maze, but rather indicates an elaborate architectural structure
and probably refers to nothing more than a large wooden house.
The common belief that our own King Henry II concealed his paramour
"the fair Rosamond" within a maze at Woodstock may possibly, as
sceptical historians aver, have no firmer foundations than that
afforded by the imaginative efforts of mediaeval romancers, but from
what we have just quoted it is evident that contrivances of the kind
described in the legend may have been in existence not only in Henry's
time but even in the previous century. In view of the great popularity
of the story throughout succeeding generations we cannot altogether
ignore it, but we will discuss it more conveniently in a later chapter.
The maze was introduced into the Low Countries, according to a book on
Architecture in Belgium, some time during the thirteenth century, but
this statement may be merely an inference from Lambert's History quoted
above.
In France, as we have already seen, the pavement labyrinths were
sometimes known as "dédales" or "maisons de Dédalus," in reference of
course to the "house" built by Daedalus for the Minotaur, and in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries we find the same titles applied to
mazes formed of shrubs. Charles V, in the fourteenth century, is said
to have laid out a _maison de Dédale_ in the gardens of the Hôtel de
St. Paul in Paris.
Of interest on this point is an Order of the Court of the Duchy of
Anjou, dated September 18, 1477, in which the people of the Duchy were
required to pay twelve _livres_ to the keeper of King Réné's castle at
Baugé "pour la nourriture des ouyseaux et nestoyer les espèces qu'il a
en garde ... et _reffaire le Dédalus_ qui est és jardrins dudit lieu de
Baugé."
We also read of a _dédalus_ in the park of Louise de Savoie in 1513.
A sixteenth-century maze is depicted in a landscape by Tintoretto which
is exhibited in the Queen's Private Chamber at Hampton Court Palace
(No. 524 [787]). In the centre of the maze are seen four ladies seated
at a table, their attendants standing by. In the background is the
palace to which the maze and surrounding pleasure-grounds evidently
appertain.
Hans Holbein, an early contemporary of Tintoretto, is also said to have
painted a maze of this description.
Many mazes at that time were planned by the Italian architect Serlio,
one of whose designs is shown in Fig. 81.
[Illustration: FIG. 81.--Maze Design by J. Serlio (Sixteenth Century).]
The late sixteenth century furnishes abundant evidence of the growing
taste for the topiary labyrinth in the architectural works of Androuet
du Cerceau, one of the great builders of the French Renaissance and
architect to Catherine de Medici. We are bound to say, however, that
the assertion of Horace Walpole, in his "Essay on Modern Gardening," to
the effect that in Du Cerceau's works there is scarcely a ground plot
without both a round and a square maze, is not borne out by reference
to such editions as are generally available.
Du Cerceau's sketches of the mazes at Charleval and in the Palace
garden of the Archbishop of Rouen at Gaillon--with modifications
necessitated by the extreme roughness of the original blocks--are shown
in Figs. 82, 83 and 84.
[Illustration: FIG. 82.--Maze at Charleval. (After Du Cerceau.)]
[Illustration: FIGS. 83 and 84.--Mazes at Gaillon. (After Du Cerceau.)]
One of the best-known gardens of the Elizabethan period was that
made about 1560 for Lord Burleigh, or Burghley, at Theobalds in
Hertfordshire. It was described by a contemporary as being "large and
square, having all its walls covered with Sillery and a beautiful _jet
d'eau_ in the centre." At the end was a small mount called the Mount of
Venus, placed in the midst of a labyrinth, "upon the whole, one of the
most beautiful spots in the world." The house and gardens, John Evelyn
tells us in his Memoirs, under date April 15, 1643, were "demolish'd by
the rebels."
A plan of this labyrinth is shown in Fig. 85. Theobalds was afterwards
transferred by Burleigh's son, the Earl of Salisbury, to King James the
First, in exchange for another noble seat in the same county, Hatfield
House, still held by the present Marquis of Salisbury.
[Illustration: FIG. 85.--Maze at Theobalds, Herts. (After Trollope.)]
In the grounds to the rear of the latter mansion is to be seen at the
present day one of the finest examples of a hedge maze, which, although
of fairly modern construction, probably replaced an earlier specimen.
Our photograph, Fig. 86 (see Frontispiece), was taken, by kind
permission, from the roof of Hatfield House. The hedge is of tall,
thick yew throughout, and is perfectly formed, without any of those
thin, straggly growths in the lower portion which, by tempting the
unscrupulous maze-trotter to burst through them, soon necessitate
renewal or unsightly patching.
The maze is 174 ft. in length and 108 ft. in width, and has two
entrances (or exits), one at each end. The basin which formerly
occupied the centre was replaced some years ago by a block of yew
surmounted by topiary figures. Fig. 87 shows the maze in plan.
[Illustration: FIG. 87.--Maze at Hatfield House, Herts. Plan. (W. H.
M.)]
From the beautifully turfed level above the maze, or from the parterre
terrace above that, one can overlook the hedges and enjoy, if so
inclined, occasional glimpses of ensnared and perplexed visitors.
The type of hedge maze exemplified here, in which the paths are bounded
by hedges of uniform thickness, is only one development. Another type
arose in the late seventeenth century in which serpentinous footpaths
penetrated blocks of shrubs or dense thickets. In some cases limes or
hornbeams were "plashed," _i.e._, their branches were so trained and
intertwined as to form a continuous wall of verdure. In other cases
the intervals between the paths were filled with loose aggregations
of flowering shrubs and evergreens; such an arrangement as this was
usually termed a "wilderness." (The term "plashing," by the way, should
not be confused with "pleaching," which merely signified the process of
ordinary trimming).
In practically all types of maze it became the fashion to relieve the
monotony of the walks by placing statues, vases, seats, fountains, and
other ornaments at various points. This kind of thing reached a climax
of extravagance in the latter part of the seventeenth century, when J.
Hardouin-Mansart constructed for Louis XIV the famous labyrinth in the
smaller park at Versailles. This labyrinth is described in a book, now
very rare, entitled "Labyrinte de Versailles," by C. Perrault, printed
at the royal press, Paris, in 1677, and illustrated by Sebastien le
Clerc. Our illustrations, Figs. 88, 89, 90 and 91, are selected from
the book in question and show respectively the plan of the labyrinth
and three of the thirty-nine groups of hydraulic statuary representing
the fables of Aesop. At the entrance to the labyrinth were placed
symbolical statues of Aesop and Cupid, the latter holding in one hand
a ball of thread. Each of the speaking characters represented in the
fable groups emitted a jet of water, representing speech, and each
group was accompanied by an engraved plate displaying more or less
appropriate verses by the poet de Benserade.
[Illustration: FIG. 89.--Labyrinth of Versailles. Fable Group: "The
Hare and the Tortoise." (Perrault.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 88. Labyrinth of Versailles. (Perrault)]
[Illustration: FIG. 90.--Labyrinth of Versailles. Fable Group: "The Fox
and the Crow." (Perrault.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 91.--Labyrinth of Versailles. Fable Group: "The
Snake and the Porcupine." (Perrault.)]
We reproduce le Clerc's engravings of the groups illustrating
respectively the fables of "The Hare and the Tortoise," "The Fox
and the Crow," and "The Snake and the Porcupine." The water for all
these elaborate waterworks was conveyed from the Seine by a wonderful
contrivance called the "Machine de Marli," constructed by Swalm
Renkin between 1675 and 1682. It is said to have cost the equivalent of
£8,000,000 and contained fourteen water-wheels driving 253 pumps, some
of which worked at a distance of three-quarters of a mile.
[Illustration: Fig. 93. Labyrinth at Choisy-le-Roi. (Blondel)]
[Illustration: Fig. 94. Labyrinth at Chantilly. (Blondel)]
The labyrinth was destroyed in 1775 and its site is now occupied by the
"Bosquet de la Reine."
The "Dial-garden" at Friar Park, Henley-on-Thames, is laid out on the
plan of the Versailles labyrinth, but in place of the statuary groups
are thirty-nine sun-dials, each having its motto or epigram. Adjoining
it is a maze of original and ingenious design.
The Versailles example was only one of several well-known mazes which
existed in or around Paris at that time. Evelyn, who spent some years
in Paris, from 1643 onwards, remarks on the design and trimness of
the box-hedge designs in the gardens of the Luxembourg and on the
"labyrinth of cypresse" at the Tuileries, no doubt designed by Du
Cerceau (Fig. 92). In another account of the Tuileries labyrinth,
however, it is described as being made entirely of bent cherry trees.
It was ultimately swept away by Le Nôtre to make room for enlarged
parterres.
There is still a labyrinth in the Jardin des Plantes, formerly the
Jardin du Roi, but it is of rather feeble design.
Another noted French maze was that constructed by M. Gabriel at
Choisy-le-Roi (Fig. 93). One was designed for the gardens of Chantilly
by Le Nôtre, but exists to-day only as an engraving on a stone in
the park (Fig. 94). Madame de Sévigné, in a letter of June 1, 1689,
mentions one at Les Rochers, her seat in Brittany, and we read of one
at Sceaux on the occasion of a fête given to Louis XIV and Madame de
Maintenon in 1685.
[Illustration: FIG. 92.--Labyrinth at the Tuileries. (After Du
Cerceau.)]
In most European countries the fashion had obtained a hold either
before or during the seventeenth century, and we can usually be sure
of finding a few drawings of mazes in any horticultural book of that
period.
[Illustration: FIGS. 97 and 98.--Mazes by G. A. Boeckler, 1664.]
[Illustration: Figs. 95 and 96. Maze Designs by André Mollet, 1651.]
Figs. 95 and 96 show two examples given in "Le Jardin de Plaisir,"
by André Mollet, the royal gardener at Stockholm, in 1651. Figs. 97
to 106 show some very ingenious designs selected from a great number
which accompany the drawings of castles and great houses in Germany
and elsewhere, contained in the "Architectura curiosa nova" of G. A.
Boeckler, 1664.
[Illustration: FIGS. 99 and 100.--Mazes by G. A. Boeckler, 1664.]
[Illustration: FIGS. 101 and 102.--Mazes by G. A. Boeckler, 1664.]
One of these (Fig. 105) is rather suggestive of the Saffron Walden turf
maze, whilst another (Fig. 101) is reminiscent of the Rheims pavement
labyrinth. At Enghien, in Belgium, the gardens of the château where the
Duke of Arenburg entertained Voltaire contained a maze, as well as a
"mechanical island" and various other horticultural toys.
[Illustration: FIGS. 103 and 104.--Mazes by G. A. Boeckler, 1664.]
In Spain, as elsewhere, the hedge maze attained great popularity. In
the magnificent gardens of the Alcazar at Seville may still be seen the
labyrinth laid out in the sixteenth century for the Emperor Charles V,
with tiled paths and fountains, and adjoining this is a hedge maze of
roughly hexagonal outline enclosed within an irregular rectangle.
[Illustration: FIGS. 105 and 106.--Mazes by G. A. Boeckler, 1664.]
[Illustration: Fig. 107. Maze at Gunterstein, Holland. (N. Visscher,
1719)]
[Illustration: Fig. 108. Gunterstein. Plan of Gardens, showing Maze.
(N. Visscher, 1719)]
[Illustration: Fig. 109. Gardens at Loo, Holland, with Mazes. (W.
Harris, 1699.)]
As regards Italy, we read that even the Pope himself, Clement X,
took pleasure in watching the endeavours of his domestics to extricate
themselves from the maze of tall box hedges which adorned his garden at
Altieri. Evelyn, in 1646, describing his visit to Vicenza, remarks of
the gardens of Count Ulmarini, or Vilmarini, outside the town, "Here is
likewise a most inextricable labyrinth."
Sir Philip Skippon, describing his own visit to Vicenza in 1663, refers
to the gardens as those of Count Valmarana, and mentions "a labyrinth
of myrtle hedges." Skippon also speaks of labyrinths in the gardens of
the Duke of Bavaria at Munich.
The Dutch gardeners made a great feature of the _doolhof_, typical
examples being those at the Duke of Portland's château at Sorgvliet,
near the Hague, at Gunterstein (Figs. 107 and 108), and at the Palace
of Loo, the Dutch home of William and Mary (Fig. 109). Our illustration
of the last-named is taken from Dr. W. Harris's book "The King's
Palace and Gardens at Loo" (1699). It will be seen that the maze to
the left is described as a "wilderness," as is also the structure to
the extreme right, but whereas the latter certainly presents little
of a labyrinthine appearance, the former is evidently a hedge maze,
although perhaps loosely drawn. Harris uses the terms "maze" and
"wilderness" interchangeably. He says that the King's labyrinth was
formed of clipped hedges with sandy walks between, while the Queen's
was decorated with fountains and statues. William the Third exercised
his taste for this kind of embellishment also in the grounds of his
English palaces. His gardeners, George London and Henry Wise, have left
us one which, although of no great complexity, has become world-famous,
namely, the specimen which forms part of the "Wilderness" in the
gardens of Hampton Court Palace.
CHAPTER XV
THE TOPIARY LABYRINTH, OR HEDGE MAZE (_continued_)
The Hampton Court maze (Fig. 110) was constructed in 1690 and in all
probability displaced an older maze, a relic of Wolsey's time. The maze
is situated close to the Bushy Park entrance. Defoe speaks of it as a
"labrynth," and tells us that the "Wilderness," of which it forms part,
replaced the old orchard of the palace.
It is of no great complexity, but, as may be seen from Fig. 111, is of
a neat and symmetrical pattern, with quite sufficient of the puzzle
about it to sustain interest and to cause amusement but without a
needless and tedious excess of intricacy. The area occupied by it is
rather more than a quarter of an acre--not a great amount of space, but
enough to accommodate about half a mile of total pathway. The longest
side of the maze measures 222 ft.
Various diagrams of the maze have been published, some of them very
incorrect and therefore misleading. Our sketch was made on the spot
and represents at any rate the present (1922) disposition of the paths
and hedges. The gate almost opposite the entrance should normally be
closed. It is for the purpose of affording the gardener or attendant
direct access to the "goal" and its approaches, or occasionally for
facilitating the release of impatient visitors; if left open it spoils
the fun. The goal is provided with two bench seats, each shaded by a
leafy tree.
[Illustration:
[_Photo: G. F. Green_
Fig. 110. Maze at Hampton Court.]
[Illustration:
[_Photo: G. F. Green_
Fig. 113. "The Little Maze."]
The hedge was at first composed entirely of hornbeam, but, like most of
its kind, it has required renewal at various points from time to time,
and this has not always been carried out with the appropriate material.
The result, as may be seen in our photograph, is a patchwork of privet,
hornbeam, yew, holly, hawthorn and sycamore. It is nevertheless
questionable whether the lack of uniformity in this respect causes any
grief to the bulk of its visitors. The maze is as popular as ever, and
in the financial year 1919-20 brought in a revenue of nearly £775,
which exceeded the estimate of the Office of Works by £325!
[Illustration: FIG. 111.--Maze at Hampton Court. Plan. (W. H. M.)]
Long may it remain! It may be a sad sight to the "highbrows" of
horticulture, but to the unsophisticated many it is a never-failing
source of innocent merriment. Those who incline to deplore the
perpetuation of these "topiary toys" should spend an hour or two in the
Hampton Court maze on a sunny holiday and witness the undiluted delight
which it affords to scores and hundreds of children, not to mention a
fair sprinkling of their elders.
The circular Troy-town or "Plan-de-Troy," formed of tall espaliers,
which formerly co-existed with the present maze (see Fig. 112), has
long been replaced by a sunken rockery, the path of which, however, is
of a very meandering character and has earned from visitors the title
of "The Little Maze" (Fig. 113). A topiary work of similar title, "The
Siege of Troy," was one of William's pet horticultural adornments at
Kensington Palace. It is said to have been a verdant representation of
military defence works, cut yew and variegated holly being "taught,"
as Walpole says, "to imitate the lines, angles, bastions, scarps and
counter-scarps of regular fortifications."
[Illustration: FIG. 112.--Hampton Court. The "Wilderness," with Maze
and "Plan-de-Troy," in Eighteenth Century. (Engraving by J. Rocque,
1736.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 116. Maze Design by Batty Langley (from _New
Principles of Gardening_, 1728).]
[Illustration: Fig. 115. Maze Design by Batty Langley. (from _New
Principles of Gardening_, 1728)]
The rather curious unicursal maze of three meanders shown in Fig. 114
is usually, _e.g._, in the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," attributed
to London and Wise, and certainly it appears in a book which was
issued by them in 1706 under the title of "The Solitary Gardiner"
(subsequently published by Joseph Carpenter as "The Retir'd Gardner"),
but this work is mainly a translation from an earlier French book, "Le
Jardinier Solitaire," by Louis Liger of Auxerre, in which also the
figure appears. Various other horticultural writers of the period make
use of the same design.
[Illustration: FIG. 114.--Labyrinth Design by L. Liger (circ. 1700).]
"A Labyrinth," says the text, "is a Place cut into several Windings,
set off with Horn-beam, to divide them from one another.... The most
valuable Labyrinths are always those that wind most, as that of
Versailles, the contrivance of which has been wonderfully lik'd by all
that have seen it" (_chacun à son goût!_). "The Palisades, of which
Labyrinths ought to be compos'd, should be ten, twelve, or fifteen foot
high; some there are that are no higher than one can lean on, but those
are not the finest. The Walls of a Labyrinth ought to be kept roll'd,
and the Horn-beams in them shear'd, in the shape of Half-moons."
As for the allurements of the much-winding labyrinths of the
Versailles type the reader will no doubt form his own opinion. Their
popularity at that time is demonstrated by the great number of designs
of this nature which we find in such books as, for example, those of
Batty Langley, a few of whose plans we reproduce (Figs. 115 and 116).
An example of the "block" type of labyrinth was that at Trinity
College, Oxford, of which a view is seen in an early eighteenth-century
engraving (Fig. 117), from the "Oxonia depicta" of W. Williams. It
was destroyed in 1813. Similar arrangements appear in several of the
engravings of country seats, _e.g._, those of Belvoir Castle, Boughton,
and Exton Park, in J. Kip's "Britannia Illustrata," 1724. In this work
also appear mazes of the more familiar type, as, for example, in the
engravings of Badminton and Wrest Park (Fig. 118).
The idea of Batty Langley and of the Versailles artist seems to have
been not so much that of puzzling the visitor as of providing an
entertaining and diversified promenade, but with many maze-architects
the object was to provide as much bewilderment as the space available
permitted. This is frankly avowed by Stephen Switzer in his somewhat
tedious "Ichnographia Rustica," published in 1742. He gives the design
shown in Fig. 119, and describes it as "a labyrinth of single hedges or
banks, _after the ancient manner_."
[Illustration: Fig. 117. Gardens of Trinity College, Oxford, with
Labyrinth. (W. Williams, 1732).]
He speaks of the object of a labyrinth as being to provide "an
intricate and difficult Labour to find out the Centre, and to be (as
the Vulgar commonly like it for) so intricate, as to lose one's self
therein, and to meet with as great a Number of Stops therein and
Disappointments as possible; I thought the best way to accomplish it
was to make a dubious Choice of which way to take at the very Entrance
and Beginning it self, in order to find out the Centre, at which we are
to end at B. into a little Arbour cradled over; for which Reason there
is in the very first coming in, in the Centre, where the Grass-Plot
and Statue are design'd at A. six different Entrances whereof there
is but one that leads to the centre and that is attended with some
difficulties and a great many stops."
He might have added, "... like unto my own literary style."
[Illustration: FIG. 119.--Maze Design by S. Switzer (1742).]
A labyrinth of a most fantastic character is said to have occupied a
large area in the palace garden of the Prince of Anhalt, in Germany. It
was allegorical and was intended to typify the course of human life.
It was composed not only of hedges, but of rocks and trees, streams
and caverns, and tortuous deeply cut paths, which were for the most
part covered in, with very scanty illumination. At every other turn
the visitor was pulled up by some puzzling or terrifying allegory, or
some didactic inscription after the manner of those which adorn the
rocks at Tilly Whim, on the Dorset coast. By way of compensation he
was refreshed here and there by the sight of a choice example of the
sculptor's art, or a flowery dell, or some verdurous presentation of
the architect's idea of Elysium. As in the case of Versailles, expense
seems to have been no obstacle.
At H.M. Records Office is preserved in "Survey No. 72" a rather
pathetic document headed "A Survey of the Manor of Wymbledon _alias_
Wimbleton, with the Rights, Members and Appurtenances thereof, lying
and being in the Countie of Surrey, late Parcell of the Possessions of
Henrietta Maria, the Relict and late Queene of Charles Stuart, late
King of England, made and taken ... in the Moneth of November 1649." A
transcript of the document was communicated to "Archaeologia" in 1792
by John Caley, F.A.S., the following portion being worth noting in
connection with our present subject:
"... On the South syde of the sayd turfed tarras there are planted one
great maze, and one wilderness, which being severed with one gravelled
Alley, in or near to the midle of the sayd turfed tarras, sets forth
the maze to lie towards the east, and the wilderness towards the west;
the maze consists of young trees, wood and sprayes of a good growth and
height, cutt into severall meanders, circles, semicircles, wyndings
and intricate turnings, the walks or intervalls whereof are all grass
plotts; this maze, as it is now ordered, adds very much to the worth
of the upper levell ... which maze and wilderness over and besides the
trees thereof, which are hereafter valewed amongst the other trees of
the sayd upper garden and the materialls of the sayd two shadowe or
summer houses, wee valew to bee worth £90.0.0."
Whether the maze referred to was afterwards destroyed is not clear, but
possibly it was preserved and was identical with that mentioned by the
writer of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" article as having formerly
existed at Wimbledon House, the seat of Earl Spencer, which was
conjectured to have been laid out by Brown in the eighteenth century.
("Capability" Brown, we may note, was no lover of mazes, though his
official residence at Hampton Court adjoined the maze.)
[Illustration: Fig. 118. Wrest Park, Bedfordshire, with two Mazes. (J.
Kip, 1720)]
There are records of various other old mazes in the immediate
vicinity of London, apart from the "tea-garden" mazes of the last
century. Pepys in 1666 speaks of "several labyrinths" in the gardens of
Lord Brooke at Hackney, and Evelyn in 1700 mentions mazes at Marden,
Surrey. Sutton Court also contained a fine example.
There was one in Tothill (or Tuttle) Fields, Westminster, in the
seventeenth century, and perhaps earlier, for it is mentioned with
familiarity in a play written by John Cooke in 1614, "Greene's Tu
Quoque; or the Cittie Gallant; a Play of Much Humour," wherein one of
the characters challenges another to a duel:
_Staines._ I accept it; the meeting place?
_Spendall._ Beyond the Maze in Tuttle.
The maze was renovated or remade in 1672, as shown by an entry in the
Churchwardens' Accounts of St. Margaret, Westminster:
"_Item_, to Mr. William Brewer, for making a maze in
Tuttlefields £2.0.0."
It was well known to John Aubrey, the antiquary and naturalist whose
reference to turf mazes we have already quoted. In his "Remaines,"
1686-7, he says:
"There is a maze at this day in Tuthill Fields, Westminster, & much
frequented in summer-time in fair afternoons."
According to Mr. J. E. Smith's "Parochial Memorials of St. John the
Baptist, Westminster," Tothill Fields were at one time known as
"Tuttle-in-the-Maze."
In the large view of London and Westminster engraved by Wenceslaus
Hollar (1607-1677) there is shown in the middle of Tothill Fields a
clump of trees surrounding a sort of shelter, like a band-stand, but no
sort of labyrinthine design is visible.
Another London maze mentioned by Aubrey, and one which has left its
remembrance in the present-day nomenclature of the locality (Maze
Pond), is that of Southwark. "At Southwarke," says Aubrey, "was a Maze
which is converted into Buildings bearing that name."
In another place he says, "On the south side of Tooley-street a little
westward from Burnaby-street is a Street called the MAES or MAZE,
Eastward from the Borough (another name for Labyrinth). I believe
we received these Mazes from our Danish Ancestors...." This latter
observation is one which seems to have been entirely overlooked by
subsequent archaeologists and antiquaries, but its significance will be
seen when we come to consider the subject of "stone labyrinths."
It is clear from the last phrase, that in this case Aubrey had in mind
turf mazes rather than hedge mazes, and we are in doubt as to whether
the Southwark maze was of the former or the latter species.
The Abbot of Battle had a residence there after the dissolution of
the monasteries, and it has been stated that he had a maze in his
garden, or, alternatively, that his garden paths were laid out in such
an intricate manner as to suggest the name. But there are records of
the name being applied to the locality before the dissolution of the
monasteries, and it is quite possible that there was once a turf maze
in the neighbourhood, perhaps before the abbot's time. According to a
footnote in Strickland's "Lives of the Queens of England," the maze in
Southwark once formed part of the garden of the Princess Mary Tudor,
but the authority for this statement is not quoted.
Maze Hill, Greenwich, is said to derive its name from the former
existence of a maze, traces of which are claimed to have been found
near the entrance to Morden College, Blackheath. The name was formerly
spelt Maize Hill and at one time Mease or Meaze Hill. We shall have
a word to say about place-names towards the end of this book, but we
may remark in passing that inferences as to the past existence of an
object based solely upon a current homonymous place-name are obviously
unsound.
CHAPTER XVI
THE TOPIARY LABYRINTH, OR HEDGE MAZE (_continued_)
_Latter-day Developments_
Towards the end of the eighteenth century the taste for mazes in
private gardens had to some extent declined, but as an adjunct to
places of public amusement the topiary labyrinth was still in great
demand.
"Pleasure gardens" of the Ranelagh and Vauxhall type were then greatly
in vogue, not only in the metropolis but in most of the fashionable
health resorts, and, although it is only in comparatively few cases
that we have definite records of their having possessed a maze, there
is no doubt that very many were in existence, though probably most have
since disappeared.
A favourite resort with dwellers in the north of London, up to about
a century ago, was White Conduit House, in Islington, and here a maze
formed one of the principal attractions.
In Harrow Road, N.W., No. 6 Chichester Place marks the site of a minor
public garden called "The Maze," which flourished up to about the
middle of last century.
Another northern pleasure garden which is recorded as possessing a maze
was "New Georgia," in Turners Wood, near the Spaniards, Hampstead.
South of the Thames the celebrated Beulah Spa had a maze, which,
together with that at Hampton Court, is referred to by Dickens in his
"Sketches by Boz."
Other well-known "tea-garden" mazes are those at the Crystal Palace and
at the Rosherville Gardens, Gravesend.
A maze was erected at the request of the Prince Consort, in or about
the year 1862, in the gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society at
South Kensington. It was designed by Lieut. W. H. Nesfield, R.N., who
relinquished a naval career to become a very successful gardener. Fig.
120 shows the plan of this maze as given in the R.H.S. official guide
to the gardens in 1864. A statue of Galatea adorned the "goal."
This plan differs in some respects from Nesfield's original design,
which was slightly simpler and provided for a central fountain and
basin. The figure which illustrates the "Britannica" article--and
which has been copied into a popular book on puzzles, accompanied by
the remark that it is "a feeble thing"--unfortunately departs from the
official plan in certain small but important details; it allows of an
almost direct passage from a third external opening to the circular
goal. The maze ultimately went to ruin and its site has long been built
upon.
The maze in the beautiful little gardens at Saffron Walden which were
presented to the public nearly a century ago by Mr. L. Fry, M.P., and
are known as Bridge End Gardens, is still in excellent condition,
although suffering in places from the illicit short-cuts made by
impatient visitors. It is locally believed to be a replica of that at
Hampton Court, but is of very different plan and is, in fact, much
more elaborate. Our photographs, Figs. 121 and 122, were taken from
the pulpit-like erection at one end of the central enclosure, looking
roughly towards the south and the north respectively.
It will be noticed that a person standing on the erection is precluded
from mapping out the maze therefrom, by reason of the tall topiary
upgrowths at various points, designed, no doubt, with this object. This
maze is situated within a few hundred yards of the turf maze which we
noticed in a previous chapter.
[Illustration: FIG. 120.--Maze by W. H. Nesfield, in R.H.S. Gardens,
South Kensington, circ. 1862. (From R.H.S. Guide.)]
Another modern hedge maze in the same county is that in the grounds of
Mistley Place, Manningtree, the residence of E. M. Jackson, Esq., M.A.,
who has kindly furnished the writer with some details concerning it.
The maze was planted about fifty years ago, but unfortunately the
choice of material was not of the most judicious, for, while the major
portion is of beech, young oaks were planted in the outer circle and
these have now grown up into large trees, overshadowing and ruining
the neighbouring portions of the hedge, so that it is now difficult to
trace the plan. Only the inner circles remain complete.
In the adjacent county of Suffolk there is another maze of about the
same age but of very different pattern, at Somerleyton Hall, the seat
of Lord Somerleyton (Fig. 123). The hedges in this case are of yew
and are of great thickness, about six or seven feet in height. At the
points marked "A" are situated two beautiful golden Irish yews. Clipped
yews provide interesting variety at the points marked "B," and a little
pagoda crowns the central knoll, approached by grassy ramps.
There is a hexagonal maze, of some complexity, in the splendid gardens
of the Hon. J. Egerton Warburton at Arley Hall, Cheshire. It is formed
of lime trees, planted about half a century ago.
We may also mention one, of circular and rather simple though
distinctive design, at Belton House, the residence of Earl Brownlow,
near Grantham, Lincolnshire.
In Gloucestershire there is one in the grounds of Sudeley Castle, the
home of H. D. Brocklehurst, Esq., J.P., where, according to Kelly's
county directory, "the old pleasaunce, with its paths and fountain, was
discovered in 1850 and now forms part of the garden."
In Nottinghamshire there is one, planted by Colonel Thos. Coke in the
'fifties, at Debdale Hall, Mansfield Woodhouse (F. N. Ellis, Esq.,
J.P.).
Mr. W. W. Rouse Ball, in his "Mathematical Recreations and Essays,"
gives a drawing of an elaborate maze which he has erected in his own
garden, presumably at Cambridge.
[Illustration:
[_Photo: W. H. M._
Fig. 121. Maze in Bridge End Gardens, Saffron Walden, looking South.]
[Illustration:
[_Photo: W. H. M._
Fig. 122. Maze in Bridge End Gardens, Saffron Walden, looking North.]
Possibly there are many others in the seclusion of large country
gardens, but, as the owners of such contrivances are inclined to
consider them as relics of a bygone and discredited fashion, it is
only by chance or by individual enquiries that information concerning
them can be obtained, and it is of course impracticable to take an
unofficial census on such a matter. It may be taken as probable,
however, that all the most notable examples have been enumerated above.
[Illustration: FIG. 123.--Maze at Somerleyton Hall, Suffolk. (W. H. M.,
from sketch by G. F. G.)]
In continental countries the occurrence of mazes is as sporadic
as at home. There are said to be some excellent specimens in the
neighbourhood of Barcelona, fragrant, aromatic, and flowering shrubs
being a characteristic feature of their composition.
As regards Italy, Mr. Inigo Triggs, in his description of the
Castellezo dei Arconati, near Milan ("The Art of Garden Design in
Italy"), mentions two "labyrinths," one of which is an extensive work
of closely cut hornbeam, partly laid out as a circular maze, whilst the
other has a number of small enclosures and alcoves with fountains.
In France well-known mazes are those at the Priory of St. Michel, Toul,
called _la Tour du Diable_, and at the Abbaye aux Dames, Caen, as well
as the rather poor specimen at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, to
which we have already alluded.
A description of the popular Tivoli Gardens in Vienna, towards the
close of the last century, refers to a labyrinth situated below a
terrace from which spectators could observe the alarms and excursions
of the enmeshed maze-trotters.
In the United States, where very few of the embellishments of bygone
Europe have failed to achieve reproduction, there is a replica, with
some slight modifications, of the Hampton Court maze. This is situated
at Waltham, Massachusetts, on the property of Miss Cornelia Warren.
It was planted in 1896, and is formed of thick hedges of arbor vitae,
about a thousand shrubs being employed. The plan follows that of its
original model, but the sharp rear angles of the Hampton Court design
are replaced by rounded curves, and the hedges adjacent to the central
space, which is also rounded, are correspondingly modified.
There is a pond at the centre and a rustic rostrum stands before
the entrance. The shortest route to the centre is said to be about
one-fifth of a mile in length and the total length of the paths about
one-third of a mile.
A large hedge maze is also to be found at a place called Cedar
Hill--and no doubt there are many others.
The decline in favour of the maze amongst gardeners of repute during
the latter part of the eighteenth century is possibly to be accounted
for in great part as the natural revulsion from the surfeit of
elaborate designs produced in the preceding periods.
"In designing a garden," wrote Lord Kames (Henry Home), "everything
trivial or whimsical ought to be avoided. Is a labyrinth therefore to
be justified? It is a mere conceit, like that of composing verses in
the shape of an axe or an egg: the walks and hedges may be agreeable,
but in the form of a labyrinth they serve to no end but to puzzle; a
riddle is a conceit not so mean, because the solution is a proof of
sagacity, which affords no aid to tracing a labyrinth."
This was in his "Elements of Criticism," a work of which Dr. Johnson
remarked: "Sir, this book is a pretty essay and deserves to be held
in some estimation, though much of it is chimerical." The idea that
sagacity affords no aid in tracing a labyrinth is certainly chimerical,
as we shall see, but persons who incline to austerity in art will have
little hesitation in agreeing with the other remarks of Lord Kames,
even where, further on, he says: "The gardens of Versailles, executed
with boundless expense by the best artists of the age, are a lasting
monument of a taste the most depraved." Since Lord Kames's time,
however, the gardens of Versailles have been subjected to considerable
alteration, and at the present day form one of the greatest charms of
the environs of Paris.
The contemporary French poet Delille, author of "Les Jardins, ou l'Art
d'embellir les Paysages," was voicing the feelings of the times when he
wrote:
"Des longs alignements si je hais la tristesse,
Je hais bien plus encore le cours embarrassé
D'un sentier qui, pareil à ce serpent blessé,
En replis convulsifs sans cesse s'entrelace.
De détours redoublés m'inquiète, me lasse,
Et, sans variété, brusque et capricieux,
Tourmente et le terrain et mes pas et mes yeux."
From that time onwards the hedge maze has been the object of much
condemnatory criticism and contemptuous reference, sometimes grounded
on a certain amount of reason, but often enough of the follow-my-leader
type.
Even at the present time there are not wanting gardeners of influence
who would view with equanimity the entire disappearance of this
convoluted mass of evergreens which dares to offer its antiquated
charms in competition with their latest floricultural triumphs.
And cannot one sympathise to some extent with their feelings in the
matter? When one's whole career has been devoted to the creation of new
forms of plant life or the improvement of existing forms, achievements
which entail prolonged scientific training and patient experimenting,
constant vigilance and careful selection of favourable variations,
it _must_ be rather galling to be asked to construct and maintain a
meandering row of commonplace evergreens. One can imagine the case to
be somewhat parallel to that of a highly trained musician who has just
delivered himself of a great sonata and is asked by a member of his
audience for "a descriptive battle-march!"
Mr. W. Robinson had perhaps experiences of this kind in mind when he
wrote his observations about mazes in his well-known handbook, "The
English Flower Garden." "The Maze," he says, is "one of the notions
about gardening which arose when people had very little idea of the
dignity and infinite beauty of the garden flora as we now know it." In
the next sentence he refers to mazes as "ugly frivolities." They should
be left, he says, "for the most part to places of the public tea-garden
kind." Whatever we may think of the justice of these remarks, we must
admit that there is some force in his objection that "one of its
drawbacks is the death and distortion of the evergreens that go to
form its close lines, owing to the frequent clipping; if clipping be
neglected the end is still worse, and the whole thing is soon ready
for the fire."
A figure of a maze accompanies this criticism, but it can hardly be
meant to typify the usual conception of a hedge maze, as it has the
appearance of a seventeenth-century design, possibly intended for a
floral labyrinth, for, apart from a few ornamental excrescences, it is
entirely unicursal.
Although the strictures we have quoted would probably receive hearty
support from a large proportion of modern gardeners, the maze is still
not without its champions.
In Miss Madeline Agar's very practical book on "Garden Design," for
example, it is treated as a wholly legitimate embellishment for
large gardens, and the fact of its disfavour amongst present-day
horticulturists is attributed to lack of patience.
A highly original design, with provision for seats, sundials, and
statues, is likewise given, but it must be confessed that it conveys
a flattering assumption of opulence on the part of the reader, for it
certainly does not err on the side of simplicity.
Let us admit at once that, as a favourite of fashion, the maze has long
since had its day. In every generation the craving is for novelty,
for new forms of expression in all branches of art. Like every other
defunct mode, the topiary labyrinth is liable to temporary revivals
by lovers of the antique, but there is little reason to hope or to
fear that it will ever again secure a position of any dominance in
the affections of the gardener. The labour involved in its proper
maintenance is alone a sufficient guarantee against that. The hedges
require very frequent trimming, and sometimes partial renewal, the
latter especially in those cases where unscrupulous visitors are not
prevented, by barbed wire or other means, from short-circuiting the
convolutions. The paths, too, of which there may be over half a mile,
want regular attention unless we are content to be constantly reminded
of Tom Moore's punning conundrum:
"Why is a garden's wildered maze
Like a young widow, fresh and fair?
Because it wants some hand to raze
The weeds which have no business there."
Deciduous plants such as hornbeam and lime give the maze a sorry
appearance during the leafless months of the year, whilst the
slower-growing conifers, yew and cypress, besides being expensive,
necessitate a long waiting period before the hedges attain a
presentable height and thickness. Box harbours slugs; juniper, holly,
and the various thorn-bushes present inhospitable asperities which
outweigh their other merits--in short, we may be certain that whatever
material be suggested for the construction of a maze there will be no
lack of objections wherewith the gardener may buttress his prejudice
against the contrivance in any shape or form.
On the other hand, the maze has its own, almost indefinable, charms,
and we need hardly tremble for its total extinction until we cease
to bear children, even if we dismiss as decadent sentimentality that
romantic instinct of which some of us cannot quite rid ourselves in
maturer years.
CHAPTER XVII
STONE LABYRINTHS AND ROCK ENGRAVINGS
In Chapter XII we noticed some of the principal suggestions which had
been made up to a few years ago as to the origin of our turf mazes,
and saw that the question was one which could not be settled by the
study of remains found in this country alone. Several interesting facts
have been brought to light in other lands since Dr. Trollope wrote
the memoir which has for so many years been accepted as the standard
authority on the subject, and we shall find that a little consideration
of them will enable us to view the question in a new light.
As long ago as 1838, Dr. E. von Baer, whilst held up by bad weather
on the uninhabited island of Wier, south of Hochland in the Gulf of
Finland, observed a curious pattern (Fig. 124) formed in the ground
by means of large pebbles. He also noticed several very similar
arrangements on the southern coast of the peninsula of Lappland and
presented a paper on the subject to the Academy of St. Petersburg.
In some of these figures the stones employed were small pebbles, in
other instances they were as large as a child's head, and in one case
they were so large that they required several strong men to lift them.
Some of the figures had nearly disappeared through the action of moss,
earthworms, etc.
[Illustration: FIG. 124.--Stone Labyrinth on Wier Island, Gulf of
Finland. (von Baer.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 125.--Stone Labyrinth on Coast of Finland. (After
Aspelin.)]
In 1877, Dr. J. R. Aspelin, of Helsingfors, drew attention to the
existence of similar figures in Finland and on the east coast of
Sweden. Fig. 125 shows a form found by him on an island not far
from Borgo, Finland. He describes some of the figures as having one
"centre," others two, and others again none at all. They are usually
from ten to fifteen yards in diameter. One large specimen, nearly
twenty yards across (Fig. 126), at Wisby, on the Island of Gothland,
is of a design very similar to the circular labyrinth which appears
on certain coins of Knossos. They were generally found on islands or
close to the sea-coast, and were known by various names in different
localities (see p. 150).
[Illustration: FIG. 126.--Stone Labyrinth at Wisby, Gothland.
(Aspelin.)]
The fishermen and peasants said that they were used for children's
games, a girl standing at the centre whilst the boys raced for her
along the winding paths; but Dr. Aspelin pointed out that they were
in any case ancient remains, and thought that the idea might have
originated in the Bronze Age.
Corresponding figures have been found in Iceland, and a somewhat
similar arrangement, consisting of concentric circles of pebbles, with
sometimes a cross at the centre, has long been known in the province of
Brandenburg, Germany.
It seems to have escaped the notice of most writers on the subject
that long before the nineteenth century these objects were described
by the Swedish antiquarian Rudbeck, from whose "Atlantica" (1695) we
reproduce the sketch shown in Fig. 127.
The names given to these devices in the various localities in which
they occur are of some interest. Around the Finnish coasts the names
_Jatulintarha_ (Giant's Fence) and _Pietarinleikki_ (St. Peter's Game)
predominate. Around Helsingfors the figures are more frequently spoken
of as "Ruins of Jerusalem," "City of Nineveh," or "Walls of Jericho."
In the neighbourhood of Viborg they are known as _Jätinkatu_ (Giant's
Street), _Kivitarha_ (Stone-fence), or _Lissabon_.
[Illustration: FIG. 127.--Scandinavian Stone Labyrinth. (O. Rudbeck,
1695.)]
In Lappland a common term is _Babylon_; in Iceland, where the mazes
are sometimes formed of earth, the name applied is _Völundarhus_
(Wieland's, or Weyland's, House).
In Norway and Sweden they are sometimes called _Nunnentarha_ (Nun's
Fence), _Jungfrudans_ (Maiden's Dance), or _Rundborg_ (Round Castle),
and on an island in the Kattegat the name _Trelleborg_ (The Troll's,
or Giant's, Castle) is found; but more frequently they are known by
some name akin to our "Troy-town," such as _Trojin_, _Trojeburg_,
_Trojenborg_, or _Tröborg_. Another name sometimes associated with them
was _Steintanz_ (Stone Dance). The Wisby labyrinth is named _Tröjeborg_.
[Illustration: FIG. 128.--Danish Runic Stone Cross, with Labyrinth
Figure. (O. Worm, 1651.)]
That labyrinths of some kind were also known in olden Denmark appears
from the works of the seventeenth-century Danish antiquary Olaf Worm,
one of whose woodcuts (Fig. 128) shows the symbol engraved on an
ancient cross.
We see then that John Aubrey (see p. 136) was not altogether speaking
at random when he stated his belief that "we received these Mazes from
our Danish ancestors." In fact, he based his observations on the works
of the Danish and Swedish writers just referred to.
If, as the above considerations lead us to guess, the use of
labyrinthine figures was a common feature of the northern peoples
before the Norse invasion of Britain, we may wonder whether there is
any evidence of the use of the symbol by earlier inhabitants of the
same parts; are there any indications of this nature to be found among
the relics of prehistoric man in the northern countries?
Well, there are certain remains which have been held to afford an
affirmative reply to this question. The remarkable prehistoric rock
engravings in Northumberland and the Borders, first noticed about a
hundred years ago and described in detail by Mr. G. Tate in 1864, are
very suggestive in this connection. They include many figures of a
character closely approaching that of a circular labyrinth, but no
actual design of the conventional Cretan type has been discovered. In
Figs. 129 and 130 are seen examples found on rocks at Routing Linn
and Old Bewick respectively. The engravings are as much as three or
four feet in diameter, and in many cases are interconnected by grooves
which terminate at their cup-like centres. They often coalesce and
interconnect to form mazy patterns of great complexity. The greater
number consist merely of a series of concentric circles around a
central cup, the circles in some cases being interrupted along a radial
line which is generally occupied by a straight groove. Their origin and
purpose are very obscure.
Very similar rock engravings have been found, though not in such
profusion, in other parts of Great Britain, as far north as the
Orkneys, and as far south as Devonshire, and also in the south of
Ireland. In other parts of Ireland the engravings have chiefly the
shape of a simple spiral.
[Illustration: Fig. 129. Rock Engravings, Routing Linn, Northumberland.
(G. Tate in Proc. Berwick Naturalists' Club, 1864)]
[Illustration: Fig. 130. Rock Engravings, Old Bewick, Northumberland.
(G. Tate in Proc. Berwick Naturalists' Club, 1864)]
There is strong suggestion of the labyrinth idea in the elaborate
series of engravings which adorn the stones of a cromlech on the island
of Gav'r Innis, off the coast of Brittany. Here the surface of the
stones is entirely covered with engraved concentric grooves, which
never cross one another, but form systems of whorls very much like
those on the skin of human finger-tips. There is, however, nothing that
can be fairly compared with the designs of the turf mazes, the stone
labyrinths or the coins of Knossos.
Amongst the remarkable assemblage of prehistoric engravings on the
rocky surfaces of the Italian Maritime Alps is one which exhibits a
spiral of five turns, with interruptions and blind branches, but the
resemblance between this isolated figure and the conventional labyrinth
form is rather too slender to support any useful deduction as to the
ancestry of the latter.
The reader may perhaps wonder whether any traces of the labyrinths have
been found in other continents, and, if so, whether any connection
can be established between them and the labyrinth cult in Europe.
An interesting discovery in this reference was made some years ago
in the shape of a figure of the Cretan Labyrinth, of circular type,
roughly engraved amid other pictographs on the wall of the ruined _Casa
Grande_, an old Indian erection in Pinal County, Arizona, U.S.A.
An exactly similar figure, with the addition of some unknown symbol
opposite its "entrance" (Fig. 131), was also found in a manuscript
entitled "Rudo Ensayo" (Rough Essay), written by a Spaniard who visited
the country--the home of the Pima Indians--in 1761 or 1762. According
to this manuscript the diagram was scratched in the sand by an Indian
and represented the plan of a building.
Dr. J. W. Fewkes, the Chief of the Bureau of American Ethnology, who
investigated the matter about fifteen years ago, states that an old
Indian living in the neighbourhood was asked whether he knew of any
building, or remains of one, built on such a plan. He replied in the
negative, but said the figure was commonly employed in a children's
game called _Tcuhiki_, i.e. the House of Tcuhu. (Tcuhu is a mythical
hero, probably identical with Gopher, who is supposed to have made
the spiral hole through which the Pima Indians came up from the
underworld.) A writer on this tribe of Indians has described another
game played by them which seems to have much in common with that
mentioned above. It is called _Tculikwikut_, and is played with rings
and darts, count being kept by means of little stones which are moved
along a series of small holes arranged in the sand in the form of a
whorl, starting from a centre called _Tcunni Ki_, "the Council House."
[Illustration: FIG. 131.--Indian Labyrinth Figure from
Eighteenth-century Spanish Manuscript. (After Cotton.)]
If it could be shown that these games were associated with the
labyrinth figure in those regions before the date of the Spanish
invasion of Mexico we should be forced to conclude either that, by an
extraordinary coincidence, the figure became evolved independently
in the Old World and the New, or that in both it had a common origin
of astounding antiquity. However, there is a probability that it was
introduced to the Indians by the early Spaniards, with whom it would
have been a familiar symbol. The only other ancient Indian pictograph
of labyrinthine type so far discovered appears to be that on a pebble
found by Dr. Fewkes in 1919 in a ruin known as "Square Tower House,"
in Mesa Verde National Park. This, it will be seen (Fig. 132), bears
no likeness to the conventional design, but is merely an asymmetrical
meandering groove somewhat similar in appearance to the braided
designs often seen on modish feminine apparel at the present day. Its
significance is unknown.
[Illustration: FIG. 132.--Labyrinthine Pictograph from Mesa Verde.
(After Fewkes.)]
According to a short review in _Folk Lore_ in 1913, a book entitled
"Some Zulu Customs and Folk Lore," by L. H. Samuelson ("Nomleti"),
1912, contained a description of mazes made on the ground by Zulus.
Unfortunately this book is out of print, and no copy, strange to say,
is to be found in the library of either the British Museum or the Folk
Lore Society. It would be extremely interesting to know whether the
mazes in question bear any similarity to the traditional Cretan figure.
So far, then, evidence of a definite labyrinth cult is confined to
certain parts of Europe and the Mediterranean borders. It has, in fact,
been shown that it corresponds roughly with the areas formerly occupied
by the people that built the cromlechs. With regard to its origin and
significance, many interesting speculations have been made, some of
which we will now briefly review.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE DANCE OR GAME OF TROY
Readers of our previous chapters will have noticed the frequency with
which the name "Troy" is associated with the idea of the labyrinth.
We find this association, for instance, in the case of the "Troy-towns"
of Somerton and Hillbury, the "Walls of Troy" of the Cumberland Marshes
and Appleby (Lincs), and the "Caerdroia" of the Welsh shepherds. In
northern Europe we find it as "Troja" or in such combinations as
"Trojeborg" or "Tröborg."
That this association is not of recent origin we have an interesting
token in a reference which occurs in a fifteenth-century French
manuscript preserved in the British Museum. This manuscript is the
record of a journey made by the Seigneur de Caumont to Jerusalem in
1418, and is entitled "Voyaige d'oultremer en Jhérusalem." Calling
at the island of Crete _en route_, the Seigneur, like most other
travellers on similar occasions, takes occasion to make a few
remarks about the famous legend associated with it. He speaks of
the "mervelleuse et orrible best qui fut appellé Minotaur," who, he
says, was confined within "celle entrigade meson faite par Dedalus,
merveilleux maquanit, lequelle meson fut nommée Labarinte et aujourduy
par moultz est vulguelmant appellé le cipté de Troie."
It would seem from the latter observation that the expression
"Troy-town" or "City of Troy" was in general use 500 years ago as a
title for the Cretan Labyrinth, and seeing that the renaissance of
classical learning was as yet in embryo the inference is that the name
was a popular tradition of some antiquity.
We find the name of Troy definitely associated with the labyrinth long
before this, however, in the crude engravings on the Etruscan wine-jar
which we noticed in Chapter VIII., the _oinochoë_ from Tragliatella.
[Illustration: FIG. 133.--Etruscan Wine-vase from Tragliatella.
(Deecke.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 134.--Etruscan Vase. "Troy Dance" Details.
(Deecke.)]
The meaning of these figures (Figs. 133, 134 and 135) has been much
discussed, but it is now generally agreed that the labyrinth shown has
a close relationship with the operations which are being performed by
the group of armed men, and it is obvious that it is also connected
in some way with the famous story of the wars of Troy, as we see by
its label "_Truia_." What is this operation in which the warriors are
engaged? We find a helpful clue in the story related by Virgil (B.C.
70-19) in his great epic of the Aeneid, in which the poet has embalmed
for us the legends current in his time concerning the wanderings of
Aeneas, the reputed son of Anchises and Venus, after the fall of the
city of Troy, which he had fought bravely to defend.
[Illustration: FIG. 135.--Etruscan Vase. Details, showing Labyrinth and
"retroscript" label--"TRUIA." (Deecke.)]
Aeneas, who escaped from the city carrying his father on his shoulders,
led forth also his little son Iulus. It is this boy whom, in the fifth
book of the poem, Virgil pictures as taking part with his companions
in a sport called the _Ludus Trojae_ or _Lusus Trojae_ (Game of Troy),
sometimes simply _Troja_. According to the Roman tradition it was
introduced into Italy by Aeneas, and his son Ascanius imparted it to
the Alban kings and through them to the Romans. The game consisted of a
sort of processional parade or dance, in which some of the participants
appear to have been mounted on horseback. Virgil draws a comparison
between the complicated movements of the game and the convolutions of
the Cretan Labyrinth:
"Ut quondam Creta fertur Labyrinthus in alta
parietibus textum caecis iter ancipitemque
mille viis habuisse dolum, qua signa sequendi
frangeret indeprensus et irremeabilis error."
(_Aeneid_, V. 585-591).
"As when in lofty Crete (so fame reports)
The Labyrinth of old, in winding walls
A mazy way inclos'd, a thousand paths
Ambiguous and perplexed, by which the steps
Should by an error intricate, untrac'd
Be still deluded."
(_Trapp's trans._, 1718.)
The game is also mentioned as a well-established institution by other
Roman writers of a century or so later, such as Suetonius and Tacitus,
and appears to have assumed imposing dimensions at one time, as we see
from a representation of it on the reverse of a medal of Nero, where it
has more of the nature of a military review. It was generally performed
by youths, and only those of good social standing took part.
It will be remembered that we have already had occasion to notice
another ancient dance, or game, in which youthful notabilities were
stated to have taken part, and in which the motions of the dances were
supposed to represent the tortuous paths of the Cretan Labyrinth,
namely, the dance performed by Theseus and his friends on the island of
Delos. This dance was called the "Geranos," or Crane Dance, probably on
account of the fancied resemblance of the attitude of the dancers to
that of cranes in flight, or perhaps on account of actual adornments of
the dancers. (An eighteenth-century German traveller in Russia relates
that the Ostiaks of Siberia had an elaborate Crane Dance, the dancers
being dressed up in the skins of those birds.)
Is there any connection between these two dances, both labyrinthine in
character, the one traditionally based on the windings of the labyrinth
of Knossos, the other compared by Virgil with the latter, but named
after another city famous in ancient legend--to wit, Troy?
In regard to both these cities the events celebrated in the classic
legends were of prehistoric occurrence (in so far as they occurred
at all), and their recital was handed down orally for very many
generations before they became crystallised in the written record, and
it is not therefore surprising if during that time various versions
were evolved and discrepancies of person, place, and time were
introduced.
The association of the labyrinth, by some of the Nordic Aryan peoples,
with Troy instead of Knossos may perhaps be accounted for in this way.
The point with which we are most concerned at the moment, however, is
the fact that the figure of the labyrinth, in each case, is connected
with the idea of a ceremonial game or dance.
Another dance, possibly of similar character, associated with Knossos,
is that mentioned in Homer's "Iliad" as having been invented by
Daedalus for Ariadne. Youths with golden swords and maidens crowned
with garlands performed it in ranks.
By analogy with a great number of myths, rites, and ceremonies of
ancient and modern races, some anthropologists have been led to the
conclusion that these Troy and labyrinth dances are only particular
expressions of a very early and widely diffused ceremonial associated
with the awakening of nature in spring, after its winter sleep, or the
release of the imprisoned sun after its long captivity in the toils of
the demon of winter.
In that marvellous compendium of universal folk-lore "The Golden
Bough," and in the particular volume of it entitled "The Dying God,"
Sir James Frazer debates the significance of the classic legends we
have mentioned, and draws the tentative conclusion that Ariadne's dance
was symbolical of the sun's course in the sky, its intention being,
"by sympathetic magic to aid the great luminary to run his race on
high." (See also p. 92.) He draws attention to a practice observed by
Chilcotin Indians, during eclipses of the sun, of walking around a
circle leaning on staves, as if to help the sun around its course (much
as a child pushes the partition of a railway compartment to help the
train along).
Mr. A. B. Cook, the Cambridge classical archaeologist, points out in
this connection a Knossian coin on which the Minotaur, or rather, a man
with a bull's mask, is shown engaged apparently in a similar rite, the
reverse being occupied by a "swastika" labyrinth.
All this appears highly speculative to the ordinary layman, but nobody
who gives a little attention to the subject can avoid the conclusion
that at any rate there must have existed in very early--possibly
Neolithic--times an extremely widespread and important ceremonial,
generally of a sacrificial type, in connection with the spring
awakening. So deeply seated was this ancient tradition that traces of
it have persisted, with various local modifications, right down to the
present day.
The sword-dances and morris-dances of our own country, most of which
but for the happy genius and industry of Mr. Cecil Sharp and his
disciples would have passed away entirely by the next generation, are
undoubtedly survivals of a ceremonial of this type, particularly the
former. They were performed only on certain fixed annual occasions, and
were treated with great reverence and meticulous attention to detail.
A correspondent writing to _Notes and Queries_ in 1870 (Anne Silvester)
laments the fact that "the old British game of _troy_, the vestiges of
which are so rare," is becoming extinct, but does not describe it. No
doubt the writer had in mind some game played in connection with earth
mazes.
It is a pity that we have no record of the actual method of "running
the maze" in this country in past generations. The idea that such
ingeniously designed and carefully constructed works were made for the
sole purpose of trotting along their convolutions to the centre and out
again, without any symbolic or religious significance or any ceremonial
observance, may be dismissed at once.
As regards their alleged use by the Christian Church for purposes of
penance, we have no reliable evidence, and even if we had we know that
such a use would have been of a secondary character. Most probably
they were appropriated to some seasonal observance, as in fact we
know that several of them were within quite recent years, and were
associated with some ritual dance similar in nature to the Crane Dance
or the Dance of Troy. With regard to the word "Troy" itself there is a
possibility that its connection with the dance and the labyrinth figure
may have originated not with the name of a town, but with some ancient
root signifying to wind, or turn; in the case of the Welsh "Caerdroia,"
as we have already seen, this suggestion was made long ago. It may
also have some connection with the three-headed monster Trojano of
the ancient Slavonic mythology, who appears in the Persian legends as
Druja, or Draogha, and in the Rig-Veda of India as Maho Druho, the
Great Druh, and who plays throughout the same part as the wintry demon
Weyland Smith (or Wieland) of the northern traditions. In Iceland, as
we have already seen (p. 150), the earth mazes are associated with the
latter personage.
We find the word Troi, or Troi-Aldei, applied to certain ceremonial
parades akin to the Troy-dance, in the writings of Neidhart von
Reuenthal, in the early thirteenth century, the accompanying songs
being termed "Troyerlais."
Quite recently a contributor to "Folk Lore" gave the airs of three
popular dances which are performed by the Serbians at the present day
under the names of Trojanka and Trojanac. The correspondent in question
had thought that their names might have some connection with the root
_tri_ (= three), with reference to the rhythm of the dances, but the
airs supplied by him certainly would not support this contention. It
is far more probable, as he seems to conclude, that they indicate a
connection with the Dance of Troy. Unfortunately he does not describe
the dances themselves; it would be interesting to know whether
they embody any movements suggestive of a labyrinthine origin or
corresponding to the dances described by Homer and Virgil on the one
hand, or to our morris and sword dances on the other.
Another point in this connection which might justify a little enquiry
is the question of the origin of that maze-figure which forms, or used
to form, part of the system of Swedish drill as taught to children in
this country.
With regard to our native dances mentioned above, we may note that
every care has been taken by competent investigators to discover and
to preserve as much as possible of the pure tradition, and we have the
satisfaction of knowing that, narrowly as they escaped oblivion, the
English Folk-Dance Society will see to it that such a danger will not
threaten them again for a very long time.
CHAPTER XIX
THE BOWER OF "FAIR ROSAMOND"
The story of "Fair Rosamond" and her mazy Bower, though it cannot lay
claim to that standard of authenticity which is generally required of
historical data, has for so long occupied an honoured position in the
realm of popular romance that, in a book professing to treat of mazes
from a broad point of view, we cannot dismiss it quite as briefly as we
might perhaps do in a book on English history.
"Fair Rosamond" has been stated, without very much foundation, to
have been the daughter of Walter de Clifford, and is in consequence
frequently referred to as Rosamond Clifford.
The story runs that King Henry the Second (A.D. 1133 to 1189) adopted
her as his mistress, and that, in order to conceal his illicit amours
from his Queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, he conducted them within the
innermost recesses of a most complicated maze which he caused to be
made in his park at Woodstock. Rumours of her spouse's defections
having reached the ears of Queen Eleanor, that indignant lady contrived
to penetrate the labyrinth, confronted her terrified and tearful rival,
and forced her to choose between the dagger and the bowl of poison; she
drained the latter and became forthwith defunct.
Various trimmings, more or less scandalous in nature, gathered around
the central tale, as, for instance, that Rosamond presented Henry
with the son who was afterwards known as William Longsword, Earl of
Salisbury, but the main outline as indicated above was handed down
intact for many generations.
The poisoning incident is not mentioned in the account given by a
chronicler of that time, John Brompton, Abbot of Jervaulx (Yorks). It
seems to have been first recorded by a French scribe in the fourteenth
century.
Brompton's version, given under the year 1151 in his "Chronicon," is as
follows:
"Sane idem rex _Henricus_ quanquam multis virtutibus fuerat ornatus,
aliquibus tamen viciis involutus personam regiam deturpavit. In
libidine namque pronus conjugalem modum excessit. Regina enim sua
_Elianora_ jamdudum incarcerata factus est adulter manifestus,
palam et impudice puellam retinens _Rosamundam_. Huic nempe puellae
spectatissimae fecerat rex apud _Wodestoke_ mirabilis architecturae
cameram operi _Daedalino_ similem, ne forsan a regina facile
deprehenderetur. Sed illa cito obiit, et apud _Godestowe_ juxta
_Oxoniam_ in capitulo monialium in tumba decenti est sepulta, ubi talis
suprascriptio invenitur:
"_Hic jacet in tumba Rosa mundi, non Rosa munda;
Non redolet, sed olet, quae redolere solet._"
It would appear from this account that the "bower" was a labyrinth
of an architectural kind, perhaps like that mentioned in Chapter XIV
as having been built at Ardres by Louis of Bourbourg in the previous
century, not, as popularly believed, a maze of evergreens. It will be
seen, also, that Henry did not long enjoy his clandestine delights,
for Rosamond shortly died and was buried before the high altar of the
nunnery church of Godstowe. Her death is believed to have taken place
about 1176. It is possible that she had entered the nunnery some time
before that. According to the contemporary annalist Roger de Hoveden
her body was removed in 1191 by Bishop Hugh of Lincoln, on moral
grounds, and was apparently re-interred in the chapter-house.
The imprisonment of Queen Eleanor, referred to by Brompton, was a
consequence of her connivance at the rebellion of her sons in 1173-74.
Ranulph Higden, who lived in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries,
deals with the Henry and Rosamond story in the seventh book of his
"Polychronicon," and tells us that visitors to Godstowe Abbey used
to be shown a wonderful coffer which had belonged to Rosamond. It
contained figures of birds, beasts, fishes and boxing men, which, by
clockwork or springs, were endowed with apparently spontaneous motion
(Cista ejusdem puella vix bipedalis mensura, sed mirabilis architectura
ibidem cernitur; in qua conflictus pugilem, gestus animalium, volatus
avium, saltus piscium, absque hominis impulsu conspiciuntur).
Most of the subsequent chroniclers seem to have followed Higden in
their relation of the story. By Tudor times the romantic and tragic
episode had become a favourite theme in popular lore; it was enshrined
by the Elizabethan poet Drayton in his "Epistle to Rosamond," the bower
being therein described as an arrangement of subterranean vaults. It
achieved its greatest popularity, however, in the ballad form, and was
printed, with several other "Strange Histories or Songs and Sonnets of
Kinges, Princes, Dukes, Lords, Ladyes, Knights and Gentlemen, etc.," in
a black-letter volume written or edited by Thomas Delone (or Delorney)
in 1612. Two editions of the ballad were represented in the collection
of Samuel Pepys, under the title of "The Life and Death of Rosamond,
King Henry the Second's Concubine. And how she was Poysoned to Death by
Queen Elenor."
John Aubrey, in his "Remaines," 1686, tells us that his nurse used to
sing the following verses to him:
"Yea, Rosamond, fair Rosamond,
Her name was called so,
To whom dame Elinor our Queene
Was known a deadly foe,
The King therefore for her defence
Against the furious Queene
At Woodstocke builded such a Bower
The like was never seen.
"Most curiously that Bower was built
Of stone and timber strong.
An hundered and fifty dores
Did to this Bower belong,
And they so cunningly contriv'd
With turnings round about
That none but with a clew of thread
Could enter in or out."
The whole ballad will be found in the well-known "Reliques of Ancient
English Poetry," collected by Bishop Percy and published by him in 1765.
Of a widely different nature was the version published in 1729 by
Samuel Croxall in his "Select Collection of Novels," Vol. IV. "The
Loves of King Henry II and Fair Rosamond." Here the attitude assumed is
one of learned contempt for popular credulity. "What have we in this
Story," says Croxall, "but a Copy of Ariadne's Clue and the Cretan
Labyrinth?... Yet are we not to wonder that the monkish Historians
should deliver down to us a Tale of such Absurdity, when the same
Chronicles tell us that, in that King's Reign, a Dragon of marvellous
Bigness was seen at St. Osyth's in Essex, which, by its very motion,
set many Houses and Buildings on Fire."
As for the inscription on Rosamond's tomb, quoted by Brompton, our
critic is equally scornful. "The conceit," he says, "is poor and common
and, like the other Poetry of those times, depends on a certain Jingle
and Play on the Words. The sense of them has been thus expressed in
honest English Metre:"
(Whether the verse is in better taste when expressed in honest English
metre the reader must judge for himself.)
"Rose of the World, not Rose the peerless Flow'r,
Within this Tomb hath taken up her Bow'r.
She scenteth now, and nothing Sweet doth smell
Who earst was wont to savour passing well."
This rendering is perhaps preferable to that of Stowe ("Annals," 1631),
which concludes with:
"Though she were sweete, now foully doth she stinke,
A mirrour good for all men, that on her thinke."
In any case the epitaph must be accounted a libel in one respect, for
Leland, the Antiquary to Henry VIII, records that, on the opening of
Rosamond's tomb, at the dissolution of Godstowe nunnery, the bones were
found to be encased in leather, surrounded by lead, and that "a very
swete smell came out of it."
An interesting point mentioned by Croxall is that in his time "a
delightful Bower" was still in existence at Woodstock and was shown as
the original of the story. Another reliable writer of the same period
(Thomas Hearne, 1718) makes a similar observation, but in this case it
is made clear that the remains are those of a large building, not, as
we might have inferred, those of a hedge maze or arbour. These remains,
whatever they may have been, have disappeared long since.
Woodstock Park, according to the historian Rouse of Warwick, was the
first park to be made in England. Henry the First had a palace here,
but the present great building, the masterpiece of Sir John Vanbrugh,
was built for the first Duke of Marlborough and was named after the
scene of his famous victory, Blenheim.
The traditional story of Fair Rosamond, in which she is made to figure
as a cruelly wronged and guileless damsel of impregnable virtue and the
victim of an unreasoning jealousy, formed the basis of many novels,
_e.g._, "Fair Rosamond," by T. Miller ("The Parlour Library"), 1847,
and as late as 1911 it was cast into the form of a one-act tragedy by
Mr. Oliver W. F. Lodge, under the name of "The Labyrinth," and was
first performed by the Pilgrim Players on October 14 in that year.
A little-known opera by Addison deals with the same theme; it is
entitled "Rosamond" and is inscribed to the Duchess of Marlborough. The
most poignant and beautiful version of the tragedy is that given by
Swinburne in his "Rosamond" (not, of course, to be confused with his
"Rosamund").
Tennyson, in his "Becket," makes that prelate rescue Rosamond from the
Queen at the crucial moment and take her to Godstowe nunnery, whence
she later escapes to intercede--ineffectually--with his murderers in
Canterbury Cathedral.
No authentic portrait of Rosamond is known to exist, but in Hampton
Court Palace, just outside Cardinal Wolsey's Room, there hangs a
half-length female portrait by an unknown painter (No. 961 [937]),
which is labelled Rosamond Clifford. The lady depicted, however, is
attired in a fashion which did not obtain until considerably later
than the time of Rosamond; in fact, there seems to be no justification
whatever for assuming that the picture represents the fair Rosamond at
all, except perhaps in the imagination of the artist.
CHAPTER XX
MAZE ETYMOLOGY
The reader may be inclined to question the necessity for a whole
chapter to be devoted to such a matter as this. "Surely anybody who has
the curiosity to do so can look the words up in a dictionary!" Or he
may object that the proper place to define and expound one's terms is
in the opening chapter.
It will be found, however, that no clear-cut and simple definition
of, for example, the word _labyrinth_ itself is to be found in any
dictionary, and that with regard to its derivation authorities are
not even yet in complete agreement. With the facts recounted in the
preceding chapters at his disposal the reader may possibly find a
little informal discussion of these points more intelligible and
interesting than the more rigid presentment afforded by even the best
dictionaries. Moreover, most dictionaries have little or nothing to say
about Julian's bowers or Troy-towns. On the other hand, of course, this
chapter could not have been written without free recourse to Murray,
Skeat, Webster, Wright, and other monuments of the lexicographer's toil.
We will consider such words as seem worth discussing in their
alphabetical order, commencing with one which was prominent in our last
chapter, viz., "bower."
We have here a word of which the early connotation has been rather
obscured by poetical insistence upon one of its extensions. As a
convenient rhyme for "flower" and "shower" it has become one of the
mainstays of the vernal poetaster, a circumstance which evoked one of
the gems of Calverley's gentle satire:
"Bowers of flowers encountered showers
In William's carol--(O love my Willie!);
Then he bade sorrow borrow from blithe tomorrow
I quite forget what--say a daffodilly."
(_Lovers, and a Reflection._)
The word has thus come to be chiefly employed to signify a leafy or
shady arbour or a recess in a garden, a use quite consistent with, but
narrower than, the principal and much older meaning, which was that of
a dwelling, with particular reference to the character of privacy.
The common modern usage seems to have been first adopted by the
Elizabethan poets. Hero, in "Much Ado about Nothing" (Act III, Sc. 1),
sends by her attendant a message to her cousin Beatrice, bidding her
"... steal into the pleached bower,
Where honeysuckles, ripened by the sun,
Forbid the sun to enter."
The Saxon form of the word was _búr_ or _bure_, related to _búan_,
meaning "to dwell," and it was always used to denote something of the
nature of an inner chamber or sanctum.
In Chaucer's works (late fourteenth century) it has the same force,
_e.g._, in the "Wife of Bath's Tale":
"Blissing halles, chambres, kitchines and boures."
Somewhat later we find a poetical extension of the word to include not
only the dwellings of human beings but also of animals and birds. Thus
William Dunbar, a Scottish poet who lived about 1465-1530, speaking of
birds hidden within thickets, used the phrase "within their bouris."
This usage gave rise to the idea that the word was derived from
"bough," a notion that seems to have first found expression in the
anonymous "Letters of Junius," and shortly afterwards received the
weighty sanction of Dr. Johnson. In Southey's "Curse of Kehama" the
word in this sense is made to do duty as a verb:
"And through the leafy cope which bowered it o'er
Came gleams of chequered light."
The metaphorical use of the word in its original sense is seen in
Moore's "Evenings in Greece":
"Fancy, who hath no present home,
But builds her bower in scenes to come."
The suggestion that Rosamond's Bower was of the nature of a hedge maze
seems to be of rather late origin, probably arising in the seventeenth
century, like the application of the term to the little hedge-box
garden at Menteith (Queen Mary's Bower), to which we referred in
Chapter XIII. In the earlier writers it is almost invariably spoken
of as a building. Robert Fabyan, for instance, a historian of the
late sixteenth century, speaks of it as a "house named Labyrinthus or
Daedalus worke, or howse wroughte like unto a knot in a garden called a
maze," and in some anonymous verses of the mid-fifteenth century it is
stated:
"Att Wodestocke for hure he made a toure
That is called Rosemoundes boure."
It would appear that the Bower which is commemorated in the place-name
of Havering-at-Bower, Essex, was also of the nature of a building,
probably of large dimensions, for, according to an "Appendix on Bowers"
annexed to an "Essay on Design in Gardening," by George Mason, 1795,
there was a long-standing tradition to the effect that it was the site
of a king's residence, and an old man of the locality could remember
"many chimnies of the old bower standing." This may or may not be
evidence, but it is at all events quite in keeping with the ancient
use of the word. The royal residence in question would no doubt have
been of the nature of a private retreat, not a court.
Writing in 1827, the Rev. H. J. Todd says, "In Cumberland, to this day,
a back room or parlour is called a _boor_."
It will be seen from the remark of John Aubrey quoted on page 136 that
he assumed "borough" to be identical in origin with "bower." The former
is, however, derived from the Anglo-Saxon _burg_ or _burh_, a city,
allied to _beorgan_, to protect.
In any large dictionary there will be found detailed several other
meanings for the word "bower"--including the sense in which it is
used in Bret Harte's "Heathen Chinee"--but with these we are not here
concerned.
Strange to say, the use of the word in the combination "Julian-bower"
or "Julian's-bower" is usually overlooked or ignored.
The English Dialect Dictionary (Wright) gives the local variants
_Gelyan-bower_, _Gillimber_ and _Jilling-bo'or_ as occurring in
Lincolnshire, and _Jul-laber_ as another form of the "Julaber's
Barrow" or "Juliberry's Grave" which we have already noticed in Kent.
Is the "bower" here the same as "barrow," which is derived from the
Anglo-Saxon _beorg_, meaning, like the German _berg_, a hill? Or is
it only the same word that we have met with in "Rosamond's Bower"?
The former suggestion receives some support from the fact that turf
mazes are often, though not always, constructed on the top of a hill
or mound, but to the writer there is something more attractive in
conceiving these works to be associated with the idea of a retreat,
particularly if we consider, as we have some reason for doing, that the
Julian referred to is the benign and hospitable Saint Julian of the
mediaeval legends.
From Brand's "Popular Antiquities" it appears that there were three
or four saints of this name, but the most well-known of these was
the knight whose deeds are celebrated in the "Gesta Romanorum"
and elsewhere, the reputed patron and protector of pilgrims and
travellers. The chapel of Domus Dei at Southampton, now used as the
French Protestant church, is dedicated to this St. Julian. The legend
goes, that on returning home one day Julian discovered a man and woman
asleep in his bed, jumped to the hasty conclusion that his wife had
been untrue to him and slew the pair where they lay, only to find that
they were his parents who had travelled from afar to visit him. In
repentance and atonement he then founded a hospice for travellers and
afterwards became known as _Hospitator_, or "the gude herbejour," in
which capacity his renown is testified by many a reference in our early
literature, _e.g._, in the works of Chaucer:
"Now up the heed; for al is wel;
Seynt Julyan, lo, bon hostel!
See here the Hous of Fame, lo!"
(_The Hous of Fame_.)
"An housholder, and that a grete, was he
Seint Julian he was in his contré."
(_Canterbury Tales_.)
It seems to the writer just as likely that the name Julian's-bower
commemorates this popular hero as that it has any connection, as some
have maintained, with the invading Caesar or, as suggested by others
(see Chapter XI), with his tribune, Quintus Laberius Durus. One can
quite easily conjure up in imagination a game or ceremony in which the
fatigues of the pilgrim treading the long course of the labyrinth's
folds is rewarded by some form of refreshment on at length reaching the
secluded retreat of the hospitable saint.
"Surely they find St. Julians inn, which wayfaring men diligently
seek."
(_The Ancren Riwle_--Thirteenth century.)
When we turn from our native bowers to the Aegean _labyrinthos_,
transmitted practically intact from the ancient Greek to most modern
European languages, we are venturing on dangerous ground indeed, for
the derivation of this word has been the subject of much disputation
between rival schools of etymologists and philologists in recent years.
Down to a few decades ago we were content with the bald statement
of most dictionaries that it was probably correlated with the word
_laura_, meaning a passage, or mine,[5] though there was also a
suggestion that it might be of Egyptian origin, viz., that it was
derived from the name of Labaris (= Senusret III), erroneously
conceived by the scribe Manetho to be the founder of the Hawara pile.
Then Mr. Max Mayer put forward the suggestion that it might have some
connection with _labrys_, a word which, in some of the early languages
of Asia Minor, _e.g._, Lydia and Caria, denoted an axe, the axe
being the symbol associated with the god known as Zeus Labrandeus or
Zeus Stratios, the worship of whom was known to have taken place at
Labranda, in Caria. Coins from Mylasa, a neighbouring town, show this
god holding in his hand a double axe.
[5] "Coil-of-rope walk" according to Ruskin (_Fors Clav._).
The stir created by the discovery of double axes in abundance, with
every indication of their religious and symbolic use, during the course
of Sir Arthur Evans's explorations in the traditional home of the
Cretan labyrinth, can therefore be well understood. As a consequence
thereof every self-respecting dictionary nowadays gives pre-eminence
to the _labrys_ derivation of "labyrinth." At the same time it is well
to bear in mind that many learned scholars have seen great difficulty
in accepting this theory, mainly on account of the metathesis, or
change-over, of the _r_ and the _y_ (_u_ in Greek), which was stated to
be unexampled, and to the addition of the termination _-inthos_. With
regard to the latter it now seems to be generally agreed among scholars
that this termination occurs only in words which were assimilated
from the pre-existing peoples of the Aegean lands, whom the Greeks,
as northern invading hordes, overcame and superseded. The suffix is
preserved only, however, in extremely few common nouns (_terebinthos_
= the turpentine tree, _asaminthos_ = a bathing-place), and in a
similarly small number of place-names, such as _Tirynthos_ (Tiryns) and
_Corinthos_ (Corinth). It is the equivalent of the ending _-nda_ in
certain place-names in Asia Minor, _e.g._, _Labranda_.
The conjectures that the word was connected with _labros_, meaning
"great," or that it was derived from the old Egyptian _la-pe-ro-hunt_,
"the temple at the mouth of the reservoir," are hardly worth repeating.
The present position, then, is that the Labyrinth is the House of the
Double Axe, the implication being that the Cretan example was not, as
formerly believed, a miniature reproduction of the temple of Hawara,
but that the latter was actually given the title by analogy with the
building at Knossos.
As regards the use of the word in our own language, it was probably
well known to most of the churchmen of the early and middle ages,
through the medium of the classic authors accessible to them, but it
never passed into common speech. In Chaucer's works, _i.e._, in the
fourteenth century, we find both _maze_ and _labyrinth_ employed;
but whereas the latter evidently refers to the Cretan tradition,
the English word seems to denote some figure familiar to the poet's
readers--perhaps, we may conjecture, in the form of turf mazes.
Thus, in "The Hous of Fame" (line 826, etc.), he says:
"Tho gan I forth with him to goon
Out of the castel, soth to saye,
Tho saugh I stoude in a valeye,
Under the castel, faste by,
An hous, that _domus Dedali_
That _Laborintus_ cleped is,
Nas maed so wonderliche, y-wis
Ne half so queynteliche y-wrought";
and in his "Legend of Ariadne," one of his minor poems, we read (line
125, etc.):
"This wepen shal the gayler, on that tyde,
Ful privily within the prison hyde;
And, for the hous is krinkeled to and fro,
And hath so queinte weyes for to go--
For hit is shapen as the _mase_ is wroght--
Thereto have I a remedie in my thought,
That, by a clewe of twyne, as he hath goon,
The same way he may returne anoon,
Folwing alway the thread, as he hath come."
Seeing that the "hous" here referred to is the Cretan labyrinth
itself, the "mase" with which it is compared must be something
sufficiently familiar to Chaucer's audience to furnish them with a
ready illustration of the nature of the legendary structure which he is
describing and which elsewhere he calls The Labyrinth or the House of
Daedalus.
From very early times the classic authors used the word "labyrinth"
metaphorically, and the mediaeval writers followed them. For instance
Walter, a canon of St. Victor, towards the end of the twelfth century
wrote a work which he called "A Treatise Against the Four Labyrinths
of France," in reference to the great theological work in four books,
known as the "Book of Sentences," a long and very metaphysical
compendium of divinity, by Peter, Bishop of Paris.
In Renaissance times we find the word commonly used as a simile for the
difficulties of life or the vagaries of love.
In Shakespeare's "King Henry VI" (Pt. I, V, Sc. 3) the Earl of Suffolk,
after the exit of the gentle Margaret of Anjou, whose hand he has been
soliciting on behalf of his royal master, exclaims:
"O, wert thou for myself!--But, Suffolk, stay;
Thou mayst not wander in that labyrinth:
There Minotaurs and ugly treasons lurk."
We will notice further examples of this use of the word a little later,
in connection with book-titles.
In "Troilus and Cressida" (Act II, Sc. 3) Thersites bursts into
soliloquy before the tent of Achilles with:
"How now, Thersites! What, lost in the labyrinth of thy fury!"
Milton says that "Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls her watery
labyrinth," and Pope that "Love in these labyrinths his slaves
detains"; but the occurrence of such expressions in writings of all
periods is too common to need further quotation. We might perhaps
point out that a slight shade of difference may be assumed to exist
between "labyrinth" and "maze," even when these words are used in
their metaphorical sense. We may take "labyrinth" to signify a complex
problem involving merely time and perseverance for its solution,
"maze," on the other hand, being reserved for situations fraught, in
addition, with the elements of uncertainty and ambiguity, calling for
the exercise of the higher mental faculties--in short, we may regard
the two words as having reference respectively to the unicursal and
multicursal types of plan (_see_ Introduction). A distinction of this
kind adds point to a sentence like that which occurs, for instance, in
Mr. Lytton Strachey's "Queen Victoria," where he tells us (p. 178) that
the Prince Consort "attempted to thread his way through the complicated
labyrinth of European diplomacy, and was eventually lost in the maze."
As a means of expressing complexities of outline or of inner structure,
natural or artificial, the word has been adopted by various branches of
science or art. Every student of anatomy knows the "labyrinth" of the
inner ear, every geological tyro has heard of those gigantic amphibians
of Carboniferous to Triassic times whose peculiarly lamellated teeth
have earned for them the title of "labyrinthodonts." Zoologists are
acquainted with those lowly protoplasmic forms of life which, on
account of the mazy net-like appearance assumed at one stage in their
life-history, are called "labyrinthulidea." Even the engineer finds it
convenient to make use of the word, as, for instance, when he speaks
of a "labyrinth-packing" for turbines, an arrangement which allows a
certain amount of lateral motion while ensuring steam-tightness.
We may remark in passing that the names of the artificer Daedalus
and of the winding river Meander have also done duty in scientific
nomenclature in some cases where it was desired to commemorate
labyrinthine characteristics; for example, a pretty little fungus
allied to the _Stereum_ so common on decaying wood has received the
generic title of _Daedalea_, on account of the mazy pattern displayed
by its spore-bearing surface, while the beautiful "brain-stone" coral
is known to the naturalist under the name of _Meandrina_.
Compound words formed with "maze," on the other hand, are usually of
an old-fashioned or local character, such as "Maze-Sunday," which
in Devonshire dialect signifies a Sunday given up to feasting; such
compounds are rarely formed for scientific or technical purposes. The
sheet glass which is obscured by a system of wrinkles on its surface
is, however, sometimes known as "maze-glass."
The word _maze_ is probably of Scandinavian origin. Its oldest
significance seems to be that of a state of bewilderment or confusion,
or of being wrapped in thought--a use which we nowadays regard as
metaphorical. In the Swedish and Norwegian languages are related words
which mean on the one hand to dream, or lounge, or to move about in an
idle or lazy manner, and on the other hand to chatter or indulge in
aimless talk.
Some dictionaries formerly stated that it was derived from an
Anglo-Saxon word _mase_, meaning "a whirlpool," but it has been shown
that there was no such word.
In various dialects it is still used in its original sense. One may
often hear from the older type of country folk such expressions as "It
fair mazed me to see it," giving one the feeling that the syllable
"a-" has been dropped, whereas it was never there. In Shakespeare the
expression frequently occurs. Titania, in "Midsummer Night's Dream"
(Act II, Sc. 2), says:
"... the spring, the summer,
The childing autumn, angry winter, change
Their wonted liveries; and the maz'd world,
By their increase, now knows not which is which."
Talbot of Shrewsbury, in his dire straits before the walls of Bordeaux
("King Henry VI," Pt. I, Act IV, Sc. 2), exclaims:
"O, negligent and heedless discipline!
How are we park'd and bounded in a pale,--
A little herd of England's timorous deer,
Maz'd with a yelping kennel of French curs!"
(See also "King Henry VIII," Act II, Sc. 4, line 185.)
That the word as here quoted has no identity with the word "amazed" is
clear from a comparison of its context with that of the latter in the
numerous instances of its employment by Shakespeare. The verb "to maze"
is found in Chaucer:
"'Ye maze, maze, gode sire,' quod she,
'This thank have I for I have maad yow see.'"
(_The Marchantes Tale_, l. 2387.)
In the sense of crazy, wild, or thoughtless, we find it in the dialect
expressions "Mazed-antic" and "Mazegerry."
As a metaphor it is employed in like manner to its Greek equivalent.
In "The Taming of the Shrew" Petruchio declares: "I have thrust myself
into this maze, Haply to wive and thrive as best I may." "Let us," says
Pope, in the "Essay on Man,"
"Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man,
A mighty maze! but not without a plan."
The term has no connection with the word which we see in, for instance,
Mr. Hall Caine's novel "The Deemster":
"Nine maze--not bad for the first night."
This is a variant of the word _mease_ and denotes a measure of 500
herrings!
Of the etymology of the term "Troy-town" some indications have already
been given in Chapter XVIII. We might, perhaps, in addition, hazard
the guess that the Sanskrit root _dru_ (= run) has some bearing on the
origin of the word so widely associated with the idea of a dance or
ceremonial, but the connection is too obscure to be very helpful.
We might further recall the ancient legend,[6] recorded in Welsh
chronicles going back many centuries before the Christian era, to the
effect that a great-grandson of Aeneas named Prydain, or Brutus, came
over to this country with the Trojan prisoners of war whom he had
helped to liberate from Greece, and with their aid built a city on the
banks of the Temus (Thames), which he called _Caerdroi-Newydd_ (New
City of Troy). This name became corrupted into _Troinovant_--hence the
"Trinobantes" of Caesar's time--and was later discarded in favour of
_Caerludd_, a name given in honour of Lludd, nephew of the Caswallon
who fought against Caesar. The Saxons afterwards corrupted the name
into _Lun-dun_.
[6] Accepted as a historic fact by Mr. E. O. Gordon in his
"Prehistoric London."
As Spenser says ("Faerie Queene," iii, 9):
"For noble Britons sprang from Trojans bold
And Troy-Novant was built of old Troyes ashes cold."
If any reliance could be placed on this old story the Corporation of
London might do well to embody the Labyrinth, or Troy-town, in their
armorial bearings, for what symbol could better typify the complexities
of our metropolis?
CHAPTER XXI
LABYRINTH DESIGN AND SOLUTION OF MAZES
There is no limit to the number of patterns which, without any
metaphorical extension of terms, we may legitimately describe as
coming within the scope of the words "maze" and "labyrinth." In common
speech we use either word to describe any artificial design or natural
pattern presenting a convoluted appearance, or any path or channel
of an intricate nature, but when we come to consider the matter more
carefully we feel the need for some definition. As we have seen, the
dictionaries do not help us much in this respect. Let us, therefore,
decide what limitations we feel compelled to observe in our use of the
terms from the point of view of designers or unravellers of mazes and
labyrinths.
In the first place we must limit ourselves to works of artifice,
_i.e._, we must exclude the "labyrinths" of nature, such as forests,
caverns, and so forth, and agree that any application of our terms to
such objects is to be regarded as strictly metaphorical.
Secondly, we must require, as a practical corollary to our first
condition, that there shall be an element of purposefulness in the
design. The purpose may be the portrayal of the imagined course of the
sun through the heavens, the symbolisation of the folds of sin or of
the Christian's toilsome journey through life, the construction of a
puzzle, or the mere pleasure to be derived from packing the maximum
of path into the minimum of space, but there must be an object of
some sort. The aimless scribblings of an infant, like the trail of an
ink-dipped fly, may in this connection be considered as the fortuitous
meanderings of nature rather than the conscious design of man. By
imposing this condition we exclude the Indian pictograph shown in Fig.
132, which, in the absence of any indication as to its significance,
can only by a loose extension of the term be called a labyrinth.
(Our use of the words "aim," "design," and "purpose" will be quite
clear to everybody but the sciolist dabbling in metaphysics.)
Thirdly, there must be a certain degree of complexity in the design,
a degree which it is manifestly impossible to define as it must be
considered in conjunction with other characteristics in any particular
case. In the case of a unicursal labyrinth, _i.e._, one in which there
is only one path, the complexity lies in the multiplicity of turnings
and the extent of the departure from pure geometrical figures such as
the meander, the zigzag, and the spiral; in the case of a puzzle-figure
it lies partly in this but partly also in the number and disposition
of branch-paths. It naturally follows that in a unicursal design there
cannot be absolute symmetry, although, with a little ingenuity, a very
pleasing _appearance_ of symmetry may be obtained.
Fourthly, there must be communication between the component parts of
the design; in other words, the path must be continuous. This does not
preclude the occurrence in the design of closed "islands," but only
makes it clear that such inclusions do not form part of the labyrinth
proper.
Fifthly, there must be communication between the interior and the
exterior. We might not altogether withhold the application of the term
"labyrinth" or "maze" in the case of a closed design, but we should
have to qualify it, _e.g._, by prefixing the word "closed." In the
case of the beautiful and intricate mosaic pavement found in the _Casa
del Labirinto_ at Pompeii mentioned on page 46, for example, although
we know that the pattern was intended to convey an allusion to the
Cretan labyrinth, we cannot look upon it as a true labyrinth design;
not only is there no communication with the exterior, but by its
repetition of purely geometrical design it fails to satisfy our third
condition.
If the reader chooses to formulate for himself a working definition
based on the above remarks he is at liberty to do so, but he may take
for granted that nobody else will accept it. However, he will have
gained, at any rate, a clearer conception of the matter than he would
perhaps have gathered from any dictionary.
We have seen that mazes and labyrinths may be roughly divided into
two types as regards the principle of their design, namely, into
_unicursal_ and _multicursal_ types, or, as some say, into "non-puzzle"
and "puzzle" types respectively. The word "unicursal" has hitherto
been chiefly used by mathematicians to describe a class of problems
dealing with the investigation of the shortest route between two given
points or of the method of tracing a route between two points in a
given figure without covering any part of the ground more or less than
once (_e.g._, the well-known "bridge" problems), but there is no reason
why we should not apply the adjective "unicursal" (= "single course"
or "once run") to denote those figures which consist of a single
unbranched path, using the term "multicursal" as its complement, or
antonym. We must not draw too hard a line between these two types; for
instance, we could not reasonably insist that the turf maze at Wing
(Fig. 60) is multicursal simply on account of the dichotomy of its path
to form the central loop. Where the loop is itself relatively large and
complex, as in the Poitiers example (Fig. 55), there are better grounds
for doing so, but it is plain that in such cases the point is one to be
decided by common-sense.
Let us consider a little further the various _forms_ of labyrinth
design and make some sort of a classification.
In the first place we may observe that a labyrinth (using this word,
for convenience, as embracing "maze") may be arranged in one plane, as
we commonly see it on a sheet of paper, or it may be disposed in two or
more intercommunicating planes, like the Egyptian labyrinth or a block
of flats. We may thus classify all labyrinths, for a start, as either
two-dimensional or three-dimensional. As the vast majority belong to
the first class and as, moreover, every subdivision of the first class
may be applied equally to the second, we need say no more concerning
the latter except to remark that the complexity of a garden maze may be
greatly increased, if desired, by introducing tunnels or bridges, thus
converting it into a three-dimensional maze.
Another general grouping of labyrinths would be into "compact" and
"diffuse" types, the former having, in a typical case, the whole of its
area occupied by the convolutions of its path and its bounding walls,
the latter having spaces between the bounding walls of the various
sections of the path, such spaces having no communication with the path
itself. Amongst unicursal labyrinths the Alkborough specimen (Fig.
59) exemplifies the compact type and the Pimperne maze (Fig. 63) the
diffuse type.
The Hampton Court maze (Fig. 111) may serve as the type of a compact
and the Versailles example (Fig. 88) that of a diffuse multicursal
labyrinth.
With regard to the nature of the path itself, we may distinguish
broadly between labyrinths with curved and those with straight paths,
allowing for an intermediate "mixed" group in which part of the path is
curved and part straight. Examples of each kind will be found amongst
the figures given.
Multicursal mazes, again, may be subdivided according to the manner of
branching of the path, _e.g._, according to whether the branches are
simple or subdivided (the occurrence of more than one branch at any
point may be considered as the case of a subdivided branch), whether
the branches do or do not rejoin the main path, forming "loops," and
whether--a rather important point as regards the solution of the
maze--the "goal" is or is not situated within a loop.
Finally we may create separate classes for those mazes in which there
are two or more equivalent routes between the entrance and the goal,
those which have two or more entrances, and those in which there is no
distinct goal (_e.g._, the Versailles maze) or in which there are two
or more equivalent goals.
We can represent the branch system of any labyrinth whatever in a very
simple manner by means of a straight-line diagram, wherein the paths of
the labyrinth are represented by lines, to scale if need be, branches
being shown to the left or right respectively of the main straight
line representing the shortest path from the entrance to the goal. It
will be seen that no account is taken of the actual orientation or of
changes of direction of any part of the path.
A unicursal labyrinth will thus be represented by a single straight
line. Figs. 136 and 137 represent, roughly to scale, the Hampton Court
and Hatfield mazes respectively and should be compared with those shown
in Figs. 111 and 87. Triangles and discs may be used, as shown, to
indicate entrances and goals respectively.
Such diagrams as these are just as useful as the actual plans of the
mazes for the purpose of serving as a clue for the visitor; in fact,
they are really more easily followed.
Amongst the many speculations that have from time to time been made
regarding the origin and significance of the design on the Knossian
coins, the suggestion was made by a contributor to _Knowledge_ about
thirty years ago--somewhat similar theories having been expounded by
a German writer a decade earlier--that this figure was a simplified
diagram comparable with the diagrams described above. According to this
conception the figure was intended as a clue to the actual labyrinth,
the designs on the coins being perhaps copied from those on "souvenir"
tokens issued by the priests or curators of the edifice, and indicated
the right path to be taken, all other paths being omitted. By splitting
the circular dividing walls so as to form a passage of the same
width as the path shown in the figure, a maze of much more intricate
appearance was arrived at, which, it was thought, might bear some
resemblance to the form of the original labyrinth.
[Illustration: FIG. 136.--Straight-line Diagram, Hampton Court Maze.]
[Illustration: FIG. 137.--Straight-line Diagram, Hatfield Maze.]
On the other hand, Dr. E. Krause, in a book of about the same
date, showed how the Knossian design and certain other unicursal
figures might be derived from a series of concentric circles, with
interruptions along a radial line like the figures in the northern rock
engravings described in Chapter XVII, by means of one or two simple
methods of cross-connection (Figs. 138 and 139).
Such speculations give food for thought, but we must remember that so
far they _are_ speculations and not statements of fact.
The use of the straight-line diagrams suggested above may be found
helpful not only as a means of facilitating the study of an existing
labyrinth, but also to some extent in designing a new one. It is not
necessary to describe here in detail how to design a maze:
"It is purely a matter of skill,
Which all may attain if they will,"
and, like most tasks requiring simply common-sense, patience, and
practice, it is much more trouble to explain than to perform. As
regards the design of hedge mazes, the fact that the circumstances are
hardly ever alike in any two actual cases gives plenty of scope for
individuality and ingenuity. The space allowed may be strictly limited,
or it may be of an awkward shape. The materials available for the walls
may vary widely in character according to the space they require for
their proper growth and maintenance, and thus affect the amount of
path-area.
[Illustration: FIGS. 138 and 139.--Derivation of Labyrinth Types from
Rock-engraving Figures. (After Krause.)]
There are one or two points which are of general application and should
be borne in mind. For instance, if the object of the designer is to
provide a maze which shall offer a fair amount of puzzledom without
imposing undue fatigue on the visitor, he must take care that the
nearest route from the centre to the exterior be neither too long nor
too short. If the space to be covered by the maze is large the tendency
to over-elaboration of the design must be avoided.
Another feature which is likely to spoil an otherwise good design is
the inclusion of long stretches of path without bend or branching;
these are tedious and annoying, especially when they have to be
retraced by reason of their leading into a _cul-de-sac_.
In a large maze it is well to relieve monotony by means of occasional
variations in the mode of treatment of the hedge, the introduction of
arbours, statues, etc.; but these should not be of such a character as
to defeat one of the main objects of the design by providing easy clues.
If the maze is intended to be seen at all from above, some attempt
should be made to introduce a symmetrical and artistic element into
its design. Usually some vantage-point is available from which an
attendant or expert can observe and direct over-bewildered visitors,
but if this point be accessible to the visitors themselves the hedges
should be provided with pinnacles or balks, here and there, to prevent
the observer from solving the puzzle by unfair means. This is the
case with, for instance, the Saffron Walden maze; at Hampton Court,
where there are no balks, only the attendant is permitted to mount the
rostrum.
The "solution" of mazes means the discovery of a route to their
"goal." (This word is preferable to "centre," as the object of quest
is not necessarily at the geometrical centre of the maze, but may be
considerably removed from it.)
It would be going too far to say the _shortest_ route, as this would
be discoverable only from the plan or by prolonged experience, but the
goal in any maze will on the average be reached more certainly and
quickly by observing a little method than by fortuitous wandering.
The subject of the solution of mazes has been examined by various
mathematicians, in their lighter moods, but we need not burden
ourselves with more than a few simple considerations.
In most cases it is not practicable to adopt a system of marking the
various paths as we reach them, but if this be permitted we can so
arrange our marks that we need never traverse any portion of the path
more than twice--_i.e._, once in each direction--so that in any finite
maze we must eventually arrive at the goal, though not necessarily by
the shortest route.
Using the word _node_ to signify a point of branching, and the terms
_odd_ and _even_ to describe respectively those nodes at which odd or
even numbers of paths are to be found, we see that there must be at
least three paths meeting at a point to form a node, for two paths
meeting at a point constitute only a change of direction of the path
without formation of branches, whilst the arrival of one path only at
a point also precludes the idea of "branching" at that point, and can
only occur at the end of a blind alley, at the entrance of the maze,
or at the goal. We find it convenient, however, to regard the latter
arrangement as an odd node of the lowest order, the lowest possible
order of even nodes being, of course, that at the meeting of four paths.
It will be clear that if the entrance and the goal are the only odd
nodes the maze will either be unicursal, in the sense in which we have
been using the term, or any branches must form loops on the main route;
in either case it will be possible to traverse the maze unicursally,
_i.e._, to thread every portion of the path without going over any part
twice.
Supposing that we are able to make what marks we like, without danger
of their removal in our absence, we can adopt the following plan:
On arriving at a node which, by the absence of marks, you know you have
not already visited, mark the path by which you have just arrived by
three marks; if you see by marks on other paths that you have already
been to that node, mark the arrival path with one mark only. If now
there are no unmarked paths at this node, it means that you have
explored this particular branch-system and must retrace your steps by
the path by which you have arrived. If, however, there are one or more
unmarked paths leading from the node, select one of them, and, as you
enter it, mark it with two marks.
We can now make certain of visiting every part of the maze if we make
it a rule that, on arrival at a node, we shall never take a path with
three marks unless there are no paths unmarked or with one mark only.
When we enter a one-mark path, we of course add the two marks which we
always make on leaving a node, and thus it becomes a three-mark path at
that node.
When it is impracticable to place marks, or even to use, like Theseus,
a clue of thread, it is still possible in the majority of cases to make
certain of finding the goal by the simple expedient of placing one
hand on the hedge on entering the maze, and consistently following the
hedge around, keeping contact all the time with the same hand. Blind
turnings present no difficulty, as they will only be traversed first in
one direction and then in the other. The traveller being guided by his
contact with the hedge alone is relieved of all necessity for making a
choice of paths when arriving at the nodes.
The only case in which this method breaks down is that in which the
goal is situated anywhere within a loop. Where this occurs the explorer
adopting the method described will discover the fact by finding himself
eventually back at the starting-point without having visited the goal.
He must then adopt different tactics, but unless it is practicable
to use a clue or a system of marks like that detailed above there is
no rule that will help him. One may, of course, thread the maze by
remembering a formula of some sort applicable to that particular maze,
_e.g._, in the case of Hampton Court, "Left, right, right, left, left,
left, left," but this is equivalent to having a plan of the maze.
Such mnemonics, unless perfectly retained, are apt to prove more of a
nuisance than a help.
Can anybody who has once yielded to the exuberant mirth of "Three Men
in a Boat" forget the predicament of the over-confident Harris when he
volunteered to conduct a party, strangers as well, through the Hampton
Court maze? "We'll just go in here," he said, "so that you can say
you've been, but it's very simple. It's absurd to call it a maze. You
keep on taking the first turning to the right. We'll just walk round
for ten minutes and then go and get some lunch." Poor Harris!
CHAPTER XXII
THE LABYRINTH IN LITERATURE
The romantic and mysterious flavour of the words "maze" and "labyrinth"
has induced many a writer of fiction to adopt one or the other as the
theme of a story, or as the setting of some of the action in a story,
or else to use the name as an attractive symbolical title for a work.
We have several times already had occasion to refer to instances
of this kind in the course of our survey, but the reader may have
sufficient patience to support the enumeration of a few more, not by
any means exhaustive, examples.
In most cases where the words are used in book-titles it is perhaps the
allegorical rather than the romantic element which is in requisition,
though truly the two are never far apart.
The Spanish poet Juan de Mena, in the fifteenth century, was inspired
by Dante's "Divina Commedia" to compose a ponderous allegorical poem
which he named "El Laberinto." This was published in Seville in
1496 and was a queer mixture of theology, astrology, and universal
history. In it the poet is shown as being guided by a beautiful woman,
symbolising Divine Providence, through three vast concentric circular
regions, representing respectively the past, the present, and the
future. These are somehow involved with the seven planets, after which
the seven divisions of the poem are named.
No doubt there were at that time many folk to whom such a work made a
strong appeal, but it was evidently not the kind of book that we should
nowadays choose to take away for a holiday.
A few years after its publication a French bard, Jean Bouchet by name,
jealous perhaps for the reputation of his native art, cast upon the
astonished world a mythical epic of between four and five thousand
verses, entitled "Le Labyrinthe de Fortune." In this case the guide
is a female representing Illusion, and her aim seems to have been to
impress the poet, and through him the less gifted mortals, with the
total instability and evanescence of everything pertaining to humanity.
An "allegorical labyrinth" printed at Lyons in 1769--the period, it
will be remembered, at which some of the finest cathedral labyrinths
were destroyed--must have been the ancestor of some of the Sunday
School pictures of our early youth. It depicted "the spiritual
labyrinth ornamented with four channels of grace representing (_a_) the
four rivers of the Earthly Paradise and the happy state of Man before
the Fall; (_b_) by divers convolutions, the various miseries with which
human life has since been beset; (_c_) by the fact of the labyrinth
terminating at the same point as that from which it starts, we see how
Man, being formed of earth, returns, as to his first principle, by the
decay of the body; (_d_) the health-giving waters of these channels
represent the grace of God in which the depraved soul finds its
remedy." This pious chart is signed "BELION _fecit_."
The curious jumble of crude imagery shown in Fig. 140 is reproduced
from the heading to a long set of allegorical verses in German,
published about 1630. The King referred to in the title is thought to
be Frederick I of Bohemia.
[Illustration: Fig. 140. Allegorical Labyrinth. (German Print, _circ._
1630)]
When touching upon the question of etymology we made reference to
the theological "Treatise against the Four Labyrinths of France," by
Walter of St. Victor. We find the word used in this sense of verbal
or mental entanglements in theological matters as the title of a book
written some five centuries later by Thomas Carwell (_alias_ Thorold).
The full title of this work, which was printed in Paris in 1658, is:
"Labyrinthus Cantuarensis; or Doctor Lawd's Labyrinth. Beeing an answer
to the late Archbishop of Canterburies relation of a conference between
himself and Mr. Fisher, etc. Wherein the true grounds of the Roman
Catholique religion are asserted, the principall controuersies betwixt
Catholiques and Protestants thoroughly examined, and the Bishops
meandrick windings throughout his whole worke layd open to publique
view."
"Labyrinthus," according to Hazlitt's Bibliographical Collections, was
the name of a Latin comedy performed at Cambridge before King James I.
Perhaps this had some connection with that play which Pepys mentions in
his Diary on May 2, 1684: "By coach to the King's Playhouse to see 'The
Labyrinth' ... the poorest play, methinks, that ever I saw, there being
nothing in it but the odd accidents that fell out, by a lady's being
bred up in man's apparel and a man in a woman's."
In some cases the use of the word "labyrinth" in a book-title seems to
suggest that the term was regarded as an equivalent for "Thesaurus"
or "Compendium of Knowledge" in respect of any particular branch of
learning. This is the case in the "Gardener's Labyrinth" of Didymus
Mountayne (Thomas Hill), to which we referred in Chapter XIII. The
title has no reference to the discourse on mazes which occupies a
small section of the book, but simply means the gardener's book of
instructions or _vade mecum_. Much the same meaning is conveyed also
by the title of a rather earlier book, the "Labyrinthus Medicorum
Errantium" or "Labyrinth of Lost Physicians," which was one of the
last works of the great Swiss doctor and alchemist Paracelsus, and
was published in 1553, twelve years after his death. The Polish
educational reformer Komensky, better known as Comenius (1592-1671),
likewise published a "Labyrinthus" of this kind. An English translation
of it was printed early in the present century under the title of "The
Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart."
The "Labyrinthus" or "Laborintus" ascribed to the monk Eberhard of
Bethune, who wrote in A.D. 1212 or thereabouts, is an elaborate and
critical treatise on poetry and pedagogics; it is alternatively
entitled "De Miseriis Rectorum Scholarum," and its reiterated plaints
on the woes of the schoolmaster should find an echo in the heart of
many a present-day instructor of youth.
"_Love_ in these labyrinths his slaves detains," sang Pope; but he was
only making use of an old and well-worn metaphor, which we mention at
the moment because it has so often figured in book-titles. In 1593 Dr.
G. Fletcher, uncle of the dramatist, wrote a poem of ingenious form
entitled "A Lover's Maze." A similar title, "Love in a Maze," was given
by Shirley to one of his plays, a performance of which was witnessed by
Pepys on May 22, 1662. "The play hath little in it," says Pepys, "but
Lacy's part of a country fellow, which he did to admiration." In 1611
a suite of poems entitled "Le Labyrinthe d'Amour" was published by a
French poet, who modestly veiled his identity behind the initials "H.
F. S. D. C." A century and a half later another French writer, equally
retiring--his initials were "T. M."--wrote an _opéra comique_ of the
same name.
One would almost think that there was something shameful or dangerous
in allowing one's identity to be revealed in connection with works
bearing such titles, for we find the same desire for anonymity in the
writer of some poems entitled "The Maze" which appeared in 1815, headed
by a quotation from Cowper:
"... to and fro,
Caught in a labyrinth you go."
That the maze or labyrinth has not lost its favour as either a
descriptive or a metaphorical book-title is testified by the numerous
modern examples of its use, amongst which we may mention Mrs. Henry
Wood's "Within the Maze," "The Maze of Scilly," by E. J. Tiddy, "The
Maze," by A. L. Stewart, "The Labyrinth," by R. Murray Gilchrist
(perhaps in this case the reference is to the rambling old House with
Eleven Staircases which features largely in the book), and finally,
as an instance of undeniable descriptiveness, "The Physiology of the
Human Labyrinth," by S. Scott. We have already made mention of O. W. F.
Lodge's play, "The Labyrinth," when speaking of Fair Rosamond (Chap.
XIX). The same title has recently been bestowed on one of a series of
fanciful prose sketches by Mr. Martin Armstrong published collectively
as "The Puppet Show."
The Italian aviator-poet Gabriele d'Annunzio, whose inconvenient
conception of patriotism has proved such a source of embarrassment
to his country since the war, has adopted as a most attractive and
appropriate cover-design for his novel "Forse che si, forse che no"
("Perhaps yes, perhaps no") a conventional square unicursal labyrinth,
the path of which is occupied by several repetitions, in block
capitals, of the title of the book. The title on the wrapper of a
recent novel by Miss Isabel Ostrander is accompanied by an effective
design in which a female figure is seen against a background consisting
of a plan of the Hampton Court maze.
Mr. Rudyard Kipling, in that curious collection of inconsequential
whimsicalities which he calls the "Just so Stories," shows a queer sort
of labyrinthine contrivance in his illustration to the story of "The
Crab that Played," referring to it in the text as "the Big MizMaze."
Lest any reader who happens to be unacquainted with Sir A. T.
Quiller-Couch's novel "Troy Town" should be misled by the title into
antiquarian expectations, we may as well remark that it has no more
connection with "turf mazes" than had the famous racehorse of the
same name that came to a sad end in 1920--even less, in a manner of
speaking. It has reference to the same Cornish seaport as his "Mayor
of Troy," that Mayor who was so popular with the townsfolk that in the
next year they made him an Ex-Mayor.
The vogue of allegory and extravagant symbolism which flourished in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was evidenced by the appearance of
numbers of little books of "emblems," mainly based upon those of Andrea
Alciati (1492-1550), and, as might well be expected, the labyrinth
furnished many an inspiration to the compilers of these works. The
emblem books of the Dutchman Jacob Cats, for example, and of our own
poet Francis Quarles (1592-1644), were, like those of Alciati himself,
enormously popular and ran through very many editions, not only in the
native tongues of their authors but in most of the languages of Europe.
We have already, in Chapter XII, drawn attention to a labyrinth-emblem
in the collection of the French writer Claude Paradin. A labyrinth of a
different type appears in the "Emblems" of Quarles (_e.g._, in the 1635
edition, bk. iv, no. 2). In this case we are shown a woman walking away
from the centre of what looks like a tall hedge maze, which has its
path on the top of the hedge! With one hand she holds a staff and in
the other a cord, the distant end of which is held by an angel located
at the summit of a round tower some way off. A winding path proceeds
from this tower to the gateway of the labyrinth. Here and there one
sees unfortunate beings who are slipping from the wall into the deep
crevasses below. A quotation from the Psalms, in Latin and in English,
accompanies this figure: "Oh that my Wayes were directed to keep Thy
Statutes." The labyrinth shown in most of the other emblem-books, where
one occurs at all, is a very poor affair and looks rather like a low,
flat fortress or an inverted cake-tin. A more realistic arrangement,
however, appears in the collection of Jacob Cats.
The Hampton Court maze has more than once figured in literature. One
appearance we have already noticed at the end of the preceding chapter;
another, of a totally different character, we cull from the _British
Magazine_ for 1747. Few people, one would imagine, look upon a visit
to this popular resort as an occasion for melancholy meditations, or
for chanting moral dirges, but a foreigner might well be excused for
reading the following lines as a justification of the reproach that
Englishmen take their pleasures sadly.
_Reflections on Walking in the Maze at Hampton Court._
"What is this mighty labyrinth--the earth,
But a wild maze the moment of our birth?
Still as we life pursue the maze extends,
Nor find we where each winding purlieu ends;
Crooked and vague each step of life we tread,--
Unseen the danger, we escape the dread!
But with delight we through the labyrinth range,
Confused we turn, and view each artful change--
Bewildered, through each wild meander bend
Our wandering steps, anxious to gain the end;
Unknown and intricate, we still pursue
A certain path, uncertain of the clue;
Like hoodwinked fools, perplex'd we grope our way
And during life's short course we blindly stray,
Puzzled in mazes and perplex'd with fears;
Unknown alike both heaven and earth appears.
Till at the last, to banish our surprise,
Grim Death unbinds the napkin from our eyes.
Then shall Gay's truth and wisdom stand confest,
And _Death_ will shew us _Life_ was but a jest."
This genial gem should be engraved on brass and stuck up at the
entrance to ensure that visitors, especially those of tender age, may
enter the maze in the right spirit!
Scarcely more cheerful is the view regarding mazes taken by "The Poet"
in Alfred Austin's "The Garden that I Love," where he speaks of
"tragic gardens, with dark avenues of intertwisted ilexes
immeasurably old, where there might be lurking the emissary of an
ambitious d'Este; gloomy labyrinths of mediaeval yew concealing the
panther-spring of a vindictive Sforza or the self-handled stiletto of
a fratricidal Borgia...."
And again:
"_Had I a garden, claustral yews
Should shut out railing wind,
That Poets might on sadness muse
With a majestic mind._"
If space permitted, or if any useful purpose were served, a good
deal more might be written concerning the Labyrinth in relation to
Literature. Similarly, the Labyrinth in Art might form the subject
of a fairly bulky volume. A considerable amount of space could be
taken up with the speculations that have been made as to the probable
relationship of the Knossian design to the Cross, the Swastika--with
its variants, the Triskelion and the Tetraskelion--the Circle, the
Spiral, and so forth; but the reader who thirsts for discussions
of this nature must be referred to more specialised archaeological
literature. The main points of interest with regard to the use of the
labyrinth figure in Art have already been presented, and most of the
lines along which the labyrinth idea has been elaborated have been
indicated, either in the text or in the illustrations. Before finally
taking leave of our theme, however, there are yet a few miscellaneous
aspects of it at which we may take a glance.
CHAPTER XXIII
MISCELLANEA AND CONCLUSION
In the _Annales Archéologiques_ for 1857 it was stated that M.
Bonnin, of Evreux, had collected no less than 200 designs of mazes or
labyrinths, representative of all sorts of nations and periods, and
the editor promised to make a selection of these for reproduction as
soon as the text to accompany them should be ready. The editor of the
_Annales_ incidentally referred to an early sixteenth-century painting
on wood, in the palace of the Marquis Campana, which represented the
legend of Theseus and showed a labyrinth similar to that of St. Maria
in Aquiro at Rome. This also was to have been illustrated at the same
time. The matter seems to have rested there, however, for no subsequent
reference appeared.
As an instance of the unlikely places in which the employment of
labyrinth figures for decorative or symbolic purposes are sometimes
found, we may quote an entry which occurs in an inventory of the
contents of a house at Duffus, Morayshire, dated May 25, 1708, from
which it would appear that household napery, at that time, was
sometimes patterned with the labyrinth:
"_In the Nurserie._ A large neprie press, wherein there is six pair
Scots holland sheits ... three fyn towels and five of the walls of
troy."
Mr. Albert Way, in his notes to Dr. Trollope's memoir on Labyrinths in
1858, after referring to the popularity of mazes and "Troy-towns" in
Scotland, mentions a labyrinth incised on the stone bench in one of the
window recesses of the hall at Craigmillar Castle.
According to a Swedish publication of 1877, labyrinths have been found
in West Gothland engraved on church bells!
The hedge maze is, of course, the chief embodiment of the labyrinth
idea as a medium of amusement, but it is far from being the only form
in which the principle subserves this purpose.
We have already referred to the practice, noted in various parts of
England and Wales, of cutting "Troy-towns" in the turf. Most of us
are, moreover, familiar with the schoolboy pastime of drawing mazes on
paper, or on slates in the days before they were banished on hygienic
grounds; the object of the designer in this case differing from that
of the Troy-town constructors in that it consists of providing as
difficult a puzzle as one's ingenuity at the moment can devise, whereas
the latter merely laid out a conventional unicursal figure for the
purpose of performing a ceremonial or playing a game thereon, like the
squares for nine-men's morris or the diagram for hop-scotch.
An ingenious development of the hedge maze principle is the
construction of indoor mazes lined with mirrors, by means of which
the perplexity of the visitor is very greatly increased. Such "mirror
mazes" often find a place in fairs and exhibitions.
[Illustration:
[_Photo: W. H. M._
Fig. 141. Sea-Side Sand Maze.]
[Illustration:
[_Photo: W. H. M._
Fig. 142. Sea-Side Sand Maze.]
Another method of utilising the puzzle-maze idea, and one which
constitutes a valuable asset to the parent or nurse in charge of young
children at the sea-side, is that of scratching maze-figures on the
sands, of sufficient dimensions to enable little feet to perambulate
the paths. Figures 141 and 142 show some of the mazes constructed
on the sands of a well-known southern resort in the summer of 1920.
The examples shown were made in a quiet corner of the beach and were
"snapped" before the children had discovered them; otherwise,
although no doubt prettier pictures would have resulted, the mazes
would have been invisible.
[Illustration: FIG. 143.--Temporary Maze at Village Fête. (W. H. M.)]
Figure 143 shows the plan of a small temporary maze constructed by
the writer for a garden fête held in aid of local church funds in the
grounds of Mr. Kenneth Goschen, at Eastcote, Middlesex, on May 25,
1921. It was formed of galvanised-wire netting supported on six-foot
fir stakes and thickened with elm foliage. At the entrance was
displayed a conventional labyrinth design, slightly modified to convey
the misleading suggestion that it was a key to the maze, and below this
were the following lines:
Beware the dreadful Minotaur
That dwells within the Maze.
The monster feasts on human gore
And bones of those he slays.
Then softly through the labyrinth creep
And rouse him not to strife.
Take one short peep, prepare to leap
_And run to save your life!_
At the goal was placed a chair facing an embowered mirror.
Some readers may remember the publication many years ago of highly
coloured lithographs of mazes, of bizarre design, generally emanating
from the Continent and sold for a penny or twopence. An old scrap-book
seen by the writer contains some specimens of this nature, published
in Brussels. In some the "nodes" are occupied by various objects
which, according to the printed instructions, have to be visited in a
given order. One design, generously tinted in all the colours of the
spectrum, is labelled "Le Jardin Chinois," although there is nothing
distinctively Chinese about it except the absence of all resemblance
to anything European. One may still purchase in the toy-shops coloured
labyrinths of this kind, mounted on cardboard, with spaces at various
points of the path for the accommodation of counters, which are moved
progressively in accordance with the throws of dice by the competing
players.
Some very ingenious applications of the labyrinth idea have been
evolved by modern designers of toys and games.
[Illustration: FIG. 144.--Maze Toy by A. Brentano. (After Patent
Specification.)]
Perhaps the most popular toy of this nature on the market is that
of the "Pigs in Clover" type, consisting of a series of concentric
interrupted circular walls, the innermost of which constitutes the goal
into which the player strives to roll all the marbles--usually three in
number--which are seen through the glass cover (Fig. 144). This toy was
patented by A. Brentano in 1889. Some skill is required to get all the
marbles into the central compartment at the same time. Another toy of
this character is seen in Fig. 145. It consists of a rather complicated
maze formed of ridges, between which the player rolls a ball or a
globule of mercury from the point marked A to that marked B, or _vice
versa_. This was patented by S. D. Nix in 1891.
A somewhat similar arrangement, but with the addition of magnetism as
the motive force, is that devised by J. M. Arnot in 1894, and shown in
Fig. 146. In this case the maze is not flat but is in the form of a
shallow dome; the balls are of iron and are rolled not by tilting the
box but by moving a magnet beneath it.
[Illustration: FIG. 145.--Maze Toy by S. D. Nix. (After Patent
Specification.)]
R. A. Cuthbert and W. Bevitt patented in 1889 a toy in which a ball,
called "The Man in the Maze," is rolled about inside a small closed
box, the internal partitions of which cannot be seen but are indicated
on the outside of the case. The "Man" is invisible during his journey.
At about the same time a somewhat similar toy was brought out by J.
Proctor, in which, however, the travelling ball can be watched through
the glass top, the puzzle element in this case consisting of the use
of circular holes of two sizes for communicating between adjacent
compartments, one size being just large enough to permit of the passage
of the ball, the other just too small (Fig. 147).
[Illustration: FIG. 146.--Maze Toy by J. M. Arnot. (After Patent
Specification.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 147.--Maze Toy by J. Proctor. (After Patent
Specification.)]
The most complex puzzle of the kind so far produced is that patented by
H. Bridge in 1906 and shown in Fig. 148. The ball in this case is made
to pass through channels formed between projections of labyrinthine
pattern fixed to a base and others fixed to the transparent top, which
can be moved relatively to the base. The toy may be of a circular
pattern or rectangular. In the former case the top is rotated, in the
latter it is slid from side to side. The patent also covers cases in
which the toy is constructed on the "skeleton" principle, the use of a
ring in place of a ball, and the combination of more than two mazes.
[Illustration: FIG. 148.--Maze Toy by H. Bridge. (After Patent
Specification.)]
It now remains for some inventor of Einsteinian proclivities to devise
one in several dimensions!
An interesting little study in what one might call "Labyrinth
Psychology" was carried out by an Austrian biologist in connection with
his researches on "The Evolution of Efficiency in the Animal Kingdom,"
in 1917. This was a series of experiments to test the efficiency of
animals in learning to thread a labyrinth in search of food. Figs.
149, 150 and 151 show three stages in the education of a rat in this
respect, the dotted line representing the track followed by the animal
from the entrance to the food-containing centre of a simple form of
labyrinth.
[Illustration: FIGS. 149, 150 and 151.--Path of Rat in Labyrinth; three
stages. (Szymanski.)]
Some sort of game, known as "Labyrinthe," enjoyed a passing favour in
France in the eighteenth century. An advertisement of May 8, 1869,
referring to one offered for sale by a Parisian upholsterer named
Lechevin, describes it as "un jeu de labyrinthe a 11 cases doré d'or
moulu, avec tableau dans chaque case," but this does not tell us much
concerning the nature of the pastime.
A card game of similar name was played in this country half a century
ago; it was a kind of bezique.
In France the name "Labyrinthe" is also given to a children's game
in which the majority of the players hold hands so as to form a chain
of arches which are threaded by two runners called respectively _le
tisserand_ and _la navette_--"the weaver" and "the shuttle."
A visitor to the Latin Convent on the summit of Mount Carmel,
Palestine, in 1874, described a "verbal labyrinth" which he saw
displayed on a board hanging on the wall of an inner staircase. It
was called "The Labyrinth of St. Bernard," and consisted of a number
of words or short phrases arranged in a square, as shown below. By
selecting the words in the proper order five maxims are obtained "by
which man may live well." The first of these maxims, commencing with
the word at the foot of the left-hand column, is: _Noli dicere omnia
quae scis quia qui dicit omnia quae scit saepe audit quod non vult_.
The remaining four injunctions may be read by similarly utilising the
words in the bottom row with those in the second, third, fourth, and
fifth rows respectively:
LABYRINTHUS A DIVO BERNARDO
COMPOSITUS QUO BENE VIVIT HOMO
---------------------------------------------------------
DICERE SCIS DICIT SCIT AUDIT NON VULT
---------------------------------------------------------
FACERE POTES FACIT POTEST INCURRIT NON CREDIT
---------------------------------------------------------
CREDERE AUDIS CREDIT AUDIT CREDIT NON EST
---------------------------------------------------------
DARE HABES DAT HABET MISERE NON HABET
QUAERIT
---------------------------------------------------------
JUDICARE VIDES JUDICAT VIDET CONTEMNIT NON DEBET
---------------------------------------------------------
NOLI OMNIA QUIA OMNIA SAEPE QUOD
QUAE QUI QUAE
---------------------------------------------------------
As a sample of a verbal labyrinth this seems to be very simple and
straightforward in comparison with the average Act of Parliament.
Let us turn now, for a brief space, to a question which, although
bearing upon matters dealt with earlier in the book, has been too
little investigated to warrant more than a nodding reference in our
more serious chapters--the question of place-names.
The occurrence of a suggestive place-name is, as previously hinted,
very slender evidence by itself on which to form an opinion of the
former existence of a maze in the locality. There is always the
possibility that the name may be a corruption of some ancient word of
very different significance, perhaps the name of some person, or that
it may have been bestowed fancifully or in respect of some resemblance
to another place.
In the absence of fuller information we will limit ourselves to the
bare mention of such names as convey a suggestion of possible maze
sites, merely remarking any cases in which evidence in one direction or
the other has come to notice.
The district known as Maze Pond, familiar to Londoners in the
neighbourhood of the Borough, and to which we made reference in Chapter
XV, takes its name from the ancient manor of the Maze, which was in the
holding of Sir John Burcestre in the fifteenth century. An old token
bears the inscription, "Michael Blower, at ye Maze, Southwarke." What
kind of maze, if any, formerly existed in the locality we do not know.
Maze Hill has sometimes been assumed to derive its name from a maze
which is supposed to have existed in the park of the former royal
palace of Greenwich (see p. 136), but the name was formerly spelt in
a different manner and may have quite another origin. In Hasted's
"History of Kent," 1778, it is referred to as Mease Hill, and it has
been suggested that this may have come from the Celtic word _Maes_,
meaning "field." There is a Maze Green in Hertfordshire, near Bishops
Stortford. Possibly there was formerly a turf maze in the vicinity
like that on Saffron Walden common, not very far away, but we have no
evidence to that effect.
A few miles west of Lisburn, in Ireland, are two places named
respectively "The Maze" and "Mazetown," the former a small village in
Antrim, the latter a racing centre just over the county border in Down.
"Troy-town," as we have seen, also occurs as a place-name. In Dorset
there is one near Dorchester and another near Bere Regis. These are
alleged to be the sites of former turf mazes, of which, however, there
are no authentic records. In Kent there is one near Hastingleigh, and
the name also occurs at Rochester.[7] The latter is said to commemorate
a former owner or builder of property in that part of the town, whose
name happened to be Troy. A part of Peckham also used to be known as
Troy-town.
[7] See also p. 91.
The word "Troy" alone is also of fairly frequent occurrence, as for
instance near Stalybridge, Lancs, and near Londonderry; Troy Michell
and Troy Hall are found in Monmouthshire, and the latter name also
at Blackburn, Lancs, but such names are no more likely to have any
connection with ancient maze sites than is the flourishing city of
similar name in the United States, the probability being that in all
these cases it is the famous Troy of the Iliad that furnished the
inspiration. The name of Troy-town may in some cases have been given on
account of irregularity or intricacy of design, for the word is found
in certain local dialects as a synonym for a state of confusion, an
untidy house being said to be "just like Troy-town."
It is surely uncommon for the word "Labyrinth" itself to be found as a
place-name, but in February 1911 Captain Scott pitched his camp in an
Antarctic spot which, on account of the fantastically sinuous nature of
its surroundings, he decided to name "Labyrinth Camp."
We must now draw to a close.
Enough has perhaps been said to give some idea of the variety and
extent of the different ways in which the labyrinth idea has developed
and in which it has been employed, but it would obviously be wrong to
assume that the last word on the subject has now been pronounced.
As regards the early history of the idea and of the terms associated
with it we have seen that the boundaries of our knowledge are still
misty and ill-defined, a circumstance that only gives zest to the study
of the subject.
We see that our enquiry has taken us into realms far removed from
everyday experience and in which we feel the need of special training
in order to weigh the facts presented. It has given us glimpses of the
workshop of the archaeologist, the anthropologist, and the etymologist.
The study of later developments has led us into curious by-paths of
art and literature--classical, mediaeval, renaissance, and modern--and
we see that even now the labyrinth idea has not entirely ceased to
exercise its allurements or to evoke the spirit of invention.
There is still room for a good deal of research and for the possibility
of highly interesting discoveries in respect of almost every phase of
the labyrinth's past history.
With regard to its future developments, much as we should have liked
to close our review with a vindication of utilitarian interest, and
although one can never safely prophesy to what uses the ingenuity
of men may put any given principle, we could not hope to sound an
expectant note without creating an impression of fatuity. Lest this
statement be taken to mean that our enquiry has, therefore, had no
practical aim, let us hasten to repeat once more the hope expressed in
our introductory chapter to the effect that a perusal of this little
book will at least ensure a revival of interest in, and consequently
the preservation of, those few relics of rustic revelry and
prehistoric magic which yet remain with us in the shape of the turf
labyrinths.
As Mr. A. H. Allcroft, in his "Earthwork of England" (1908), has truly
remarked, when speaking of the Asenby maze: "It is marvellous that
the memory of such things, once prominent features of rural life, can
die out so rapidly as it does." And yet, who can deny that they are
worthy of at least as much care and interest as many of the obvious
and commonplace antiquities upon which the guide-books lavish their
encomiums?
We need not emulate the misguided enthusiasm of those who are unable
to discover a merit in a bygone practice without plunging into an
indiscriminate advocacy of its revival--an enthusiasm which inevitably
brings discredit upon its object--but let us at any rate see to it that
no more of these rare and interesting heirlooms are lost to us through
ignorance or neglect.
APPENDIX
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MAZES AND LABYRINTHS
(TOGETHER WITH NAMES OF PERSONS WHO HAVE FURNISHED THE WRITER WITH
FIRST-HAND INFORMATION)
NOTE.--_Names of Authors are also arranged alphabetically in the Index,
which contains detailed references to the sections of the Bibliography._
I. GENERAL
TROLLOPE, E. "Ancient and Mediaeval Labyrinths," with notes by ALBERT
WAY, in _Archaeological Journal_, Vol. XV, 1858. Also in _Reports
of the Associated Architectural Societies_ in 1858, and appended
to a paper on the Caerleon mosaic in the _Proc. Monmouth and
Caerleon Antiquarian Association_, 1866.
(Mainly concerned with church labyrinths and British turf mazes.)
DE LAUNAY, R. "Les Fallacieux Détours du Labyrinthe" in _Révue
Archéologique_, Series V, 1915-16.
(A bold and striking essay, chiefly concerned with the labyrinth
as the architectural expression of a sun-myth.)
FRAZER, Sir J. G. "The Golden Bough," Pt. III, "The Dying God," 1911.
(In the section dealing with the octennial tenure of the
kingship the labyrinth is treated from the point of view of the
anthropologist and folk-lorist.)
COOK, A. B. "Zeus. A Study in Ancient Religions," 1914.
(The labyrinth, particularly that of Crete, is studied from the
point of view of the classical archaeologist.)
KRAUSE, ERNST. "Die Trojaburgen Nordeuropas" and "Die Nordische
Herkunft der Trojasage," Glogau, 1893. Also "Tuiskoland der
Arischen Stämme und Götter Urheimat," 1891.
(A study of classic and northern mythologies with special
reference to solar rites. The labyrinth is held to be
distinctively northern, the classic legends being derivative.)
MASSMANN, H. F. "Wunderkreise und Irrgarten," Leipzig Basse, 1844.
(This work is mentioned in a German encyclopaedia, but the
writer has not been able to obtain access to a copy. Written
by a mathematician, it probably deals with the subject from a
corresponding aspect.)
DAREMBERG, SAGLIO & POTTIER. "Dictionnaire des Antiquités," 1904,
Vol. III.
(The article "Labyrinthe" gives very full references to the
occurrence of labyrinth figures on ancient monuments.)
_Dictionary of Architecture_ (1867). Arts. "Maze" and "Meander."
_Encyclopaedia Britannica._ Art. "Labyrinth." By THOS. MOORE, F.L.S.
(1821-87) (with especial reference to hedge mazes).
(Several other encyclopaedias, American, French, German and
Italian, also contain good articles on the subject, notably
Larousse, La Grande Encyclopédie, The New International
Encyclopaedia, and Roscher's Lexikon der Mythologie, Vol. II,
1894-7.)
"_Country Life._" Two well-illustrated anonymous articles in issues
of January 24 and March 14, 1903.
* * * * *
There is a popular article on Mazes by G. S. TYACK in W. ANDREWS'S
"Ecclesiastical Curiosities," 1897; and a chapter of E. O.
GORDON'S "Prehistoric London," 1914, treats of the matter in so
far as it supports the theory of the Trojan origin of London
(Troy-Novant).
II. FORM, AND MATHEMATICAL PRINCIPLES
BALL, W. W. R. "Mathematical Recreations and Essays," 1905, pp.
174-80.
TARRY, G. "Le Problème des Labyrinthes," in _Nouvelles Annales de
Mathématiques_, Vol. XIV, 1895, pp. 187-90.
LUCAS, E. "Récréations Mathématiques," 1882-94.
WOLTERS, P. "Darstellungen des Labyrinths," in _Sitzungsberichte der
phil., &c., Classe der k.b. Akademie zu München_, 1907.
MEYER, W. "Ein Labyrinth mit Versen" in _Sitz. der phil., &c., Classe
der k.b. Ak. zu München_, 1882, Bd. II, Heft. I, pp. 267-300, and
_Nachtrag_ on p. 400.
KRAUSE, E. "Die nordische Herkunft der Trojasage," 1893.
(Shows how typical labyrinth figures may be derived from
Northumbrian rock engravings.)
REINACH, S. "Cultes, Mythes, et Réligions," 1906, Vol. II, pp. 234,
etc.
(Derivation of swastika, triskelion, etc.)
DUDENEY, H. E. "Amusements in Mathematics," 1917, pp. 127-37.
INWARDS, R., on the Labyrinth on the Coins of Knossos in _Knowledge_,
October 1892.
III. THE CLASSIC LABYRINTHS
(i) THE EGYPTIAN LABYRINTH
HERODOTUS. ii. 148-9.
DIODORUS SICULUS. I. iv. 61, 66.
STRABO. XVII. i. 37.
POMPONIUS MELA. "De situ orbis."
PLINY. "Hist. Nat." xxxvi. 19.
PETRIE, W. M. FLINDERS. "The Labyrinth, Gerzeh, and Mazghuneh"
(London School of Archaeology in Egypt, University College, Gower
St.), 1912. Also "Kahun, Garob, and Hawara," 1890, and "Hawara,
Biahmu, and Arsinoë," 1889.
HOW, W. W., and WELLS, J. "A Commentary on Herodotus," 1912, Vol. I.
p. 240, etc.
MYRES, J. L., in _Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology_, III. p.
134.
PERROT & CHIPIEZ. "Histoire de l'Art dans l'Antiquité" I. ("Egypte").
FERGUSSON'S "History of Architecture," 1893, Vol. I. pp. 110-12.
LEPSIUS, K. R. "Denkmäler," 1859, Vol. I. pl. 46-8.
EBERS, G. M. "L'Egypte, du Caire à Philae," 1868, p. 174.
WIEDEMANN, A. "Herodots Zweite Buch," 1890, p. 522, etc.
CANINA, L. "L'Architettura Antica," 1839-44, Sec. I. (Egiziana), Tav.
122.
JOMARD, E. F. "Description de l'Egypte," 1807. Vol. IV. p. 478.
(Embodies results of Napoleon's expedition.)
POCOCKE, R. "A Description of the East," 1743, p. 61, etc.
LUCAS, P. "Voiage de la Haute Egypte," 1705. Vol. II, p. 261, etc.
CARERI, J. F. GEMELLI. "A Voyage round the World," 1699. Bk. I. Ch.
vi. (in Churchill's Collection, 1732, Vol. VI).
(ii) THE CRETAN LABYRINTH
VIRGIL. "Aeneid," V. v. 588.
PLINY. "Hist. Nat." xxxvi. 19.
OVID. "Metamorphoses," VIII. v. 159.
DIODORUS SICULUS. IV. iv. 77.
APOLLODORUS. III. i. 3, xv. 8.
PLUTARCH. "Life of Theseus."
MEURSIUS, J. (GRAEVIUS, J. G.). "Creta, Cyprus et Rhodus." Amsterdam,
1675.
(Gives very comprehensive references to the Cretan Labyrinth in
classical and mediaeval literature.)
EVANS, Sir A. J. "Excavations at Knossos," in _Annals of the British
School at Athens_, Vol. VIII, 1902. "Mycenaean Tree and Pillar
Cult" in _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, Vol. XXI, 1901. "The Tomb
of the Double Axes at Knossos" in _Archaeologia_, Vol. LXV, 1914.
"The Palace of Minos at Knossos," Vol. I, 1921. Article in _The
Times_ of July 14, 1922, p. 11.
ROUSE, W. H. D. "The Double Axe and the Labyrinth" in _Journal of
Hellenic Studies_, Vol. XXI, 1901.
HALL, H. R. "The Two Labyrinths" in JOURNAL OF HELLENIC STUDIES, Vol.
XXV, 1905. "Aegean Archaeology," 1912.
BURROWS, R. M. "Discoveries in Crete," 1907.
GLASGOW, G. "The Discoveries in Crete" in "_Discovery_," Vol. I, 1920.
(A general review to date.)
MOSSO, A. "The Palaces of Crete," 1907.
HAWES, C. H. and H. B. "Crete the Forerunner of Greece," 1909.
COOK, A. B. _Op. cit._, 1914.
BAIKIE, J. "The Sea-Kings of Crete," 1920.
FRAZER, Sir J. G. _Op. cit._, 1911.
SPRATT, T. A. B. "Travels in Crete," 1865.
SIEBER, F. W. "Reise nach der Insel Kreta in 1817," 1823.
HOECK, C. "Kreta," 1823-29.
COCKERELL, C. R., R.A. "Travels in Southern Europe," 1810-17. Edited
by his son, S. P. COCKERELL, 1903. Ch. xi.
(Cavern of Gortyna.)
SAVARY, C. E. "Lettres sur la Grèce," 1788 (Trans. in _Annual
Register_, 1789, Pt. II. pp. 90-98).
TOURNEFORT, G. P. DE. "Voyage du Levant," 1717 (Trans. by J. OZELL,
1718).
CAUMONT, LE SEIGNEUR DE ("Nompar II"). "Voyage d'oultremer en
Jhérusalem," 1418, Brit. Mus. Egerton MSS. 890, fol. 2, ed. by
MARQUIS DE LA GRANGE and printed Paris, 1858, p. 42.
_Florentine Picture Chronicle_, XV. Century. Brit. Mus. Prints 197d 3
fol. 50-51.
_Italian Engraving_, School of _Maso Finiguerra_. Brit. Mus. A. II.
10b.
(iii) THE ETRUSCAN, LEMNIAN, ETC., LABYRINTHS.
STRABO. VIII. vi. 369.
(Labyrinth of the Cyclops, Nauplia.)
PLINY. "Hist. Nat." xxxvi. 19, 4.
DENNIS, G. "The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria," 1848.
CANINA, L. "L'Architettura Antica," 1839-44, Sec. II. Tav. 159.
QUATREMÈRE DE QUINCY, A. C. "Restitution du Tombeau de Porsenna,"
1826.
MÜLLER, K. O. "Die Etrusker," 1828, Vol. IV. 2, 1.
IV. THE LABYRINTH IN ANCIENT ART
(i) COINS
WROTH, W. W. "Catalogue of Greek Coins," 1886, Pl. IV., V., VI.
HEAD, B. V. "Historia Nummorum," 1887, pp. 389-91.
(ii) POTTERY
DEECKE, W., in _Annali dell' Instituto di Correspondenza
Archeologica_, 1881.
(Tragliatella Vase.)
REINACH, S. "Vases Peints," 1899, p. 345.
PERROT ET CHIPIEZ. "Histoire de l'Art dans l'Antiquité," Vol. VII. p.
118.
WALTERS, H. B. "History of Ancient Pottery," 1905, Vol. I.
(Frontispiece shows Theseus kylix, by DURIS.)
ELDERKIN, G. W. "Meander or Labyrinth" in _Journ. Amer. Arch._ XIV,
1910, pp. 185-190.
(Meander figures on Theseus Vases.)
(iii) MOSAIC PAVEMENTS, ETC. (_See also_ CHURCH LABYRINTHS, _Appendix
V._)
ARNETH, J. C. VON. "Archäologische Analekten," 1851-3, Tafel V.
(Salzburg mosaic.)
_Archäologische Zeitung_, 1848, p. 99.
(Mosaics at Orbe and Bosséaz, Switzerland.)
MILLIN, A. L. "Voyage dans le Midi de la France," 1807, Pl. 34.
(Mosaic at Aix, near Marseilles.)
_Mittheilungen der Antiquarischen Gesellschaft zu Zurich_. Bd. XVI,
1841, etc., Pl. 29.
(Mosaic at Cormerod, Switzerland.)
CREUZER, G. F. "Abbildungen zu Symbolik und Mythologie der älter.
Volker," 1819, Taf. LV, No. 1 (Salzburg).
CAUMONT, A. DE. "Abécédaire d'Archéologie." 1886 Ed. Vol. III.
(Mosaic at Verdes, Loir-et-Cher.)
ZAHN, W. "Schönsten Ornamente aus Pompeji, etc.," 1828, Vol. II, Taf.
50.
(Mosaic in Casa del Labirinto, Pompeii.)
COMARMOND, A. "Description du Musée Lapidaire de la Ville de Lyons,"
No. 273.
(Inscription relating to a labyrinth.)
GUÉRIN, V. "Voyage Archéologique dans la Régence de Tunis," 1862,
Vol. I, p. 109.
(Mosaic at Susa.)
DOUBLET, G., in _Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Inscriptions_,
1892, pp. 318-329. (Mosaic at Susa.)
_Révue Archéologique_, 1884, p. 107. (Mosaic at Brindisi.)
CAETANI-LOVATELLI, E. "Miscellanea Archeologia," 1891, and in _Nuova
Antologia_, Vol. XXVIII, 1890.
(General review.)
COLLIER, C. V., in _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries_, Vol.
XX, No. II, February 9, 1905, pp. 215-19.
(Mosaic at Harpham, Yorks, and mention of one in Northants.)
MORGAN, O., in _Proceedings of Monmouth and Caerleon Antiquarian
Association_, 1866.
(Mosaic at Caerleon.)
RICH, A. "A Dictionary of Roman and Greek Antiquities," 1893, pp.
481-2.
(iv) MISCELLANEOUS
EVANS, Sir A. J. "The Palace of Minos," 1921, Vol. I, pp. 121 _et
seq._ and p. 357.
(Origin of Labyrinth Figure.)
PETRIE, W. M. F. "Egyptian Decorative Art," pp. 42, 43.
(Meanders.)
_Real Museo Borbonico_, XIV, 1852, Tav. a.
(Labyrinth graffito on pillar of house at Pompeii. This figure is
reproduced in E. Breton's "Pompeia," and elsewhere.)
OZANAM, A. F. "Documents inédits," 1850, Section "Graphia aurae urbis
Romae."
(Labyrinth embroidered on emperor's robes.)
DE LAUNAY, R. _Op. cit._
(Interpretation of _tholos_ of Epidauros, etc.)
KABBADIAS, P. "Fouilles d'Epidaure," 1893.
(_Tholos_ of Temple of Aesculapius.)
MÜLLER, K. "Tiryns Vorbericht über die Gräbungen, 1905-1912,"
in _Athen. Mittheilungen_, XXXVIII, 1913, p. 78, etc.
(Labyrinth-like structure in masonry.)
MAFFEI, P. A. "Gemmae Antiche," 1709, Pt. IV, pl. 31.
(Labyrinth engraved on a gem.)
V. LABYRINTHS IN CHURCHES
(i) GENERAL
AMÉ, E. "Les Carrelages Émaillés du Moyen Age," 1859.
(Has a good chapter on the French church labyrinths, with
coloured plates.)
GAILHABAUD, J. "L'Architecture du V^{me} au XVII^{me} siècle," 1858.
DURAND, J. "Les Pavés Mosaïques en Italie et en France," in _Annales
Archéologiques_, XIV-XVII, 1855-7.
DESCHAMPS DES PAS, L. "Le Pavage des Églises," in _Ann. Arch._ XII,
p. 147.
VIOLLET-LE-DUC, E. E. "Dictionnaire Raisonné de l'Architecture
Française du XI^{e} au XVI^{e} siècle," Art. "Labyrinthe."
WALCOTT, M. E. C. "Sacred Archaeology," 1868.
MÜNTZ, E. "Etudes Iconographiques," 1887, p. 15 _et seq._
(Italian examples.)
(ii) PARTICULAR LOCALITIES
CAMPI, P. M. "Dell' Hist. Eccles. di Piacenza," 1651-62.
(S. Savino, Placentia.)
CIAMPINI, G. G. "Vetera Monimenta," 1690-9, Vol. II, pl. 2.
(S. Michele Maggiore, Pavia.)
GÉRUZEZ, J. B. F. "Descrip. Hist. et Stat. de la Ville de Rheims,"
1817, Vol. I, p. 316.
(Rheims Cathedral. "Penitential" theory of church labyrinths.)
DEBRAY, M. "Notice sur la Cathédrale d'Arras," 1829.
WALLET, E. "Descrip. d'une Crypte et d'un Pavé mosaïque de l'Église
Saint Bertin à St. Orner," 1834.
DAIRE, L. F. "Histoire de la Ville d'Amiens," 1782, Vol. II, p. 92.
(Amiens Cathedral.)
TURNER, DAWSON. "Tour in Normandy," 1820, Vol. II, pp. 206-7.
(Caen. Guard-Chamber of Abbey.)
AUBER, C. A. "Histoire de la Cathédrale de Poitiers," 1849, Vol. I,
Pl. I, Fig. 6.
(Poitiers Cathedral. Mural sketch.)
DIDRON, A. N. "Voyage Archéologique dans la Grèce chrétienne," in
_Annales Archéologiques_, Vol. I, 1844, p. 177.
(Labyrinth figure in Convent of St. Barlaam.)
ROBOLOTTI, F. "Dei Documenti Storiei Litterarj di Cremona," 1857,
Tav. II.
(Cremona Cathedral.)
PRÉVOST, M., in _Révue Archéologique_ IV, 1848, and VIII, 1851-2, pp.
566-7.
(Church of Reparatus, Orléansville, Algeria.)
DOUBLET DE BOISTHIBAULT, in _Révue Archéologique_, VIII, 1851-2, pp.
437-47.
(Chartres Cathedral.)
AUS'M WEERTH, E. "Mosaikboden in St. Gereon zu Cöln," 1874.
(Churches in Cologne and Pavia.)
RUSKIN, J. "Fors Clavigera," Fors 23. (Lucca.)
_Proceedings of Architectural Societies of Northampton, York, etc._
Vols. XIX-XX, 1887-8.
(Church at Alkborough.)
_The Builder_, Vol. XVI, 1855, p. 90.
(Notre Dame de la Treille, Lille.)
_Annales Archéologiques_, Vol. XVI, 1855, p. 211.
(Notre Dame de la Treille, Lille.)
_Manuscript. Bibliothèque Barberini_, XLIV, p. 35.
(Pavia.)
_Manuscript. Villard de Honnecourt._ "Album," ed. by J. B. A. Lassus,
1858, Plate XIII.
(Chartres.)
VI. HEDGE MAZES, FLORAL LABYRINTHS, ETC.
(i) CLASSICAL REFERENCES
(Roman Topiary Work and Ornamental Gardening)
PLINY. "Hist. Nat.," XV. 30; XVI. 33; XXXVI. 13.
PLINY THE YOUNGER. Epist. V. 6.
(ii) GREAT BRITAIN (GENERAL)
HYLL, T. (_Didymus Mountayne._) "The Profitable Art of Gardening,"
3rd edition, 1579, pp. 9, 15.
ISLIP, A. "The Orchard and the Garden," 1602, p. 48.
(Gathered from Dutch and French sources.)
LAWSON, W. "A New Orchard and Garden," 1631.
(Afterwards embodied in K. MARKHAM'S "A New Way to Get Wealth,"
1648, etc.)
PARKINSON, J. "Paradisus in soli," 1629, Ch. II.
MEAGER, L. "The Compleat English Gardener," _circ._ 1685.
_Harley Manuscripts._ Brit. Mus. Harl. 5308 (71, a, 12).
(A seventeenth-century gardener's manuscript book, with two
mazes.)
LONDON, G., and WISE, H. "The Compleat Florist," 1706 afterwards
published by J. CARPENTER as "The Retir'd Gardener." (Primarily a
translation of French works by L. LIGER and F. GENTIL.)
LANGLEY, BATTY. "New Principles of Gardening," 1728.
(Numerous maze designs.)
SWITZER, S. "Ichnographia Rustica," 1742, Vol. II, p. 218.
FULLMER, S. "Gardener's Companion," 1781, p. 105.
HOME, H. (Lord KAMES.) "Elements of Criticism," 1796, Vol. II, p. 348.
(Criticism of mazes in gardens.)
WALPOLE, H. "Essay on Modern Gardening," 1785.
ROBINSON, W. "The English Flower Garden," 1921.
MacARTNEY, MERVYN. "English Houses and Gardens of the Seventeenth and
Eighteenth Centuries," 1908.
(Article on hedges and mazes.)
BROWN, A. J., in _American Homes and Gardens_, VII, November 1910,
pp. 423-5.
(iii) GREAT BRITAIN (PARTICULAR LOCALITIES)
LAW, E. "History of Hampton Court Palace," 1900, Vol. III, pp. 74-7.
ROCQUE, J. "Engraving of Hampton Court," 1736.
(Shows the "Troy-town," as well as the Maze and a spiral garden.)
DEFOE, D. "Tour through Great Britain," 1738.
(Hampton Court "Wilderness.")
_Daily Chronicle_, February 22, 1921.
(Revenue from Hampton Court Maze.)
_Parliamentary Surveys._ Survey No. 72, 1649. Transcribed by John
Caley, F.R.S., in _Archaeologia_, Vol. X, 1792.
(Maze at Wimbledon.)
KIP, J. "Britannia Illustrata," 1720.
(Mazes at Wrest House and Badminton.)
WILLIAMS, W. "Oxonia depicta," 1732.
(Trinity College labyrinth.)
VALLANCE, AYMER. "The Old Colleges of Oxford," 1913, p. 77.
(Trinity College labyrinth.)
AUBREY, J. "Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme," 1686-7.
(Mazes in Southwark and Tothill Fields, Westminster. The 1881
edition has an editor's note _re_ maze on Putney Heath.)
_Churchwardens' Accounts_, St. Margaret, Westminster, 1672.
(Tothill Maze.)
_Collectanea Topographica_, Vol. VIII, 1843, pp. 253-62.
(Maze in Southwark.)
STRICKLAND, A. "Lives of the Queens of England," 1851, Vol. I, p. 264.
(Southwark.)
WROTH, W., and A. E. "The London Pleasure Gardens of the Eighteenth
Century," 1896.
CRISP, Sir F. "Guide for the use of visitors to Friar Park," 1914.
(Maze and Dial Garden at Henley-on-Thames.)
NESFIELD, W. H. "Estimate and Plan for R.H.S. Gardens," 1860 (S.
Kensington). Also plan in R.H.S. "Official Guide," 1864.
HUTCHISON, A. F. "The Lake of Menteith," 1899.
(Queen Mary's Bower.)
TRIGGS, H. INIGO. "Formal Gardens in England and Scotland," 1902.
(Mazes at Arley Hall and Belton House figured.)
ELGOOD, G. S., and JEKYLL, G. "Some English Gardens," 1904, p. 127.
(Maze at Arley Hall.)
(iv) FRANCE
ANDROUET DU CERCEAU, J. "Les Plus Excellents Bastiments de France,"
1576, and other architectural works.
(Mazes at Charleval, Gaillon, etc.)
ESTIENNE, C. "La Maison Rustique," 1573, Vol. II, ch. vi, p. 68.
(Translated by R. SURFLET as "The Country Farme," 1600.)
BETIN, P. "Le Fidelle Jardinier," 1636, p. 24.
PERRAULT, C. "Labyrinte de Versailles," 1677.
(With plan and many illustrations by S. LE CLERC.)
PANSERON, S. "Receuil des Jardins Français," 1723.
(With many plates.)
BLONDEL, J. F. "Cours d'Architecture," 1771-7, Vol. I, p. 17; Vol.
IV, p. 72; Vol. VIII, Plates 18, 19.
(Mazes at Choisy and Chantilly.)
HAVARD, H. "Dictionnaire de l'Ameublement," etc., 1887-90. Art.
"Labyrinthe."
(Mazes at Baugé and Les Rochers.)
STEIN, H. "Les Jardins de France," 1913, Plates 88, 89.
TRIGGS, H. INIGO. "Garden Craft in Europe," 1913, pp. 21, 81, 141.
(Mazes at the Tuileries, Hôtel St. Paul, and Sceaux.)
(v) ITALY
SERLIO, S. "Libri Cinque d'Architettura," 1537; English edition, 1611.
DUPÉRAC, S. "Vues et Perspectives des Jardins de Tivoli," 1573.
(Labyrinths at Villa d'Este.)
EVELYN, J. "Memoirs," _s.a._ 1646.
(Labyrinth at Vicenza.)
TRIGGS, H. INIGO. "The Art of Garden Design in Italy," 1906, p. 51.
(Mazes at Castellezo dei Arconati, Milan.)
SKIPPON, Sir PHILIP. "A Journey through part of the Low Countries,
Germany, Italy, and France," 1663.
(Labyrinth at Vicenza.)
(vi) HOLLAND AND BELGIUM
DE VRIES, J. V. "Hortorum Viridariorumque Formae," 1583, Plates
14-16, 22-7.
COMMELYN, C. "Nederlantze Hesperides," 1676.
(Several designs for mazes.)
HARRIS, W. "A Description of the King's Royal Palace and Gardens at
Loo," 1699.
VISSCHER, N. "De Zegepraalende Vecht," 1719.
(Maze at Gunterstein.)
TRIGGS, H. INIGO. "Garden Craft in Europe," 1913, pp. 173, 192.
(Mazes at Sorgvliet and Enghien.)
FOUQUIER, M. "L'Art des Jardins," 1911, p. 120.
(Maze at Enghien.)
(vii) OTHER COUNTRIES
BOECKLER, G. A. "Architectura Curiosa," 1664, Pt. IV.
(Numerous plates contain labyrinth designs.)
LAUREMBERG, P. "Horticultura," 1632, Plates 15-22.
_Daily Mail_, September 23, 1899.
(Art. on "Puzzle Gardens" gives account of curious allegorical
labyrinth at Anhalt; also describes mazes at Barcelona.)
MOLLET, A. "Le Jardin de Plaisir," 1651.
(Sweden.)
TRIGGS, H. INIGO. "Garden Craft in Europe," 1913, p. 280.
(Maze at the Alcazar, Seville.)
SKIPPON, Sir P. "A Journey through part of the Low Countries," etc.,
1663.
(Munich.)
MOULTON, R. H., in _Architectural Record_ (_New York_), October 1917,
p. 400.
(American replica of the Maze at Hampton Court.)
WARREN, C., in _Country Life_ (_Garden City_), VIII, September 1905,
pp. 527-8.
(Cedar Hill Maze, U.S.A.)
The following kindly furnished the writer with recent information
regarding the mazes at the localities indicated:
H. COLLAR, Esq., Curator, Museum, Saffron Walden (Saffron
Walden); H. WALLIS CHAPMAN, Esq., Jordans, Bucks (Sudeley
Castle); W. EMERTON, Esq., Grantham (Belton House); E. M.
JACKSON, Esq., M.A., Manningtree (Mistley Place); G. KERRY
RIX, Esq., Somerleyton (Somerleyton Hall); R. POGMORE, Esq.,
Mansfield (Debdale Hall).
VII. TURF LABYRINTHS
(i) General
TROLLOPE, E. _Op. cit._ 1858.
AUBREY, J. "Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme," 1686-7. Ed. by J.
BRITTEN, F.L.S., 1881.
(Mazes at Pimperne, West Ashton, Cotswold Downs, Southwark, and
Tothill Fields. Editor adds note _re_ maze on Putney Heath.)
AUBREY, J. "History of Surrey," Ed. 1719, Vol. V, p. 80.
(Suggestion of Scandinavian origin of mazes.)
STUKELEY, W. "Itinerarium Curiosum," 1776, pp. 31, 97.
(Discussion of origin of mazes.)
ROBERTS, P. "Cambrian Popular Antiquities," 1815, p. 212.
("City of Troy" in Wales.)
_Cymmrodorion Society, Transactions of_, 1822, pp. 67-9.
("Idrison" on Caer Troiau. Refers to solar theory.)
TYACK, G. S. Art. "Mazes" in W. ANDREWS' "Ecclesiastical
Curiosities," 1897.
JOHNSON, W. "Folk-Memory," 1908.
(ii) PARTICULAR LOCALITIES
DE LA PRYME, A. (1671-1704). "Diary." Ed. Surtees Society, 1870.
(Alkborough and Appleby.)
_Churchwardens' Accounts_, Louth, 1544.
(Louth.)
HUTCHINS, J. "History and Antiq. of the County of Dorset," 1774, Vol.
I, p. 101 (Pimperne); Vol. II, p. 468 (Leigh).
HUTCHINS, J. 3rd ed., 1861, pp. 292-3.
(Saffron Walden, Somerton, Tadmarton Heath, Hereford Beacon,
Hilton, and Breamore. Figs. of mazes at Pimperne, Sneinton, and
Clifton, Notts.)
"Annalia Dubrensia," 1636, reprinted by A. B. Grosart, 1877.
(Cotswold Hills, near Chipping Campden.)
CAMDEN, W. "Britannia." Ed. by GOUGH, 1789. Plate opposite p. 288.
(Saffron Walden, Sneinton, and Clifton.)
HOARE, Sir R. C. "Ancient Wilts," 1812-21, Vol. I, p. 238.
(Breamore.)
WILLIAMS-FREEMAN, J. P. "Field Archaeology, Hants."
(Breamore.)
ACKERMANN'S "Repository of Arts," Vol. XIII, 1815, p. 193.
(Hull.)
HATFIELD, S. "Terra incognita of Lincolnshire," 1816.
(Alkborough.)
ALLEN, T. "History of Lincolnshire," 1834, Vol. II, p. 219.
(Appleby.)
WRIGHT, T. "Hist. and Topog. of the County of Essex," 1835, Vol. II,
p. 124.
(Comberton.)
BRAYBROOKE, Lord. "Audley End and Saffron Walden," 1836, _esp._ MS.
insertion of 1859 in Saffron Walden Museum.
(Saffron Walden.)
TROLLOPE, E. _Op. cit._ 1858.
(Sneinton, Wing, Ripon, Boughton Green, and many others.)
GORDON, E. O. "Prehistoric London," 1914.
(Greenwich, or Blackheath.)
_Notes and Queries._
3 ser., X, 1866, p. 283. BARKLEY, C. W. (Comberton and Leigh.) Also
in 4 ser., II, 1868.
3 ser., X, 1866, p. 283. J. F.
(Alkborough, Holderness, and Sneinton.)
8 ser., IV, 1893, p. 96. VENABLES, E., and others.
(Kent.)
9 ser., V, 1900, p. 445. PAGE, J. T.
(Boughton Green.)
10 ser., X, 1908, p. 96. HARLAND-OXLEY, W. E.
(Tothill Fields.)
12 ser., IV, 1918, p. 160. AUSTIN, G.
(Egton and Goathland.)
_The Times_, April 18, 1870.
(St. Martha's Hill, Guildford.)
_The Times_, April 5, 1920.
(Juliberry's Grave, Godmersham.)
BARNES, W., in _Dorset Nat. Hist, and Antiq'n. Field Club
Proceedings_, Vol. IV, 1882.
(Leigh, Dorset.)
FERGUSON, R. S. "A Labyrinth on Rockcliffe Marsh," in _Cumberland
and West'd Antiq'n and Arch'l. Society Transactions_, Vol. VIII,
1883-4, p. 69.
(Burgh and Rockcliffe.)
_Assoc'd Arch'l. Societies of Northampton, York, etc., Proceedings_,
Vols. XIX-XX, 1887-8.
(Alkborough.)
MAYNARD, G. N. "The Labyrinths or Mazes at Saffron Walden," in _Essex
Field Club Proceedings_, 1889.
SHORE, T. W., and NISBETT, H. C. "Ancient Hampshire Mazes," in
_Hampshire Field Club Proceedings_, Vol. III, Pt. III, 1896, p.
257.
(Breamore and Winchester.)
HILL, A. D., in _Wilts Arch'l, and Nat. Hist. Magazine_, 1897, p. 98.
(Breamore and West Ashton.)
TREVES, Sir F. "Highways and Byways in Dorset," 1906.
(Leigh.)
ALLCROFT, A. H. "Earthwork of England," 1908, p. 602.
(Asenby.)
_Cambs and Hunts Arch'l. Society Proceedings_, Vol. III, 1914, p. 224.
(Hilton.)
IRONS, E. A. "The Turf Maze at Wing," in _Rutland Arch'l. and Nat.
Hist. Society Transactions_, Vol. XIII, 1915.
(Wing.)
The following kindly supplied the writer with recent information
regarding the mazes at the localities indicated:
E. J. BULL, Esq., Carlisle (Rockcliffe Marshes); J. C. DENTON,
Esq., Cambridge (Comberton); D. H. GEDDIE, Esq., F.R.Hist.S.,
Borough Librarian, GRIMSBY (Horncastle); O. W. GODWIN,
Esq., Troy Farm, Somerton, Banbury (Somerton); Rev. F. J.
W. TAVERNER, M.A., Wing, Oakham (Wing); Rev. J. J. WALKER,
B.A., Boughton, Northants (Boughton Green); Rev. GEO. YORKE,
Alkborough, Lincs (Alkborough).
VIII. STONE LABYRINTHS
(For Rock Engravings, _see_ "Miscellaneous")
WORM, O. "Danicorum Monumentorum Libri Sex," 1651, p. 213.
(Denmark.)
RUDBECK, O. "Atlantica," 1695-8, Tab. 35, Fig. 134.
(Sweden.)
VON BAER, C. E., in _Bull. Hist. Phil, de l'Acad. de St.
Petersbourg_, Vol. I.
ASPELIN, J. R. "Steinlabyrinthe in Finnland," in _Zeitschrift für
Ethnologie_, Vol. IX, 1877, p. 439. (Also _Virchow_, p. 441, and
_Friedel_, p. 470.)
KRAUSE, E. "Die Trojaburgen Nordeuropas," 1893.
IX. THE LABYRINTH IN NON-EUROPEAN COUNTRIES
(i) AMERICAN INDIANS
COTTON, H. S. "Is the House of Tchuhu the Minoan Labyrinth?" in
_Science_ (New York), N.S. XLV, June 29, 1917, p. 667.
FEWKES, J. W. "A Fictitious Ruin in the Gila Valley, Arizona," in
_American Anthropologist_, N.S. IX, 1907, p. 510.
FEWKES, J. W., in _Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections_, 1920, Vol.
72, No. I, pp. 47-64.
(Pictograph from Mesa Verde.)
(ii) INDIA
BELLEW, H. W. "From the Indus to the Tigris," 1873-4.
(Circular figures on ground, which may be allied to labyrinth
designs.)
(iii) ZULUS
_Folk Lore_, Vol. 23, 1912. Review of "Some Zulu Customs and
Folk-lore," by L. H. SAMUELSON.
(Reference to maze figures on the ground.)
X. MISCELLANEOUS
HOMER. "Iliad," xviii. 590, etc.
(Ariadne's Dance.)
PLINY. "Hist. Nat.," xxxvi. 85.
(Maze Games.)
VIRGIL. "Aeneid," v. 545-603.
(Troy Game.)
SUETONIUS. "Nero," vii.
(Troy Game.)
PALLAS, P. S. "Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des russischen
Reichs," 1778, Vol. III.
(Siberian Crane Dance.)
STRUTT, J. "Sports and Pastimes of the People of England," 1830, p.
317.
NEIDHART VON REUENTHAL, ed. MORITZ-HAUPT, 1858, pp. 154-186.
(Troy-Aldei and Troyerlais.)
BENNDORF, O. "Das Alter des Trojaspiels," in W. REICHEL'S "Über
Homerische Waffen," 1894, pp. 133-9.
(Troy Game.)
_Folk Lore_, Vol. 24, 1913. Presidential Address of W. CROOKE, p. 34.
(Magic Ceremonies.)
_Folk Lore_, Vol. 29, 1918. "Collectanea," pp. 238-47.
(Serbian Troy Dances.)
_Notes and Queries._
4 ser., V, 1870.
(Troy Game in England.)
5 ser., I, 1874, p. 104.
("Labyrinth of St. Bernard," Mt. Carmel.)
8 ser., IV, 1893, p. 96, and V, 1894, pp. 37, 96, 351.
("Troy-town" place-names and Troia Nova.)
GORDON, E. O. "Prehistoric London," 1914.
(London as New Troy.)
LAMBERTUS ARDENSIS. "Historia Comitum Ardensium et Guisnensium, A.D.
800-1200," in "Reliquiae Manuscriptorum" of Petrus de Ludewig,
1727, Bk. IV, ch. 127, p. 549.
(Labyrinthine building in French Flanders.)
_Fonds Latin._ MS. No. 13013. Ninth-century "Comput" of St. Germain.
(Labyrinth figure.)
HENRY OF CLAIRVAUX, in _Hoveden's Chronicle_, under year 1178.
(Reference to Labyrinth. ? Metaphorical.)
BROMPTON, J. "Chronicon," under year 1151, in Sir R. TWYSDEN'S
"Historiae Anglicanae Scriptores X," 1652.
(Rosamond's Bower.)
HIGDEN, R. "Polychronicon," 1381-94. Ed. C. BABINGTON, 1886. Bk.
VIII, ch. 26.
(Rosamond's Coffer.)
LANG, A. "Magic and Religion," 1901.
(Prehistoric Rock Engravings.)
TATE, G. "The Ancient British Sculptured Rocks of Northumberland,
etc.," in _Berwickshire Naturalists' Club Proceedings_, Vol. V,
1864, p. 137, etc.
(Labyrinthoid figures on rocks.)
LUKIS, F. C., in _Journal of British Arch'l. Assn._, Vol. III, 1848,
pp. 269-79.
(Engraved stones on Gav'r Innis, Brittany.)
BICKNELL, C. "A Guide to the Prehistoric Rock Engravings in the
Italian Maritime Alps." _See_ figure reproduced in C. BUCKNALL'S
paper in _Bristol Nat. Society Proceedings_, 1912, Plate II, Fig.
3.
(Labyrinthoid figure.)
LAW, E. "Masterpieces of the Royal Gallery of Hampton Court," 1904.
(Maze by TINTORETTO and alleged portrait of "Fair Rosamond.")
EARP, F. R. "Descriptive Catalogue of Pictures in the Fitzwilliam
Museum," 1902, p. 14, Fig. 133.
(Painting of man with labyrinth.)
DUNBAR, E. D. "Social Life in Former Days," 1865, 1st series.
(Labyrinth design on Towels.)
BERTHELOT, M., in _La Grande Encyclopédie_, Art. "Labyrinthe," final
section.
(Labyrinth figure used by Alchemists.)
DURAND, J. _Op. cit._ 1857, p. 127.
(Labyrinth painted on wood.)
ALCIATI, A. "Emblemata," 1531, etc.
(Labyrinth Emblems.)
CATS, J. "Emblèmes touchant les Amours et les Mœurs," 1618, etc.
(Labyrinth Emblems.)
PARADIN, C. "Devises Héroïques et Emblèmes," 1621, etc.
(Labyrinth Emblems.)
QUARLES, F. "Emblems," 1635, etc.
(Labyrinth Emblems.)
Also many other Emblem books.
MOLLET, J. W. "Dictionary of Words used in Art and Archaeology,"
1883. Art. "Minotaur."
(Labyrinth as heraldic crest.)
NORDSTROM, S., in _Svenska Fornminnes föreningens Tidskrift_, Vol.
III, 1887, p. 227.
(Labyrinth designs on bells.)
MASON, G. "An Essay on Design in Gardening," 1795.
(Appendix on Bowers.)
BRAND'S "Popular Antiquities." Ed. W. C. HAZLITT, 1905.
(Art. on "St. Julian.")
WRIGHT, J. "The English Dialect Dictionary," 1902. Vol. III, p. 389.
("Julian's Bower" variants.)
MEILLET, A., in _French Quarterly_, Vol. II, No. 1, 1920.
(Etymology of "Labyrinth.")
HAVARD, H. "Dictionnaire de l'Ameublement," etc., 1887-90. Art.
"Labyrinthe."
(Game of "Labyrinthe.")
_German Engraving_, with verses, _circ._ 1630. Brit. Mus. 1750, c.
1/28.
BELGIAN LITHOGRAPHS of Toy Mazes. "Les Labyrinthes" and "Jardin
Chinois," _circ._ 1872. Brit. Mus. "Misc. Collections," 1881, c.
3, 69-71.
_Patent Specifications._ (Toy Mazes.)
ARNOT, J. M. No. 14764, August 1, 1894.
BRENTANO, A. No. 6204, April 11, 1889.
BRIDGE, H. No. 2613, February 2, 1906.
CUTHBERT, R. A., and BEVITT, W. No. 7381, March 26, 1898.
NIX, S. D. No. 16092, September 22, 1891.
PROCTOR, J. No. 9428, April 23, 1898.
INDEX
Ackermann, R., 78, 229
Addison, J., 169
Aegean, 20, 174
Aegeus, 17, 19
Aeneas, 98, 181
Aesculapius, Temple of, 51, 222
Aesop, 117
Agar, M., 145
Aix, near Marseilles, 48, 65, 220
Albano, 39
Alcazar, Seville, 125, 227
Alciati, A., 198, 234
Algeria, Pavement Labyrinth, 54, 223
Alkborough, Lincs, Church Labyrinth, 70, 72, 223
-- -- Turf Labyrinth, 71-73, 78, 84, 185, 229
Allcroft, A. H., 77, 213, 231
Allegorical Labyrinths, 133, 194, 198, 234, 235
Allen, T., 73, 229
Alpine Rock Engravings, 153, 234
Altieri, 127
Amé, E., 222
Amenemhat III, 13, 14
America, Hedge Mazes in, 142, 228
_American Homes and Gardens_, 224
American Indians, Maze Figures of, 97, 98
Amiens, 60, 61, 223
Amulet, Egyptian, 43
Amusement, Maze Arrangements for, 41, 65, 129, 202-208, 235
_Ancren Riwle_, 175
Andrews, W., 3, 216
Androgeos, 18
Androuet du Cerceau, J., 113, 114, 121, 226
Anhalt, 133, 227
_Annales Archéologiques_, 201, 222, 223
_Annalia Dubrensia_, 82, 229
d'Annunzio, G., 197
Apollo, 44, 45
Apollodorus, 23, 218
Appian Way, 39
Appleby, 73, 229
Arbor Vitae, Maze of, 142
Arbours, 100, 132, 142, 189
Architectural Labyrinths, 6-16, 30-37, 51, 111.
Architecture, Dictionary of, 216
Ardres, 111, 165, 233
Argolid, 51
Ariadne, 19-22, 31, 47, 48, 96, 160, 167, 177
Aristotle, 16
Arizona, 153
Arley Hall, Cheshire, 140, 226
Arneth, J. C., 220
Arnot, J. M., 205, 206, 235
Aromatic Plants in Mazes, 103-106, 141
Arras Cathedral, 61, 62, 222
Arsinoë, 14
Ascanius, 158
Asenby, Yorks, 77, 213, 231
Ashwell, Beds, 91
Aspelin, J. R., 147-149, 231
Athens, 17, 19
Auber, C. A., 223
Aubrey, J., 81, 135, 152, 166, 173, 225, 228
Austin, A., 200
Austin, G., 230
Austria, Hedge Maze in, 142
-- Roman Pavement in, 47
Auxerre Cathedral, 61
Axe Symbol, 31-34, 175, 176
Babylon, 150
Bacchus, 20
Bacchylides, 17
Bacon, F., 105
Badminton, 132, 225
Baikie, J., 219
Baldini, B., 20
Balks, 139, 189
Ball, W. W. R., 3, 140, 217
Ballad of Fair Rosamond, 167
Banbury, 88
Banks around Turf Mazes, 73, 81
Barcelona, 141, 227
Barkley, C. W., 230
Barnes, W., 230
Barrow, Julaber's, 90, 173, 230
Bastions, Turf Mazes with, 82, 84, 88
Battle, Abbot of, 136
Baugé, 112, 226
Bayeux, 61
Becket, Thomas, 169
Bede, 66
Bedfordshire, Turf Maze Sites in, 91
Bedfordshire (Wrest Park), 132
Beech, Hedges of, 140
Belgium, 112, 124, 227
Bellas, W., 82
Bellew, H. W., 232
"Bellows," 82
Bells, Labyrinths on, 202, 235
Belonius, 25
Belton House, Lincs, 140, 226, 228
Belvoir Castle, 132
Benndorf, O., 233
Benserade, I. de, 118
Berthelot, P. E. M., 95, 96, 234
Betin, P., 226
Beulah Spa, 137
Bevitt, W., 205, 235
Bicknell, C., 234
Birds, Automatic, 51, 166
-- Tombs of, 11
Blackheath, 136, 230
Blandford, 81
Blenheim, 168
Blondel, J. F., 226
Boeckler, C. A., 121-126, 227
Bohemia, King of, 194
Bonnin, T., 201
Book Titles, The Labyrinth in, 193-197
Borgo, Finland, 148
Borough, Etymology of, 136, 173
Borough, The (Southwark), 135, 136, 210, 228
Bosquet de la Reine, 121
Botetourt, Lord, 80
Bouchet, J., 194
Boughton, 132
Boughton Green, 75, 76, 230, 231
Bourbourg, Louis of, 111, 165
Bourn, Cambs, 69, 70, 84
Boutrays (or Boutterais), R., 59
Bower, Etymology of the word, 170-173, 235
-- Queen Mary's, 108, 109, 172, 226
-- Rosamond's, 1, 111, 164-169, 172
Bowl, with Exploits of Theseus, 52
Box, use of in Mazes, 100, 101, 108-110, 121, 127, 146
Brandenburg, 149
Breamore, Hants, 73, 74, 229, 230
Brentano, A., 204, 235
Bridge, H., 206, 207, 235
Brigg, Lincs, 73
Brindisi, 50, 221
_British Magazine_, 199
British Museum, 20, 44, 106, 219
Brittany, 92, 121, 153
Britten, J., 228
Brompton, J., 165, 233
Bronze Age, 149
Brown, A. J., 224
Brown, L. ("Capability" Brown), 134
Brutus (Prydain), 181
Bucknall, C., 234
_Builder, The_, 61, 223
Bull, Cult of, 31, 34
Bull, E. J., 231
Bull-leaping, Sport of, 34
Bull, Pasiphaë and the, 22
Bull's Head on Coins, 44
Burcestre, J., 210
Burges, W., 66
Burgh, Cumberland, 87, 92, 230
Burghley (Burleigh), Lord, 114
Burrows, R. M., 219
Button Seals, Egyptian, 43
Caen, 64, 142, 223
_Caerdroia_ or _Caer y troiau_, 92, 94, 228
_Caerdroi-Newydd_, 181
Caerleon, Mon., 48, 221
Caerludd, 181
Caesar, Julius, 90, 174, 181
Caetani-Lovatelli, E., 221
Caine, Hall, 181
Caley, J, 134
Calverley, C. S., 171
Camber, or Tilt, of Maze Paths, 73
Cambridge, 53, 140
Cambridgeshire, Church Mazes in, 66, 69, 70
-- Turf Maze in, 82
Camden, W., 84, 229
Campana, Marquis, 201
Campi, P. M., 57, 222
Candia, 29
Canina, L., 14, 15, 218, 220
Canova, A., 22
Canterbury, 67, 70, 169
Cardboard Mazes, 204
Card Game, "Labyrinth," 208
Cardross, 108
Careri, J. F. G., 218
Caria, 175
Carmel, Mount, 209
Caroon, 12
Carpenter, J., 131
Carwell, T., 195
_Casa del Labirinto_, Pompeii, 46, 221
_Casa Grande_, Arizona, 153
Catacombs, 40, 69
Catherine de Medici, 103, 113
Cats, J., 198, 234
Catullus, 23
Caumont, A. de, 48, 221
Caumont, le Seigneur de, 156, 219
Cave, Dictaean, 21, 32
Caverns, Natural, 183
-- of Gortyna, 23-28, 219
Cedar Hill, U.S.A., 142, 228
Centaur confused with Minotaur, 52, 53, 56, 57
Cerceau. _See_ Androuet du Cerceau.
Ceremonial of Spring Awakening, 161
Chair, or Throne, of Minos, 30, 31
Châlons-sur-Marne, 65
Chantilly, 121, 226
Chapman, H. W., 228
Charles I, 134
Charles V of France, 112
Charles of Spain, 126
Charleval, 113, 226
Chartres, 59, 60, 61, 75, 223
Chateaubriand, 68
Chatsworth, 109
Chaucer, G., 171, 174, 176, 177, 180
Cheltenham, 140
_Chemin de Jérusalem_, 60, 64, 66, 67, 96
Cherry Trees in Mazes, 121
Cheshire, Maze in, 140
Chilcombe, Hants, 79
Chilcotin Indians, 160
Children, Mazes for (_see also_ Amusement), 40, 99, 129, 149
Chilham, Kent, 90
Chipping Campden, 82, 229
Chiusi, 37-39
Choisy-le-Roi, 121, 226
_Choros_ of Ariadne, 22, 31
Christian Emblems, 69
Chronology of Church Labyrinths, 54, 57, 59, 60
-- -- Cretan Labyrinth, 30
-- -- Egyptian Labyrinth, 13, 15, 16
-- -- Hedge Mazes, 110-135
-- -- Turf Labyrinths, 95
Church Labyrinths, 4, 54-70, 72, 97, 215, 223
Churchward, A., 31
Churchwardens' Accounts, 135, 225, 229
Ciampini, G. G., 56, 222
Cicero, 110
_Ciel_, 60
Clairvaux, Abbot of, 111
Claudian, 23
Cleidemus, 17
Clement X, Pope, 127
Cleopatra, Queen, 16
Clerc, S. le, 117, 118, 226
Clifford, Walter (_see also_ Rosamond), 164
Clifton, Notts, 88, 89, 229
"Closed" Designs, 183
Clue of Thread, 19, 167, 191
Clusium, 37-39
Cockerell, C. R., 26, 27, 219
Coffer of Rosamond, 166, 233
Coins, Knossian, Lydias, Phrygian, etc., 42, 44, 45, 92, 149, 161, 220
-- Roman, 78, 84
Collar, H., 228
Cologne, 65, 223
Comarmond, A., 221
Comberton, Cambs, 84, 229, 231
Comenius, 196
Commelyn, J., 107, 227
"Compact" Design, 185
Constable, J. G., 73
Convent of St. Barlaam, 95, 223
Cook, A. B., 3, 53, 161, 216, 219
Cooke, J., 135
Corinth, 176
Cormerod, Switzerland, 48, 220
Cortenovis, A., 38
Cotswold Hills, 82, 228, 229
Cotton, H. S., 232
_Country Life_, 3, 216
_Country Life_ (America), 228
Cow, Hollow, of Daedalus, 22
Cowper, W., 196
Craigmillar Castle, 202
Cranborne Chase, 74
Crane Dance, 19, 159, 162, 233
Cremona, 57, 223
Cretan Labyrinth, 2, 4, 17-36, 98, 111, 152, 153, 156-159, 216, 218,
219
Creuzer, G. F., 220
Crisp, F., 225
Crocodiles, Sacred, 7, 9
Cromlechs, Distribution of, 99
Crooke, W., 233
Cross, Labyrinth Figure on, 151
Crown of Ariadne, 20
Croxall, S., 167, 168
Crusades, Church Labyrinths and the, 67
Crystal Palace, 138
Cumberland, Mazes in, 78, 86, 87, 92, 230
"Cup and Ring" Marks, 152
Cupid, 117
_Cursus_, 77
Cuthbert, R. A., 205, 235
Cyclops, Labyrinth of the, 40, 219
Cymmrodorion Society, _Transactions_, 92, 228
Cypress used for Mazes, 121
_Daedale_, 60
Daedalus, 18, 22, 23, 52, 111, 112, 156, 160, 172, 176, 177, 179
_Daily Chronicle_, 225
_Daily Mail_, 227
Daire, L. F., 223
Dance, _Crane_, 19, 159, 162
-- of Ariadne, 160
-- _Maiden's_, 150
-- _of Troy_, 156-163
Dances, Morris and Sword, 161
Dancing--Place of Ariadne, 22, 31
Danish Origin of Turf Mazes, 136, 152, 228
Dante, 58, 193
Daremberg, Saglio and Pottier, _Dict. Antiq._, 216
Debdale Hall, Mansfield, 140, 228
Debray, M., 222
_Dédale_, _Dédalus_, 112
Definitions (_see also_ Etymology), 1, 2, 182, 184
Defoe, D., 128, 225
De Launay, R., 4, 215, 222
Delille, J., 143
Delone (or Delorney), T., 166
Delos, 19, 159
Demeter, 44
Denmark, Labyrinths in, 151
Dennis, G., 39, 40, 219
Denny, W., 82
Denton, J. C., 231
Deschamps des Pas, L., 222
Design, Labyrinth, 182-189, 217
d'Este, 103, 200, 226
Destruction of Church Labyrinths, 58-63
-- -- Egyptian Labyrinth, 11,16
-- -- Hedge Mazes, 115, 121
-- -- Turf Mazes, 76
Devonshire, Mazes in, 91
-- Rock Engravings in, 152
De Vries, J. V., 101, 102, 107, 227
Diodorus Siculus, 9, 23, 217, 218
_Discovery_ (Journal), 219
Dodona, 38
_Doolhof_, 108, 127
Dorchester, 82, 211
Dorset, Mazes in, 80--82, 211
Double Axe, 31-34, 175, 176, 218
Doublet, G., 221
Doublet de Boisthibault, 223
Dover, R. ("Dover's Games"), 82
Drayton, M., 166
Dress Embroidery, Labyrinthine, 155
_Drych y Prif Oesoedd_, 92
Dudeney, H. E., 3, 217
Duffus, Morayshire, 201
Dunbar, E. D., 234
Dunbar, W., 171
Dungeon at Knossos, 20, 36
Dunstable, 91
Dupérac, S., 103, 226
Durand, J., 58, 222, 234
Duris, Kylix by, 220
Durus, Quintus Laberius, 90, 174
Dutch Mazes, 101, 102, 107, 127
Dwarf Shrub Mazes, 100, 103
Earp, F. R., 234
Earthquake at Knossos, 35
Earthworks, Ancient, near Turf Mazes, 75
Eastcote, 203
Eberhard of Bethune, 196
Ecclesiastical Labyrinths, 4, 54-70, 72, 97, 215, 222, 223
-- Origin, supposed, of Turf Mazes, 86, 93, 94, 95, 162, 215
-- Sites near Turf Labyrinths, 72
Eden, River, 87
Egton, Yorks, 77
Egyptian Labyrinth, 4, 6-16, 185, 217
-- Seals, Amulets, &c., 43
Elderkin, G. W., 220
Eleanor, Queen, 164-167
Elgood, G. S., 226
Elson, G., 76
Ely, 66, 70
Emblems, 96, 198, 234
Embrun, Archbishop of, 96
Encyclopaedia articles on Labyrinths, 3, 130, 134, 138, 216
Enghien, 124, 227
Engravings (_see also_ Graffito), 130, 219
Essex, Mazes in, 82, 138, 139
d'Este, 103, 200, 226
Estienne, C., 103, 226
Etruscan Labyrinth, 37-40, 219
-- Vase (from Tragliatella), 40, 220
Etymology of "Bower," 170-173, 235
Etymology of "Julian's Bower," 98, 173, 174
-- -- "Labyrinth," 32, 35, 172, 175-178
-- -- "Lieue," 60
-- -- "Maze," 136, 179-180
-- -- "Minotaur," 35
Euripides, 22
Europa, 21, 45
Evans, A. J., 3, 4, 29-36, 218, 221
Evelyn, J., 114, 121, 127, 135, 227
Experiment with rat, 208
Exton Park, 132
Fables, Aesop's, at Versailles, 117-120
Fabyan, R., 172
Fairies, Song of the, 77
Farnham, Surrey, 90
Fayum, 14
Feast in connection with Maze, 84
Ferguson, R. S., 230
Fergusson, J., 218
Fewkes, J. W., 153, 232
Fiction, Mazes and Labyrinths in, 1, 76, 77, 164-169
Fields, Maze Figures in (Pliny), 40, 98
Figures, Human, in Church Labyrinth, 61
Finances of Hampton Court Maze, 129, 225
Finiguerra, M., 20, 219
Finland, Mazes in, 147, 148, 150, 231
Fish-Stews, Ancient, Maze-like, 75
Flanders, Labyrinthine Building in, 111
Fletcher, G., 196
Floral Labyrinths, 101-106
Florence, Manuscript in, 53
Florentine Picture Chronicle, 20, 219
Folk Dances, English, 161, 163
Folk Lore, 73, 77
_Folk Lore_ (Journal), 155, 232, 233
Folk Memory, 73, 77, 228
Fountains in Mazes, 117, 138, 142
Fouquier, M., 227
Fragrant Shrubs in Mazes, 141
France, Church Labyrinths in, 58-66, 112, 222, 223
-- Hedge Mazes in, 112, 113, 117-121, 142, 226
-- Roman Mosaics in, 48
Frazer, J. G., 160, 215
Frederick I of Bohemia, 194
Frescoes, 31, 34, 42
Frets, Greek, 51
Friar Park, Henley, 121
Fry, L., 138
Fullmer, S., 224
Future of Labyrinth Idea, 212
Fylfot, or Swastika, 42
Gabriel, J., 121
Gailhabaud, J., 222
Gaillon, Mazes at, 113
Galatea, 138
Gallows Hill, 74
Game of "Labyrinth," 208
Game of "Troy," 52, 98, 156-162, 232, 233
Games played in Turf Mazes, 73, 75, 81, 82, 90, 232
-- -- -- Stone Labyrinths, 149
-- -- -- Maze Figures on the Ground, 41, 65, 153, 154, 202
Gaming Board at Knossos, 30
Garden-bed Labyrinths, 101-105
Gardeners, Views of, on Mazes, 144-145
Garden Fête, Temporary Maze at, 203
Gav'r Innis, Mazy Engravings at, 153
Geddie, G. H., 231
"Gelyan Bower," 77, 173
Gemelli-Careri, J. F., 11, 218
Gems, Labyrinths on, 52, 222
_Geranos_ or Crane Dance, 19, 159, 162, 233
German Allegorical Engraving, 194, 235
Germany, Church Labyrinths in, 65, 223
-- Hedge Mazes in, 123, 127, 133
-- Stone Labyrinths in, 149
Géruzez, J. B. F., 67, 222
_Giant's Castle_, _Fence_ or _Street_, 150
Gilchrist, R. M., 197
_Gillian's Bore_, 73
_Gilling Bore_, 71
Glasgow, G., 219
Gloucestershire, Mazes in, 82, 140
Goal of a Maze or Labyrinth, 2, 73, 100, 128, 138, 189, 203
Goathland, 77
Godmersham, 90
Godstowe, 165, 166, 169
Godwin, J. F., 88
Godwin, O. W., 89, 231
Good Friday Celebrations, 90
Gopher, 154
Gordon, E. O., 4, 181, 216, 230
Gortyna, 23-28, 219
Gothland, 149, 202
Graevius, J. G., 218
_Graffito_ at Pompeii, 46, 221
Grantham, 140, 228
Gravesend, 138
Greece, The Labyrinth Figure in, 51, 95
Greenwell, W., 77
Greenwich, 136
Guard Room, Labyrinth in, 65
Guérin, V., 221
Guildford, 90, 230
Gunterstein, 127, 227
Hackney, 135
Hadrumetum, 48
Hagia Triada, 43
Hall, H. R., 219
Hall of Double Axes, 3 2
Hampshire, Mazes in, 73, 74, 79
Hampstead, 137
Hampton Court, Little Maze, or Troy Town, 129, 130, 225
-- --, The Maze, 127-129, 138, 142, 185, 186, 187, 191, 192, 199, 225
-- --, The Maze, in Literature, 128, 192, 199, 225
-- --, Pictures at, 112, 169
-- --, Queen Mary's Bower, 109
Harland-Oxley, W. E., 230
_Harley Manuscripts_, 224
Harpham, Yorks, Roman Pavement, 48, 54, 221
"Harris" at Hampton Court, 192
Harris, W., 127, 227
Harrow Road, "The Maze," 137
Harrow School Museum, 52
Harte, Bret, 173
Hasted, E., 210
Hastingleigh, 211
Hatfield, Herts, 115, 116, 186, 187, _Frontispiece_.
Hatfield, S., 71, 229
Havard, H., 226, 235
Havering-at-Bower, 172
Hawara, 14, 175, 176, 217
Hawes, C. H. and H. B., 219
Hawthorne, N., 17
Hazlitt, W. C., 195, 235
Head, B. V., 220
Hearne, T., 168
Hedge Mazes, 110-146, 224-228
-- --, Criticism of, 143, 144
Helsingfors, 147, 150
Henley-on-Thames, 121, 225
Henrietta Maria, Queen, 134
Henry, Abbot of Clairvaux, 111, 233
Henry I, 168
-- II, 111, 164-167
-- VIII, 168
Hera, 44
Heraldry, The Labyrinth in, 96, 97, 181, 235
Herefordshire Beacon, 90, 229
Herodotus, 6-9, 14, 23, 217
Hertfordshire, Mazes in, 114-116, 210
Hesiod, 20
Hieroglyphs, 43
Higden, R., 166, 233
Hill, A. D., 230
Hill, or Hyll, T., 103-105, 195, 224
Hillbury, Surrey, 90
Hilton, Hunts, 84-86, 229, 231
_Hippodromus_, 110
Hoare, R. C., 229
Hoeck, C., 219
Holbein, H., 113
Holderness, 77
Holland, Mazes in, 107, 127, 227
Hollar, W., 135
Holly in Maze Hedges, 129, 130, 146
Home, H. (Lord Kames), 143, 224
Homer, 20, 36, 160, 163, 232
Horatii and Curatii, Tomb of, 39
Hornbeam in Maze Hedges, 129, 131, 142
Horncastle, 77, 78, 98
Horticulture, The Labyrinth in, 100-146
_Hospitator_, 174
House of the Labyrinth, Pompeii, 45
-- -- _Tcuhu_, 153
Hoveden, R., 166, 233
How, W. W., 218
Hugh of Lincoln, 166
Hull, 77, 78
Huntingdonshire, Maze in, 84-86
Hutchins, J., 229
Hutchison, A. F., 226
Hydraulic Statuary, 117
Iceland, Mazes in, 149, 150, 162
Ida, Mount, 23, 26
"Idrison," 92, 228
Imandes, 9
Inchmahome, 108
Indian Dance, 160
-- Maze Figures, 153, 154, 232
-- Sun Ceremonial, 160
Inscriptions accompanying Labyrinths, 45, 50, 52, 54, 56, 57, 61, 68,
95, 96, 121, 133, 151, 221
Inventions of Daedalus, 22, 51
Inversion of Design of Turf Maze, 79, 82
Inwards, R., 217
Ionian Coins, 45
Ireland, Rock Engravings in, 152
--, Maze Names in, 211
Irons, E. A., 231
Islington, 137
Islip, A., 107, 224
Italy, Church Labyrinths in, 56-58, 222, 223
--, Hedge Mazes in, 103, 126, 127, 142, 226, 227
--, Plaquette, with Labyrinth, from, 52
--, Rock Engravings in, 153
Izod, F., 82
Jackson, E. M., 139
Jacquemart, Canon, of Rheims, 61
James I, 195
_Jardin Chinois, le_, 204, 235
Jardin des Plantes, Paris, 121, 142
_Jericho, Walls of_, 150
_Jérusalem, Chemin de_, 60, 64, 66-68, 96
--, _Ruins of_, 150
Jerusalem, Voyages to, 67, 68, 156
_Jeu-de-lettres_, Labyrinth with, 54, 55
Johnson, S., 143, 172
Johnson, W., 228
Jomard, E. F., 12, 218
_Julaber's Barrow_, 90, 173, 230
Julian, Saint, 173-174
_Julian's Bower_, 71, 78, 91, 96, 98, 173
_Juliberry's Grave_, 90, 173, 230
Julius Caesar, 90, 174, 181
Julus, or Iulus, 98
July Park, 77
Juniper in Maze Hedges, 105, 146
Junius, 172
Kabbadias, P., 52, 222
Kames, Lord, 143, 224
Kensington Palace, 130
Kensington, South, 138, 139, 225
Kent, Mazes in, 78, 90, 91, 136, 138
--, "Troy-town" Place-names in, 211
Kerkyon, 52
_King's Knot, The_, 109
Kingsley, C., 17
Kip, J., 132, 225
Kipling, R., 197
Knossos, 17, 18, 21, 26, 28, 29-36, 42, 160, 176
Knots, 100, 101, 105, 106, 109
_Knowledge_ (Journal), 186, 217
Krause, E., 187, 216, 217, 231
Kylix, or Bowl, with Theseus Figures, 52
Labaris, 175
Labranda, 34, 175
_Labrys_, 34, 175
"Labyrinth Camp," 211
Labyrinth, Cult of, Distribution, 155
--, Etymology of word, 32, 35, 172, 175-178
--, Floral, or Dwarf Shrub, 101-106
--, Game of, 208
--, of Clusium (Etruscan), 37, 219
--, of Crete, 2, 4, 17-36, 98, 111, 216, 218, 219
--, of Egypt, 4, 6-16, 217
--, of Lemnos, 37
--, of Samos, 37
--, of the Cyclops (Nauplia), 40
--, Topiary. _See_ Hedge Maze.
Labyrinthine Language, 101, 133
Lake of the Labyrinth (Lake Moeris), 7, 9, 12, 13
Lambert of Ardres (_Lambertus Ardensis_), 111, 112, 223
Lampares, 13
Lang, A., 234
Langley, Batty, 132, 224
Lappland, Mazes in, 147, 150
Latin Maxims as a Verbal "Labyrinth," 209
"Laud's Labyrinth," 195
Launay, R. de, 4, 215, 222
Laurel, Use of, in Topiary Work, 110
Lauremberg, P., 227
Law, E., 225, 234
Lawson, W., 105, 224
Leicestershire, Maze in (Belvoir Castle), 132
Leigh, Dorset, 80, 229
Leland, J., 168
Leman, T., 90
Lemnos, 37
Lepsius, K. R., 12, 218
_Lieue, La_ (Chartres Labyrinth), 59
Liger, L., 131
Lille, 66, 223
Lime Trees used for Mazes, 140
Lincolnshire, Mazes in, 71-73, 77, 78, 140, 229
Literature on Mazes and Labyrinths, 1, 3, 4, 215-235.
_See also_ Book Titles, Criticism and Fiction.
Lithographed Mazes, 204
Lodge, O. W. F., 169, 197
London, G., 127, 131, 224
London, Mazes in, 135-139
--, The New Troy (_Troy-Novant_), 4, 181, 216, 233
Longsword, William, 165
Loo, 127, 227
Loops in Labyrinth Design, 65, 86, 184, 186, 190
Louis XIV, 11, 117, 121
Louis de Bourbourg, 111, 165
Louise de Savoie, 112
Louth, 77, 78, 229
Love, Labyrinths of, 178, 196
Lucas, E., 217
Lucas, P., 11, 218
Lucca, 55-57, 223
Lucretius, House of, at Pompeii, 45
Lukis, F. C., 234
_Lusus Trojae_, 52, 98, 158, 232, 233
Luxembourg Gardens, Paris, 121
Lyddington, Rutland, 75
Lydia, 175
--, Coins of, 45
Macartney, M., 224
_Machine de Marli_, 120
Mackenzie, Compton, 1
Maffei, P. A., 52, 222
Magic Rites, 160, 233
_Maiden Bower_, 91
_Maiden's Dance_, 150
Maintenance of Mazes, 145, 146
Malvern Hills, 90
Manetho, 175
_Man-in-the-Maze_ (Toy), 205
Manningtree, Essex, 139
Mansart, J. H., 117
Mansfield Woodhouse, 140
Manuscripts, 53, 219, 223, 224
Marden, Surrey, 135
Marfleet, 77
Markham, G., 105
Mary Queen of Scots, 108
Mary Tudor, Princess, 136
Mason, G., 172, 235
Massmann, H. F., 216
Materials, Hedge, 146
Mathematical Principles, 190, 216, 217
May Eve Games, 73
Mayer, Max, 175
Maynard, G. N., 230
Maze, Etymology of the word, 136, 179, 180
Maze Green, 210
-- Hill, 136, 210
-- Pattern on Palace Wall, Knossos, 31, 32, 42
-- Pond, 210
-- Sunday, 179
-- Toys, 204-208, 235
Mazes of Flowers and Herbs, 101-106
Mazetown, Ireland, 211
_Mazles_, 84
Meager, L., 224
Meander, 28, 31, 32, 42, 48, 52, 130, 134, 179, 183, 221
Medici, Catherine de, 103, 113
Meillet, A., 235
Mela, Pomponius, 9, 217
Memory, Folk-, 73, 77, 228
Memphis, 43
Mena, Juan de, 193
Menteith, Queen Mary's Bower at, 108, 172, 226
Mesa Verde, Indian Pictograph from, 154, 232
Metaphor, The Labyrinth in, 41, 282.
_See also_ Book Titles and Etymology.
Meursius, J., 218
Meyer, W., 217
Middlesex, Mazes in. _See_ Hackney, Hampstead, Hampton Court, Harrow
Road, Islington.
Milan, 142, 227
Miller, T., 169
Millin, A. L., 220
Milton, J., 178
Minoa, 22
Minoan Art and Civilisation, 30, 31, 42, 218, 219
Minos, 17-23, 27, 31, 45, 218
Minotaur, 18-20, 22, 44, 46-53, 56, 59, 96, 112, 156, 177
Mirror Mazes, 202
Mistley Place, 139, 228
_Mizmaze_, 71
Mnemonics, 191, 192
Moeris, King, 9
--, Lake, 7, 9, 12, 13
Mollet, A., 123, 227
--, J. W., 235
Monmouthshire, Roman Pavement in, 48, 221
--, "Troy" Place-names in, 211
Monument in Turf Maze, 85, 86
Moore, T., 146, 172, 216
Morris Dances, 161
Mosaic Pavements, 40, 47-50
Mosso, A., 219
Mounsey, W. H., 92
Mount Carmel, 209
Mountaine, Didymus (Hill, T.), 103, 224
Müller, K., 222
Müller, K. O., 38, 220
Multicursal Designs, 184-187
Munich, 127, 227
Müntz, E., 222
Murray, G. G. A., 21
Muswell Hill, Oxfordshire, 88
Mycenae, 34
Mycenaeans, 44
Mylasa, 175
Myres, J. L., 218
Mystery, Sense of, associated with Labyrinths, 1, 5, 77, 193
Napery (Towels), Mazes on, 201, 234
Naples, 40
Napoleon, Egyptian Expedition of, 12, 218
Natural Labyrinths, 182
Nauplia, 40, 219
Naxos, 19, 48
Neidhart von Reuenthal, 162, 233
Neolithic Remains, 30
Nero, 159
Nesfield, W. H., 138, 225
_New Georgia_, 137
_Nineveh, City of_, 150
Nisbett, H. C., 230
Nix, S. D., 205, 235
Nodes, 190, 204
Nomes of Egypt, 7, 10
Nordstrom, S., 235
Northamptonshire, Roman Pavement in, 48, 221
--, Mazes in, 75, 76, 132, 230, 231
Northumberland, Rock Engravings in, 152, 217
Norway, Mazes in, 150
_Notes and Queries_, 73, 161, 230, 233
Nôtre, A. le, 121
Nottinghamshire, Mazes in, 88, 140, 228
_Nun's Fence_, 150
Oak Trees planted in Maze, 140
Obelisk in Turf Maze, 85, 86
Observation Posts, 142, 189
Opera: _Le Labyrinthe d'Amour_, 196
_Opus Alexandrinum_, 47
Orbe, Switzerland, Roman Pavement at, 48, 220
_Orchestra_ at Knossos, 31
Origin of Labyrinth Figures, 43-44, 186-188
-- -- Turf Mazes, 92-99, 136, 152, 161, 228
Orléansville, Algeria, 54, 55
Ostiaks, of Siberia, Crane-dance of, 159, 233
Ostrander, I., 197
Ovid, 218
Owl, with Labyrinth, on Coins, 45
Oxford, Trinity College, Maze at, 132, 225
Oxfordshire, Mazes in. _See_ Henley, Muswell Hill, Oxford, Somerton.
Ozanam, A. F., 53, 221
Ozell, J., 24, 219
Page, J. T., 230
Paintings of Mazes, 31, 112, 113, 201
Palace of Knossos, 30-36, 218
Palestine, 209
Pallas, P. S., 233
Panseron, P., 226
Paper, Mazes on, 202
Paracelsus, 195
Paradin, C., 96, 97, 198, 234
Paris, Catacombs of, 40
--, Hôtel de St. Paul, 112, 226
--, Jardin des Plantes, 121, 142
--, Le Luxembourg, 121
--, Les Tuileries, 121, 226
Parkinson, J., 100, 224
Pasiphaë, 22
Patents for Maze Toys, 204-207, 235
Pavements, Church, 54-70, 72, 223
--, Roman, 40, 46-50, 220-221
Pavia, 56, 223
Peckham, London, "Troy" Place-name at, 211
Penitential Use, alleged, of Labyrinths, 67, 97, 222
Pepys, S., 135, 166, 195, 196
Perez, G., 96
Perrault, C., 117, 226
Perrot, G., 218, 220
Persephone, 45
Persian Legends, 162
_Petasus_, 38
Peter of Paris, 177
Petesuchis, 10
Petrie, W. M. Flinders, 13, 14, 16, 43, 217, 221
Philochorus, 17, 20
Phoenician Script, 31
Phrygia, Coins of, 45
Piacenza (Placentia), 57, 222
Pictographs, 31, 154, 183
Piddington, Oxon, 88
_Pigs-in-Clover_ (Toy), 51, 97, 204
Pilgrimages, Labyrinth Journeys in lieu of, 67
Pima Indians, Maze Figures of, 153
Pimperne, Dorset, 81, 185, 228, 229
Place-names, 210-211
Plaque, Egyptian, 43
Plaquette, Italian, 52, 53
"Plashed" Hedges, 117
Plato, 141
Plays with "Labyrinth" Titles, 165, 195-197
Pleasure Gardens, 137, 138, 225
Pliny, 10, 23, 37, 98, 110, 217-219, 224, 232
Pliny the Younger, 110, 224
Plutarch, 17, 20, 218
Po, River, 57
Pococke, R., 12, 26, 218
Poetic Labyrinths, 193-194
Poggio Gajella, 39
Poitiers, 64, 184, 223
Pompeii, 45, 46, 221
Pont l'Abbé (Finistère), 65
Pope, A., 178, 180, 196
Pope Clement X, 127
Porsena, Tomb of, 37, 39, 220
Portrait, alleged, of Rosamond, 169
Pottery, 30, 40, 51, 220
Prévost, M., 223
Prison, Labyrinth as, 35
Privet, use of, in Mazes, 106, 129
Procrustes, 52
Proctor, J., 206, 235
Pryme, Abraham de la, 73, 229
Ptolemy, 16
"Purpose," an essential element in definition, 183
Putney Heath, 90, 225
Puzzle-element in Maze Design, 45, 128, 143, 182, 184, 188
Pyramids of Egypt, 6, 7
-- -- the Egyptian Labyrinth, 8, 9, 10
-- -- -- Etruscan Labyrinth, 38
Quarles, F., 198
Quarry, Labyrinth used as, 16
--, regarded as a Labyrinth, 25
Quatremère de Quincy, A. C., 38, 220
Queen Eleanor, 164-167
-- Henrietta Maria, 134
Queen Mary's Bower, 108, 109, 172, 226
Quiller-Couch, A. T., 197
Race-horse named "Troy-town," 198
Racing Centre named "Mazetown," 142
Randall, or Randolph, T., 82
Rat, Experiment with, 208
Ravenna, 58
Reinach, S., 217, 220
Réné of Anjou, 112
Renkin, S., 121
"Restorations" of Ancient Labyrinths, 14, 15, 16, 38
Revolution, French, and Destruction of Labyrinths, 58, 62
Rheims, 60, 61, 63, 124
Rich, A., 221
Rig-Veda, 162
Ripon, 77
Rites of Spring Awakening, 160
Rix, G. K., 228
Roberts, P., 93, 228
Robes, Labyrinths on, 53, 221
Robin Hood's Race, 88
Robinson, W., 144, 244
Robolotti, F., 223
Rochers, Les, 121, 226
Rochester, "Troy-town" in, 211
Rockbourne, Hants, 74
Rockcliffe, Cumberland, 86, 87, 92
Rock Engravings, 152, 153, 187, 188, 217
Rocque, J., 225
Roman Baths, Labyrinth-mosaic in, 48, 49
-- buildings on site of Egyptian Labyrinth, 11
-- Coins, 78, 84
-- Emperors, Labyrinth on Robes of, 53
-- Gardens, 101, 224
-- Origin, alleged, of Turf Mazes, 78, 84, 88, 90, 93, 98
-- Pavements, 41, 46-50
Romantic Aspects of Mazes and Labyrinths, 1, 73, 74, 193
Rome, Catacombs of, 40, 69
--, St. Maria di Trastavera, 57
--, St. Maria in Aquiro, 57, 201
Rosamond, The Fair, Ballad of, 167
-- -- --, Bower of, 1, 111, 164-169, 172, 233
-- -- --, Disinterment of, 166, 168
-- -- --, Epitaph of, 165, 168
-- -- --, Wonderful Coffer of, 166, 233
Rosherville Gardens, Gravesend, 138
Rostrum in Hedge Mazes, 138, 142
_Round Castle_, 150
_Round Tabill_, 109
Rouse, W. H. D., 219
Routing Lynn, 152
Royal Horticultural Society's Gardens, 138, 139, 225
Rudbeck, O., 150, 231
Running the Maze (_see also_ Treading), 73, 74, 161
Ruskin, J., 3, 20, 223
Rutland, Mazes in, 74, 75, 231
Sacrificial Rites, 161
Saffron Walden, Hedge Maze at, 138, 189, 228
-- --, Turf Maze at, 82-84, 124, 210, 229
St. Anne's Well, or Hill, Nottingham, 88, 93
St. Barlaam, 95, 223
St. Bernard, 209, 233
St. Bertin, Abbey of, 62, 63, 223
St. Catherine's Hill, Winchester, 79, 230
St. Julian, 173, 174, 235
_St. Julian's_, Goathland, 77
St. Martha's Hill, Guildford, 90, 230
St. Omer, 62, 63, 223
St. Paul, Hôtel de, Paris, 112
_St. Peter's Game_, 150
St. Quentin, 60, 61
Salisbury, Maze near, 74
--, Earls of, 115, 165
--, Marquis of, 115
Salzburg, Roman Pavement at, 47, 220
Samos, 7, 37
Samuelson, L. H., 155, 232
Sand, Mazes on the, 202
Savary, C. E., 26, 219
Sceaux, 121, 226
Schliemann, H., 34
Scientific Nomenclature, the Labyrinth in, 178, 179
School Playground, Maze in, 84
Scotland, The Labyrinth in, 78, 91, 108, 201, 202
Scott, G. G., 66
Scott, R. F., 211
Scott, S., 197
Seals and Seal Impressions, 34, 43
Seaside Mazes, 202
Sebek, or Suchus, 9
Sebekneferu, 14
Sens, 61, 62
Senusret III, 175
Serbian Troy-Dances, 162
Serlio, J., 113, 226
Sévigné, Madame de, 121
Seville, 125, 193, 227
Shakespeare, W., 94, 95, 171, 177, 178, 180
Sharp, C., 161
Shepherds as Turf Maze cutters, 92, 93
_Shepherd's Race_, 71, 75, 88
_Shepherd's Ring_, 75
Shore, T. W., 230
Siberia, "Crane" Dance in, 159, 233
Sieber, F. W., 28, 219
Silvester, A., 161
Simpkinson, J. N., 76
Skippon, P., 127
Slates, Mazes drawn on, 202
Slav Mythology, 162
Smilis, 37
Smith, J. E., 135
Sneinton, Notts, 88, 229
Solar Theory of Labyrinth Figure, 92, 160, 215, 216
_Solomon, Labyrinth of_, 95, 96
_--, Prison of_, 96
Solution of Mazes, 189-192
Solway Marshes, 86
Somerleyton, Suffolk, 140, 141, 228
Somerton, Oxon, 88, 89, 231
Sorgvliet, 127, 227
Southey, R., 172
South Kensington, 138, 139, 225
Southwark, 135, 136, 210, 225
Spain, Mazes in, 125, 141
Spanish Manuscript (_Rudo Ensayo_), 153
Sparrow, W., Monument of, 86
Spenser, E., 181
Spirals, 28, 183, 188, 200
"Spiritual" Labyrinth, 194
Sport (_see also_ Dances and Games), 82, 90
--, Bull-leaping, 34
--, in Stone Labyrinths, 149
--, in Turf Labyrinths, 73, 75, 76, 80, 81, 82, 84, 90, 94
--, Mazes made in Fields, etc., for, 41, 65, 202
Spratt, T. A. B., 27, 219
Spring Games, 73
Spring Rites, 160, 161
Staircases at Knossos, 31
Statues, 10, 13, 117, 121, 133, 138, 189
Stein, H., 226
Stewart, A. L., 197
Stirling Castle, 109
_Stone Dance_, 151
_Stone Fence_, 150
Stone Labyrinths, 136, 147-151
Stowe, J., 168
Strabo, 8, 9, 14, 23, 217, 219
Strachey, G. L., 178
Strickland, A., 136
Strutt, J., 233
Stukeley, W., 77, 91, 228
Sudeley Castle, 140, 228
Suetonius, 159, 232
Suffolk, Maze in, 140, 141
Sumner, H., 74
Sun-dials in Maze, 121
Sun-god, 10, 92
Sun-myths and Sun-rites, 92, 160, 215, 216
Surrey, Mazes in, 90, 134, 135, 137
Susa, Tunis, 48, 54, 221
Sutton Court, 135
Svastika, Swastika, Fylfot, Tetraskele, 42, 161, 200, 217
Sweden, Hedge Mazes, 123
--, Labyrinths on Bells, 202, 235
--, Stone Mazes, 148-151
Swedish Drill, Labyrinthine Figure in, 163
Swinburne, A., 169
Switzer, S., 132, 133, 224
Switzerland, Roman Pavements in, 48, 220
Sword Dances, 161
Symbolism of Labyrinth, 43, 53, 58, 67, 68, 117, 182, 193, 194, 198
Symmetry in Maze Design, 183, 189
Sympathetic Magic, 160
Szymanski, J. S. (in _Biol. Zentralblatt_, 1917), 208
Tacitus, 159
Tadmarton Heath, Oxon, 90, 229
Tarry, G., 217
Tate, G., 152, 234
_Taurokathapsia_, 34
Taverner, F. J. W., 231
_Taxa_, 110
_Tcuhu_, 154, 232
Temporary Maze, 203
Tennyson, A., 169
Theobalds, Herts, 114, 115
Theocritus, 41
Theodorus, 37
Theseus, 17-20, 22, 46-52, 56, 94, 159, 191, 220
_Tholos_ of Epidauros, 51, 222
Thorn-bushes in Mazes, 146
Thorold, T., 195
Three-dimensional Mazes, 185
Throne of Minos, 30, 31
Tiddy, E. J., 197
_Times, The_, 35, 91, 219, 230
Tintoretto, 112, 113, 234
Tiryns, 34, 51, 176, 222
Tithoës, 10
Titles of Books, Plays, etc., with Labyrinth Allusions, 193-197
Tivoli, 103, 226
Tivoli Gardens, Vienna, 142
Todd, H. J., 173
Tomb of Double Axes, Knossos, 33
-- -- Lars Porsena at Clusium, 37-40
--, Labyrinth Mosaic on, 48
_Topiarius_, 110
Topiary Work (_see also_ Hedge Mazes), 110, 116
Toscanella, 40
Tothill, or Tuttle, Fields, 135, 225
Toul, "_La Tour du Diable_," 142
Tournefort, G. P. de, 23-26, 219
Toussaints Abbey, 65
Towels, Labyrinth Figures on, 201, 234
Toys, Labyrinth, 204-208, 235
Tragliatella, Etruscan Vase from, 40, 52, 157, 158, 220
Treading, or Threading, the Maze (_see also_ Solution), 75, 76, 77,
80, 82, 94, 95, 97
Trees in, or around, Turf Mazes, 74, 78, 80, 84, 88
Treves, F., 80, 231
Tribute, Athenian, 18, 20
Triggs, H. I., 142, 226, 227
Trinity College, Oxford, 132, 225
Triskele, 200, 217
_Troia Nova_, _Troinovant_, _Troy Novant_, 4, 181, 216, 233
_Troja_, _Tröborg_, _Trojeborg_, etc., 151, 156
_Trojanac_, _Trojanka_, _Trojano_, 162
Trollope, E., 3, 75, 78, 92, 93, 94, 147, 201
_Troll's Castle_, 150
Trowbridge, Wilts, 82
Troy, 23, 52, 93, 94, 156, 211
_Troy, City of_, 156, 228
Troy Dance, or Game, 52, 98, 156-162, 232, 233
Troy, New (London as). _See_ _Troia Nova_.
Troy, Place-names involving, 88, 91, 156, 211, 233
_Troy, Plan de_, 129
Troy Saga, 216
_Troy, Siege of_, 130
Troy Songs (_Troyerlais_), 162, 233
_Troy-Town_, 71, 81, 88, 89, 90, 91, 93, 98, 129, 156, 197, 202, 211,
225, 233
_Troy-Town_, used metaphorically, 211
_Troy, Walls of_, 73, 78, 87, 92, 156, 201
Tuileries, Paris, 121, 226
Tunis, Labyrinth Mosaic in (Susa), 48, 221
Tunnels in Mazes, 133, 185
Turf Labyrinths, 5, 71-99, 228-231
-- --, Origin of, 92-99, 161-162
-- --, Uses of (_see also_ Games), 77, 86
Turner, D., 64, 223
Tuttle, Tuthill, or Tothill Fields, 135, 225
Tyack, G. S., 216, 228
Unicursal Labyrinths, 45, 106, 107, 183, 184
University College, London, 43
Uppingham, 74
Vallance, A., 225
Vallet (or Wallet), E., 62, 63, 64, 223
Valuation of a Maze, 134
Vanbrugh, J., 168
Varro, 37, 38
Vase, Etruscan, from Tragliatella, 40, 52, 157, 158, 220
Venables, E., 230
Veneto, Bartolommeo, 53
Venice, Manuscript at, 95
Verbal Labyrinth (Latin Maxims), 209
Verdes, France, 48, 221
Versailles, 117-121, 132, 133, 143, 185, 186, 226
Vesuvius, Mount, 46
Viborg, 150
Vicenza, 127, 227
Vienna, 22, 142, 227
Villard de Honnecourt (Wilars de Honecourt), 59, 223
Vilmarini, Count, 127
Viollet-le-Duc, E. E., 222
Virgil, 98, 158, 163, 218, 232
Visscher, N., 227
Voltaire, F., 124
Volterra, 40
Vredeman De Vries. _See_ De Vries, J. V.
Walcott, M. E. C., 222
Wales, Mazes in, 78, 92-94, 228
Walker, J. J., 231
Wallet (or Vallet), E., 62, 63, 64, 223
Wallington, N., 82
_Walls of Jericho_, 150
-- -- _Troy_, 73, 78, 87, 92, 156, 201
Walmer, 91
Walpole, H., 113, 130, 224
Walter of St. Victor, 177, 194
Walters, H. B., 220
War, The Great European, 4, 62, 77
Way, A., 201, 215
Weerth, E. A., 223
Wells, J., 218
Welsh Origin, alleged, of Turf Mazes, 92
West Ashton, Wilts, 82, 228
Westerham, 91
Westminster, Tothill Fields, 135, 225
Wetton, G. N., 76
Weyland, or Wieland, 150, 162
Whitby, 77
White Conduit House, Islington, 137
Wickdown Hill, Wilts, 74
Wiedemann, A., 218
Wier Island, 147, 148
Wigsby, J., 88
Wilars de Honecourt (Villard de Honnecourt), 59, 223
_Wildernesses_, 88, 117, 127, 128
William III, 127, 130
Williams, W., 132, 225
Wiltshire, Mazes in. _See_ Badminton, West Ashton, Wickdown.
Wimbledon, 134, 225
Winchester, 79, 83, 230
Wing, Rutland, 74, 184
Winter, Demon of, 160, 162
Wisby, 148, 149, 151
Wise, H., 127, 131
Wolters, P., 217
Wood, H., 197
Woodstock, 111, 164-169, 172
Worm, O., 151, 231
Wrest Park, Beds, 132, 225
Wright, J., 173, 235
Wright, T., 229
Writing, Systems of, 29, 31
Wroth, W. and A. E., 225
Wroth, W. W., 220
Xystus, 101
Yew Hedges, 1, 110, 115, 116, 129, 130, 140, 146, 200
Yorke, G., 71, 72, 231
Yorkshire, Turf Mazes in, 77
-- Roman Pavement in, 48
Zahn, W., 221
Zakro, 43
Zeus, 21, 45, 175, 216
Zodiac, Signs of the, 57
Zulu Mazes, 155, 232
_Printed in England at_ THE BALLANTYNE PRESS
SPOTTISWOODE, BALLANTYNE & CO. LTD.
_Colchester, London & Eton_
Transcribers' Notes:
Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a
predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not
changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalanced
quotation marks retained.
Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained.
Inconsistent use of small-caps for the abbreviation "Fig." has been
retained.
Many quotations are from older sources that used archaic spelling.
Words not in Modern English have not been checked for spelling.
Index not checked for proper alphabetization or correct page references.
Illustrations ("Figures") are presented here in the
irregularly-numbered sequence in which they appeared in the original
book.
Greek words are shown in Greek and then in English transliterations
that are indicated by [Greek: ] and were added by the Transcribers.
Superscripts are represented by ^{me} and ^{e}.
Text uses both "Archæologia" and "Archaeologia"; both retained.
Missing or incorrect accent marks in German words have not been changed.
Page 67: the Greek word transliterated as "taurokathapsia" was
misprinted in the original book and has been changed here.
Page 68: Tildes (~) above "Ã" and "Ñ" represent macrons (¯); colons in
the inscription represent tricolons.
Page 78: "Ackermann's" has been corrected in accordance with the _Erratum_ on
page xviii.
Page 96: Tilde (~) above "õ" represents a macron (¯).
Page 132: "Beginning it self" was printed that way, with the extra
space.
Index, page 245: "House of the Labyrinth" referenced non-existent page
"456", which was changed here to page "45".
Index, page 247: "Metaphor" references non-existent page "282".
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Mazes and Labyrinths - A General Account of their History and Development" ***
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