THE MAZE NEAR ST. ANNE’S CHAPEL, NOTTINGHAM.
A similar plan was followed in cutting a maze, once of some celebrity, near S. Anne’s Well, at Sneinton, Nottingham. The projections in this case are bolder, and within the spaces enclosed by the triple pathway which swept around them were cut cross-crosslets. The popular names for this maze in the district were the “Shepherd’s [p 199] Maze,” and “Robin Hood’s Race.” This was, unfortunately, ploughed up in 1797, at the enclosure of the lordship of Sneinton. Nottinghamshire has, however, another example in the small square one at Clifton.
MAZE FORMERLY EXISTING NEAR ST. ANNE’S WELL, SNEINTON, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE.
Many of these turf-cut labyrinths were destroyed during the Commonwealth, before which [p 200] period, according to Aubrey in his history of Surrey, there were many in England. Not a few, however, which survived that time of wanton destruction, have been obliterated since.
In 1827 one which was on Ripon Common was ploughed up. Its diameter was 60 feet. Another existed till comparatively recent times at Hillbury, between Farnham and Guildford. At Pimpern, in Dorset, there was formerly a maze of a unique design. The outline was roughly a triangle, which enclosed nearly an acre of ground; the pathway was marked out by ridges of earth about a foot in height, and followed a singularly intricate course. The plough destroyed this also in 1730.
The names locally applied to these structures often imply very erroneous ideas as to their origin and purpose. In some instances they are ascribed to the shepherds, as if cut by them as pastime in their idle moments; a suggestion, which a glance at the mazes themselves, with their intricate designs and correctly formed curves, will prove to be hardly tenable. Two other names of frequent occurrence in England are “Troy Town,” and “Julian’s Bower”; the latter being connected with the former, Julius, [p 201] son of Æneas being the person alluded to. Some have from these titles sought to trace a connection with a very ancient sport known as the Troy Game, which arose in classic times, and survived down to the Middle Ages. It consisted probably in the rhythmic
performance of certain evolutions, much after the fashion of the “Musical Rides” executed by our cavalry. The origin of the idea is to be sought in a passage in Virgil’s Æneid (Bk. V., v. 583 et seq.), which has been thus translated by Kennett:—
“Files facing files their bold companions dare,
And wheel, and charge, and urge the sportive war.