Fig. 93. Labyrinth at Choisy-le-Roi. (Blondel)
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.
