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or "Plan-de-Troy," formed of tall espaliers, which formerly co-existed with the present maze (see [Fig. 112]), has long been replaced by a sunken rockery, the path of which, however, is of a very meandering character and has earned from visitors the title of "The Little Maze" ([Fig. 113]).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."
Fig. 112.—Hampton Court. The "Wilderness," with Maze and "Plan-de-Troy," in Eighteenth Century. (Engraving by J. Rocque, 1736.)
Fig. 116. Maze Design by Batty Langley (from New Principles of Gardening, 1728).
Fig. 115. Maze Design by Batty Langley. (from New Principles of Gardening, 1728)