A Midsummer Night’s Dream, ii. 1.

    “My old bones ache:  here’s a maze trod indeed,
     Through forth-rights and meanders!”

    The Tempest, iii. 3.

[Illustration:  FIG. 5.—­Maze at Sneinton, Nottinghamshire.]

There was such a maze at Comberton, in Cambridgeshire, and another, locally called the “miz-maze,” at Leigh, in Dorset.  The latter was on the highest part of a field on the top of a hill, a quarter of a mile from the village, and was slightly hollow in the middle and enclosed by a bank about 3 feet high.  It was circular, and was thirty paces in diameter.  In 1868 the turf had grown over the little trenches, and it was then impossible to trace the paths of the maze.  The Comberton one was at the same date believed to be perfect, but whether either or both have now disappeared I cannot say.  Nor have I been able to verify the existence or non-existence of the other examples of which I am able to give illustrations.  I shall therefore write of them all in the past tense, retaining the hope that some are still preserved.

[Illustration:  FIG. 6.—­Maze at Alkborough, Lincolnshire.]

In the next two mazes given—­that at Saffron Walden, Essex (110 feet in diameter, Fig. 4), and the one near St. Anne’s Well, at Sneinton, Nottinghamshire (Fig. 5), which was ploughed up on February 27th, 1797 (51 feet in diameter, with a path 535 yards long)—­the paths must in each case be understood to be on the lines, black or white, as the case may be.

[Illustration:  FIG. 7.—­Maze at Boughton Green, Nottinghamshire.]

I give in Fig. 6 a maze that was at Alkborough, Lincolnshire, overlooking the Humber.  This was 44 feet in diameter, and the resemblance between it and the mazes at Chartres and Lucca (Figs. 2 and 3) will be at once perceived.  A maze at Boughton Green, in Nottinghamshire, a place celebrated at one time for its fair (Fig. 7), was 37 feet in diameter.  I also include the plan (Fig. 8) of one that used to be on the outskirts of the village of Wing, near Uppingham, Rutlandshire.  This maze was 40 feet in diameter.

[Illustration:  FIG. 8.—­Maze at Wing, Rutlandshire.]

[Illustration:  FIG. 9.—­Maze on St. Catherine’s Hill, Winchester.]

The maze that was on St. Catherine’s Hill, Winchester, in the parish of Chilcombe, was a poor specimen (Fig. 9), since, as will be seen, there was one short direct route to the centre, unless, as in Fig. 10 again, the path is the line itself from end to end.  This maze was 86 feet square, cut in the turf, and was locally known as the “Mize-maze.”  It became very indistinct about 1858, and was then recut by the Warden of Winchester, with the aid of a plan possessed by a lady living in the neighbourhood.

[Illustration:  FIG. 10.—­Maze on Ripon Common.]

A maze formerly existed on Ripon Common, in Yorkshire (Fig. 10).  It was ploughed up in 1827, but its plan was fortunately preserved.  This example was 20 yards in diameter, and its path is said to have been 407 yards long.