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THE ANCIENT LABYRINTH OR MAZE AT
SAFFRON WALDEN, WITH SOME NOTES ON
THE ANTIQUITY OF MAZES IN GENERAL.1
By G. N. MAYNARD (Curator of the Saffron Walden Museum).
[Read June 22nd, 1889.]
At Saffron Walden we have two representatives of those labyrinths called
"mazes," but widely differing from each other as much in their form as in their
Maze on Saffron Walden Common. From a drawing by Mr. Joseph Clarke, in the
Saffron Walden Museum
antiquity. One of these is in the ornamental grounds called "Fry's Gardens."
This is the most modern form of maze, with green bowers and hedges, enclosing
tortuous or winding paths, &c., a type originating in the time of Queen Elizabeth.
1 Much of the general information in these notes is derived from a paper entitled "Notices
of Ancient and Mediaeval Labyrinths," by the Rev. E. Trollope, F.S.A., in the "Archaeological
Journal," vol. xv (1858), pp. 216-235, Mr. Trollope says that the "topiary" type of mazes,
formed of clipped hedges of yew, holly, or hornbeam, enclosing a puzzling series of winding
paths, one of which alone conducts to a small open space in the centre, were much in vogue as
a feature of pleasure-grounds in the 16th century. He figures one at Theobalds, Cheshunt,
Herts, built by Burleigh in 1560. Books of practical instruction for planning such works were
published about that time, such as "The Gardener's Labyrinth," by Dydymus Mountains:—
"Wherein are set forth divers herbes, knottes and mazes, cunningly handled for the beautifying
of gardens" (4to, 1577).— Ed.