98 
Che ALismaze on Breamore Down, Hants, 
neat Aowwnton. 
By the Rev. A. D. Hut. 
=GHE “mizmaze” in the parish of Breamore, Hants, is an 
' excellent example of the turf-/abyrinths of which some 
twenty still remain in various parts of England, while records of 
others that have disappeared show that they must have been more 
numerous in former days. As far as I know they have not been 
observed out of Great Britain. 
The mizmaze occupies a level area on a conspicuous wooded knoll 
which forms the southern end of a spur of chalk downs stretching 
from Salisbury Plain along the western bank of the Avon. A 
portion of a low circular bank and ditch is to be seen at the bottom 
of the steeper southern slope of the knoll, which may be a British 
defensive work; Whitsbury Castle-ditches occupy the summit of 
the next hill eastwards; a short distance to the north is Gallows 
Hill, at an angle of Grim’s-ditch ; and several barrows occur in the 
neighbourhood, a small one lying a few feet south-east of the 
circumference of the mizmaze. 
Hoare thus briefly refers to it in Ancient Wilts, vol.i., p. 213 :— 
« ~~. | on Wick Down, where there is one of those relicks of antiquity 
called a maze. It has the appearance of a low barrow surrounded by circles 
within circles. I have been informed by a friend well versed in antiquities that 
these mazes are to be found in various parts of our island.” 
It is not, however, a barrow, but on the natural level of the 
ground. The labyrinth is circular in form, and 87ft. in diameter. 
Its path is arranged in eleven concentric rings, each 3ft. in width, 
leading eventually—after thirty-four windings—into a central area 
18ft. across, in the middle of which a small mound rises about Lift. 
above the ground-level. The path is of turf, the outer edge of 
which is raised a few inches, while the inner side slopes downwards 
towards the little trench which separates it from the circlenext within. 
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