THIRTEENTH CEXTURY. 35 



mews at Charing, and likewise to make the king's kitchen- 

 garden there." Henry III.'s chief garden was at Woodstock, 

 but he was not the originator of it, as there had been a 

 garden there in the time of the second Henry. In it was the 

 labyrinth which concealed the " Bower," made famous by the 

 tragic fate of the " Fair Rosamond." A halo of romance and 

 mystery hangs round this hiding place, but in reality labyrinths 

 were by no means uncommon. There is evidence of the 

 existence of labyrinths in very early times, and they, presumably, 

 suggested the maze of more modern date. The first labyrinths 

 were winding paths cut in the ground, and the survival of 

 these is still traceable in several places in England. Of these, 

 Saffron Walden, with its encircling ditch, is a most striking 

 example. Camden describes one existing in his time in 

 Dorsetshire, which went by the name of Troy Town or Julian's 

 Bower. "^ 



In 1250, Henry III. improved the gardens at Woodstock for 

 his queen. Among certain works which he commanded the 

 Bailiff of Woodstock to perform, were the following : — " To 

 make round about the garden of our Queen two walls, good 

 and high, so that no one may be able to enter, with a 

 becoming and honourable herbary near our fish pond, in which 

 the same Queen may be able to amuse herself; — and with 

 a certain gate from the herbary which is next the chapel of 

 Edward our son, into the aforesaid garden." f Again, on 

 August 19th, 1252, the order was given to turf the "great 

 herbarium." % The word herbarium may simply mean a place 

 where herbs were grown, but in this case it seems as if it 

 were used for " herber," the old English word for arbour, 

 which only means a shelter, or " harbour." 



The same year, among other works at Clarendon the 

 queen's " herbarium " was to be " remade and amended." § 



* Camden s Britannia, by Gough, 1S06. Vol. I., p. 73. 



t Liberate Roll, 34 Hen. III., m. 6— Dated at Wodestok, 20 June, 

 " cum herbario decent! at honesto prope vivarium nostrum, in quo ipsa 

 Regina possit spaciari." 



Xlbid., 36 Hen. HI., m. 4. 



§ Ihid., 36 Hen. HI., July 9th, m. 6, 



3 * 



