ON THE MAZE, OR MIZMAZE, AT 

 LEIGH, DORSET. 



By the Rev. W. BARNES. 



OKER, in liis History of Dorset, says of the Maze at 

 Leigli, tliat ' ' formerly the young men of the village 

 were wont, once a year, to go out and make it good ; 

 and the day was a day of merrymaking." Not, we may believe, 

 a day of merrymaking because they had made the maze good by 

 righting up of the banks, which edged the paths ; but that the 

 maze was made good for the day of merry-making, which might 

 have been that of the village wake, or the old May-day, 



That the young and not the old men were most interested in 

 the maze, would go to show that it was for their games, and not 

 for any heathenish or other ceremony of their elders. 



Phillips, in his " New World of Words," A,D. 1706, speaks 

 of mazes as in his time made in gardens. He says : — " Maze, 

 in a garden, a place artificially made with many turnings and 

 windings." The maze seems to have had formerly, all over 

 England, its day of favor among friendly gatherings at great 

 halls, and at some of the village feasts, as had the old game of 

 Pall Mall, and its later form under the name of Croquet, though 

 the pleasure of the maze (a puzzle), was akin to that of other 

 puzzles which are now put forth among friends in the house, or 

 in the open air. The maze was formed of a cunningly drawn 



