98 



Oje |pi£ms$e on §wamow Jofoir, Pants, 

 near §ototto«. 



By the Rev. A. D. Hill. 



HE "mizmaze" in the parish of Breamore, Hants, is an 

 excellent example of the turf -labyrinths 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 Grallows 

 Hill, at an angle of Grrim'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. L, 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 1ft. 

 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 circle next within. 



