100 The Mizmaze on Breamore Down, near Doivnton. 



Churches, chiefly from the twelfth century and onwards. Of those 

 recorded by Mr. Trollope I will mention one incised upon a porch 

 pier at Lucca Cathedral, 20in. in diameter ; a square one formerly 

 existing in the pavement of the Abbey Church of St. Bertin at 

 Saint Omer ; an octagonal one 34ft. in diameter in the entrance to 

 the Parish Church (twelfth century) of St. Quentin ; and a circular 

 one in the nave floor of Chartres Cathedral, of grey and white 

 marble, 30ft. in diameter, its path being 668ft. in length, and with its 

 outer and inner circles richly ornamented with escallops and cusping. 1 



In England no such architectural examples are known, 2 but 

 similar designs are to be seen in the labyrinths cut in the turf at 

 many places, and variously named " Troy Town," Julian's Bower," 

 " Mizmaze," etc. Though some of these may have had their origin 

 in popular games, yet many bear a remarkable family likeness to 

 the Italian and French pavements ; and the circular mizmaze on 

 Breamore Down is in fact an exact reproduction of the design at 

 Lucca, at Chartres, and (except that it is circular instead of 

 octagonal) at St. Quentin. A maze at Alkborough, Lincolnshire, 

 is also identical in plan, but about half the size of that at Breamore. 

 The only evidence of the existence of a labyrinth in Wilts, of which 

 I am aware, is " The Mizmaze Wood " at West Ashton. There is, 

 however, no trace of a labyrinth there now, and the only ex- 

 planation that the oldest inhabitant can give of the name is that 

 the field is a rough one, and "all of a mizmaze." 3 



This striking resemblance, together with the fact of the proximity 

 of most of these turf -labyrinths to a Church or religious house, 

 seems to indicate the ecclesiastical origin of at least the greater 



1 The Italian labyrinths are described by M. Durand in Didron's Annales 

 Archeol., vol. xvii., p. 119 ; and the French labyrinths by Wallett, " Description 

 oV un Pave mosa'ique a St. Omer," Douai, 1843, p. 97. 



2 In the modern pavement of the west bay of the nave of Ely Cathedral, there 

 is a labyrinth 20ft. square, perhaps copied from a foreign example. 



3 The name is now generally applied to afield, but in an old survey " Mizmaze 

 Wood " is described as part of a larger wood called " Lion Ball Wood," and the 

 two are mentioned together in the tithe map of 1840. Canon Jackson suggests 

 that it was a maze in the grounds of a house belonging to the Beach family 

 formerly standing here. Wilts Arch. Mag., vol. xiii., p. 331 ; Aubrey's Coll., 

 p. 354. 



