Page:Highways and Byways in Lincolnshire.djvu/219

 Cambridge, and Gloucestershire, all had one at least. Comberton in Cambridge has one of precisely the same pattern, and at Hilton, in Huntingdonshire, is one called by the same name as that at Alkborough, "Julian's bower." This is thought to be a reminiscence of the intricate 'Troy' game described in Virgil, Aen. v., 588-593, as played on horseback by Iulus and his comrades:—

"Ut quondam Creta fertur Labyrinthus in alta Parietibus textum caecis iter, ancipitemque Mille viis habuisse dolum, qua signa sequendi Falleret indeprensus et irremeabilis error. Haud alio Teucrum nati vestigia cursu Impediunt texuntque fugas et proelia ludo."

And the fact that a labyrinthine figure cut in the turf near Burgh on the Solway by the Cumberland herdsmen was called "the walls of Troy" somewhat favours the interpretation. But it seems rather a far-fetched origin. Doubtless they served as an innocent recreation for the monks who lived at St. Anne's chapel hard by, and the idea of such labyrinthine patterns is found in many churches abroad, for they are executed in coloured marbles, both in Rome and in the Early church of St. Vitale at Ravenna. The mazes formed of growing trees, as at Hampton Court, are more difficult to make out, as you cannot see the whole pattern at one time.

The church at Alkborough was, like Croyland, a bone of contention between the monks of Spalding and Peterborough, each claiming it as a gift from the founder Thorold, in 1052. Tradition says that it was partly rebuilt by the three knights, Brito, Tracy, and Morville, who had taken refuge in this most remote corner of Lincolnshire, where one of them lived, after their murder of Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. The original Early tower and tower-arch remain, and a fragment of a very early cross is now to be seen by the north pier. One of the bells has this inscription:—

"Jesu for yi Modir sake Save all ye sauls that me gart make."

In the village is a really beautiful old Tudor house of brick, with stone mullions, called Walcot Old Hall, the property of J. Goulton Constable, Esq. The little isolated bit of chalk wold which begins near Walcot is but four miles long, and in