Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/453

 Bs,v.JuNBa f i90o.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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gave me meat," "Thirsty and ye gave me drink," &c. The peculiarity of the window i.< that in each of the six groups the old chemisl to whose memory the thing was erected is seen standing at his shopdoor, with the coloured bottles on his window shelves anc his name over the entrance, exactly as one saw them during his lifetime. The in scription reads :

" In memory of Joseph Garnett of this town, many years a communicant in this church, who died the 14 th of December, 1861, aged 90 years."

Garnett was a notable man in his day. A native of Alnwick, he obtained a post in the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, where he invented a semaphore for signalling astro- nomical messages. His eyesight failing, he came to Newcastle, and, settling down as a chemist and druggist, obtained local fame by composing sacred music, much of which is published in Dr. Jons's 'Cantica Ecclesia. While Sir Gilbert Scott was restoring St. Nicholas's (circa 1880), his clerk of works told me that whenever he came down to inspect progress he invariably wound up the inspection by saying, "Now then, let's go ana have a look at the old chemist ! "

RICHD. WELFOED.

A SHIELD OF BRAWN (9 th S. v. 247, 360). When this was written about ('N. & Q.,' 7 th S. x. 129, 235, 353), I believe a " shield " mentioned by Bartholomus Anglicus was not brought into notice. I quote from Steele's ' Mediaeval Lore,' p. 118. The boar

"hath a hard shield, broad and thick in the right side, and putteth that always against his weapon that pursueth him, and useth that brawn instead of a shield to defend himself."

Guillim also teaches that the boar useth to rub his sides against trees to harden them for his protection, and adds : "And the shield of a boar well managed is a good buckler against that cruel enemy called hunger."

ST. SWITHIN.

MAZES CUT IN TURF (9 th S. v. 315). There is an excellent article on * Mazes ' contributed to * Ecclesiastical Curiosities ' (edited by Wm. Andrews, 1899) by that erudite scholar the Rev. Geo. S. Tyack. Many illustrations ac- company the article, and the writer gives it as his opinion that as mazes are found " almost invariably close to a church, or the ancient site of a church," they " were origin- ally formed, and for long years were used, for purposes of devotion and penance."

As MR. H. C. WEST refers in his query to the maze at Wing, near Uppingham, I may perhaps mention one which formerly existed on Boughton Green, in the neighbouring

county of Northampton. The green is about half a mile from the village of Boughton, and is contiguous to the ruined church of St. John the Baptist. Here is still held annually in June the three days' fair granted by King Edward III. in 1353. This fair used formerly to be celebrated for singlestick and wrestling matches, but has been shorn of many of its attractions. Writing in 1849 concerning Boughton Green, in his * Guide - Book to Northampton and Vicinity,' Mr. G. N. Wetton thus refers to the maze :

" In the absence of the crowd and din of the fair, we may more leisurely look around us ; the places where booths for refreshment and stalls forming canvass streets have been situated may be traced, and we may readily discover the Shepherd's Race, Maze, or Labyrinth, which we regret to see neglected. It is of a circular form, as will appear by the illustra- tion. [Here follows a plan of the maze.] Like the quintain the locality of this amusement was near Roman roads or stations. Julian's Bower, near the Ermine Street adjoining the Roman camp at Alk- borough, Lincolnshire, is circular and rather more complicated. There is also another Julian's Bower, or Troy Town, "at Pimpern, and a similar work at Leigh in Yatminster [sic], Dorsetshire. At St. Catha- rine's Hill, near Winchester, within the Roman encampment, is a sqiiare labyrinth, locally termed the Miz-maze ; running the maze used to be a favourite amusement with the scholars from the college. The antiquity of the maze or labyrinth is further corroborated by coins of Cnossus and Crete, in the time of Augustus, on which circular and square labyrinths are introduced."

The late Rev. J. N. Simpkinson's North- amptonshire novel 'The Washingtons ' (1860) has a chapter headed " Boughton Green Fair." The maze is therein referred to, and of one of the characters named Body it is said :

"He had just been treading 'the Shepherd's Labyrinth,' a complicated spiral maze traced there upon the turf; and was boasting of his skill, how dexterously and truly he could pursue its windings without a single false step, and how with a little more practice he would wager to go through it blindfold."

JOHN T. PAGE.

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

Perhaps MR. H. C. WEST is unaware that there is a valuable contribution on the

ubiect of turf mazes in the Journal of the Archaeological Institute for 1858 by the Rev.

3. Trollope. On comparing the English specimens with those in French mediaeval churches, and the maze at Alkborough in

)articular with the example in Sens Cathe- dral, the respective designs, it is there observed, are almost identical, and there jould scarcely remain a doubt that both had jin ecclesiastical origin, had no other evidence

)een forthcoming. Moreover, this supposi-

ion is strengthened by another circumstance, namely, that most, if not all, of our English