Hampton_Court_Maze

Hampton Court Maze

Hampton Court Maze

A hedge maze at Hampton Court Palace


Hampton Court Maze is a hedge maze at Hampton Court Palace and the oldest surviving hedge maze in Britain.[2]

Hampton Court Maze
A diagram of the maze's layout showing a correct path to the centre
Hampton Court maze layout updated with recent openings[1]

Commissioned by King William III, the maze, which is about one-third of an acre, is planted in a trapezoid shape and was designed by George London and Henry Wise.[2] It was located in the "wilderness" part of the gardens of the palace, of which it is now the only surviving part.[3][4] Planted between 1689 and 1695, the maze is not particularly difficult,[3] taking about 20 minutes for a person to make their way to the middle.[2] It was originally planted in hornbeam, later replaced by yew.[2]

Psychologist Edmund Sanford took inspiration from the Hampton Court Maze in his idea to create mazes for laboratory rats to study learning.[5][6] The maze is referenced in some works of literature, including humorist Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat (1889) and Carol Shields' Larry's Party (1997),[3] and is referenced in the Only Fools and Horses episode "Three Men, a Woman and a Baby".[7] It also serves as the inspiration for the maze at Mayer's Nest in Ian Martin's "Nightmare Nest" broadcast for the CBS Radio Mystery Theater in 1975.


References

  1. Horváth, Jozef (2018). "Automatic Generation of Mazes and Underground Spaces" (PDF) (in Slovak). Bratislava: Comenius University in Bratislava (bachelor's thesis).
  2. Julie E. Bounford & Trevor Bounford, The Curious History of Mazes: 4,000 Years of Fascinating Twists and Turns with Over 100 Intriguing Puzzles to Solve (Wellfleet, 2018), p. 106.
  3. RHS Garden Finder 2006-2007: More Than 1,000 Gardens to Visit and Enjoy (ed. Charles Quest-Ritson: Think, 2006).
  4. C. James Goodwin, Research In Psychology: Methods and Design (Wiley: 2010), p. 110.
  5. C. James Goodwin, A History of Modern Psychology (Wiley, 2015), p. 159.
  6. Sullivan, Jim; Jones, Mike (30 September 2021). Lovely Jubbly: A Celebration of 40 Years of Only Fools and Horses. Random House. ISBN 9781473533073 via Google Books.

51.4062°N 0.3376°W / 51.4062; -0.3376


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