Hampton Court Maze is a

hedge maze A hedge maze is an outdoor garden maze or labyrinth in which the "walls" or dividers between passages are made of vertical hedges. History Hedge mazes evolved from the knot gardens of Renaissance Europe, and were first constructed during the m ...

at Hampton Court Palace and the oldest surviving hedge maze in

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

. Commissioned by

King William III William III (William Henry; ; 4 November 16508 March 1702), also widely known as William of Orange, was the sovereign Prince of Orange from birth, Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from the ...

, the maze, which is about one-third of an acre, is planted in a

trapezoid A quadrilateral with at least one pair of parallel sides is called a trapezoid () in American and Canadian English. In British and other forms of English, it is called a trapezium (). A trapezoid is necessarily a convex quadrilateral in Eu ...

shape and was designed by George London and Henry Wise. It was located in the " wilderness" part of the gardens of the palace, of which it is now the only surviving part.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. Planted between 1689 and 1695, the maze is not particularly difficult, taking about 20 minutes for a person to make their way to the middle. It was originally planted in

hornbeam Hornbeams are hardwood trees in the flowering plant genus ''Carpinus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The 30–40 species occur across much of the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Origin of names The common English name ''hornbeam ...

, later replaced by yew. Psychologist

Edmund Sanford Edmund Clark Sanford (1859–1924) was an early American psychologist. He earned his PhD under the supervision of Granville Stanley Hall at Johns Hopkins University, and then moved with Hall to Clark University in 1888, where he became the profes ...

took inspiration from the Hampton Court Maze in his idea to create mazes for

laboratory rat A laboratory rat or lab rat is a brown rat of the subspecies '' Rattus norvegicus domestica'' which is bred and kept for scientific research. While less commonly used for research than mice (see laboratory mouse), rats have served as an import ...

s to study learning. The maze is referenced in some works of literature, including humorist

Jerome K. Jerome Jerome Klapka Jerome (2 May 1859 – 14 June 1927) was an English writer and humourist, best known for the comic travelogue ''Three Men in a Boat'' (1889). Other works include the essay collections '' Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow'' (1886) an ...

's ''

Three Men in a Boat ''Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)'',The Penguin edition punctuates the title differently: ''Three Men in a Boat: To Say Nothing of the Dog!'' published in 1889, is a humorous account by English writer Jerome K. Jerome of a tw ...

'' (1889) and

Carol Shields Carol Ann Shields, (née Warner; June 2, 1935 – July 16, 2003) was an American-born Canadian novelist and short story writer. She is best known for her 1993 novel ''The Stone Diaries'', which won the U.S. Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as ...

' ''

Larry's Party ''Larry's Party'' is a 1997 novel by Carol Shields. There is an underlying theme of people retracing their steps, both literally and figuratively, and going down different routes to try to achieve fulfilment. The novel examines the life of Larry ...

'' (1997), and is referenced in the ''

Only Fools and Horses ''Only Fools and Horses....'' is a British television sitcom created and written by John Sullivan (writer), John Sullivan. Seven series were originally broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom from 1981 to 1991, with sixteen sporadic Christmas ...

'' episode "

Three Men, a Woman and a Baby "Three Men, a Woman and a Baby" is an episode of the BBC sitcom ''Only Fools and Horses''. It was the final episode of series 7 and was first broadcast on 3 February 1991. This is the last episode of the last regular series, although Christmas sp ...

". 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 ''CBS Radio Mystery Theater'' (a.k.a. ''Radio Mystery Theater'' and ''Mystery Theater'', sometimes abbreviated as ''CBSRMT'') is a radio drama series created by Himan Brown that was broadcast on CBS Radio Network affiliates from 1974 to 1982, a ...

in 1975.

References

{{coord , 51.4062, N, 0.3376, W, display=title Mazes in the United Kingdom Gardens in London Hampton Court Palace