Mathematical recreations and essays . rised any complicated building with numerous * Lucas, vol. I, part iii, p. 47 et seq. 184 UNICURSAL PROBLEMS [CH. IX vaults and passages*. Such a building might be termed alabyrinth, but it is not what is now usually understood by theword. The above rules would enable anyone to traverse thewhole of any structure of this kind. I do not know if thereare any accounts or descriptions of Rosamunds Bower otherthan those by Drayton, Bromton, and Knyghton: in theopinion of some, these imply that the bower was merely ahouse, the passages in which were confusing and
Mathematical recreations and essays . rised any complicated building with numerous * Lucas, vol. I, part iii, p. 47 et seq. 184 UNICURSAL PROBLEMS [CH. IX vaults and passages*. Such a building might be termed alabyrinth, but it is not what is now usually understood by theword. The above rules would enable anyone to traverse thewhole of any structure of this kind. I do not know if thereare any accounts or descriptions of Rosamunds Bower otherthan those by Drayton, Bromton, and Knyghton: in theopinion of some, these imply that the bower was merely ahouse, the passages in which were confusing and ill-arranged. Another class of ancient mazes consisted of a tortuous pathconfined to a small area of ground and leading to a tree orshrine in the centre f. This is a maze in which there is nochance of taking a wrong turning; but, as the whole areacan be occupied by the windings of one path, the distanceto be traversed from the entrance to the centre may beconsiderable, even though the piec6 of ground covered by themaze is but Figure i. Figure ii. The traditional form of the labyrinth constructed for theMinotaur is a specimen of this class. It was delineated onthe reverses of the coins of Cnossus, specimens of which arenot uncommon; one form of it is indicated in the accompanyingdiagram (figure i). The design really is the same as that * For instance, see the descriptions of the labyrinth at Lake Moeris givenby Herodotus, bk. ii, c. 148; Strabo, bk. xvii, o. 1, art. 37; Diodorus, bk. i,cc. 61, 66; and Pliuy, Hist. Nat., bk. xxxvi, c. 13, arts. 84—89. On these andother references see A. Wiedemann, Herodots zioeites Buck, Leipzig, 1890,p. 522 et seq. See also Virgil, Aeneid, bk. v, c. v, 588; Ovid, Met., bk. viii, c. 5,159; Strabo, bk. viii, c. 6. t On ancient and medieval labyrinths—particularly of this kind—see anarticle by Mr E. Trollope in The Archaeological Journal, 1858, vol. xv, pp. 216—235, from which much of the historical information given above is deriv
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