Deliberately Getting Lost

Yesterday I got thoroughly lost in the maze at Hungersheath Farm near Market Drayton, one of the many temporary maize mazes grown this summer. It's only the second maze I've been to this year, which is a pretty poor show for someone who prides himself on being a bit of a fanatic. You can read my review of Hungersheath Farm on my maze website, though the site is in desperate need of reworking.

When I was about ten years old, I became lost in Jenners, the large department store in Edinburgh. It occupies several adjoining buildings, linked by many odd passages, rooms and changes in level. I enjoyed the experience so much that for several years afterwards I would try to repeat it, but never managed to forget where I was or how to reach an exit.

That experience may have been one factor in may later interest in mazes, but I can think of a couple of others more directly related, and both part of the sensation of being channelled with limited choices of direction.

One was running through the corridors of Caernarvon Castle, with alternating long, straight stretches and short, twisty sections around the huge towers. The other was a dream where I was in a high-sided wooden box with wheels, careering down rails like a fairground ride, but with junctions where I could influence the direction we took by leaning to one side or the other. Again, I had no idea where I was going.