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ON LOCKS AND KEYS.

other wards are not less amazing. The iron ofwhich these are made must undoubtedly havebeen of a superior quality.

Fig. 78.—Old English Key found in theruins of an Abbey.

These ancient keys are variously composed ofbronze, copper, or iron, and the variety of thelocks corresponding thereto must have been asnumerous as the modern ones.

The great antiquity of locks and keys beingadmitted, we shall, in the following chapters, describeand illustrate every principal lock which has beeninvented, from the wooden pin-lock of the Egyptians,to the most scientific and elaborately finished locksof the present time.