distinction a hand-drawn lock. No time is saved by this process, but the lock, for such we must now begin to call it rather than bolt, is rendered more secure. Different kinds of these locks, but all on the same principle, are in use in out of the way parts of Scotland. Figs. 12A to 17A, Plate I., similar to the last but having a slight difference in the shape of the notches, is a Scotch wooden lock in the Patent Museum at South Kensington, a facsimile of which is in my collection. Figs. 18A to 22A, Plate II., is another, also in the Patent Museum, in which three tumblers instead of two are raised by the same key, as shown in the sections, figs. 21A and 22A, Plate II. Mr. Romilly Allen, who has written a paper on Scotch tumbler locks in the 2nd volume, New Series, of the 'Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland,' figures several others of the same class. One from North Ronaldsay has four tumblers in line; another from the Faroe Islands has three tumblers in line; another from Snizort, in Skye, has six tumblers working independently of each other but raised with the same key, and consists simply of two ordinary locks put face to face with the bolt between them; another from Harris is still more complicated in its construction, and is formed by five tumblers in line with two holes running through the whole of them, and the key has two limbs, one for each line of holes.

It is unnecessary for my present purpose to describe all these locks in detail. Though varying in character they are all constructed on one principle. As with the more complicated contrivances in metal, hereafter noticed, variety is an element of security, the greater the variety, the greater the difficulty of making a key which will fit them all; and this is another point in which the processes of the arts resemble the processes of nature, variety adapts the mechanism to a wider sphere of utility, and by encouraging change, promotes improvement. In the one, as in the other, variation is a necessary element of progress.

I see no reason to suppose that this class of locks was confined to Scotland or to Scandinavia. They may probably have existed in other parts of Europe, where, being made entirely of wood, they have long since decayed, and their representations may have survived only on the outskirts of civilisation. The law of geographical distribution is inexorable—nothing can make the North of Scotland or of Norway or the West of Ireland centres of the arts, and it is to such places we must look for the survival of primitive contrivances. A precisely similar key to those here described, but of iron, was found with Roman remains near Gloucester, and is figured in Lysons's 'Magna Britannia,' vol. ii., Plate 11, showing that a wooden lock of this kind must have been in use in England at that time. Figs. 23A to 25A, Plate II., is a similar lock used in Norway, and copied by me from a specimen in the Hazilius Museum at Stockholm.[2] Figs. 26 to 28A, Plate II., is another in the Museum at Kew Gardens, copied by permission of Sir Joseph Hooker; it was made by the negroes in Jamaica. Figs. 29A to 31A, Plate II., is a similar one from British Guiana, in the Christy Collection. One is tempted by the presence of these locks in the West Indies to suppose that they may have been carried by the negroes from their African homes, and the resemblance commonly attributed to them to the Egyptian wooden lock, constructed on nearly the same principle, might lead to the inference that they may have passed in that way to the West Indies; but it will be seen hereafter that they differ in detail from the Egyptian pin-locks. They are of the Scotch or Scandinavian type, and in all probability were imported into the New World by Scotchmen rather than negroes.

It is now necessary to return to figs. 6 and 7, Plate I., which represent the bolt with the single pin or tumbler, in order to trace the origin and development of Class B. Whilst in Scandinavia and the north of Europe, the key was applied to the upper part of the tumblers, above the bolt, as shown in the preceding examples of the hand-drawn lock; in Egypt, Asia, and probably in parts of Europe also, another system combining rapidity with security was introduced. A key with a single tooth was inserted beneath the bolt, and by raising the tooth vertically and applying it to the lower end of the tumbler, the latter was pressed out of the hole and raised clear of the bolt, and the tooth occupying its place in the hole, the key itself was made to hook back the bolt, so that the whole operation was performed with one hand holding the key. Fig. 9B, Plate II., represents this kind of lock, which may be termed a key-drawn, as distinct from a hand-drawn lock. As with the tumbler locks of the north of Europe so with the southern variety, security was obtained by multiplying the number of tumblers and varying their position. Figs. 10 to 12B, Plate II., are drawings of a wooden pin-lock and key obtained by myself in Egypt, which is of the kind habitually in use there at the present time. It has two tumblers in line. In fig. 10B the lock is represented with the key, A, in it and the tumblers raised, preparatory to drawing the bolt B. Fig. 11B is the key, and in fig. 12B the lock is shown shut, with the tumblers down and the key lowered preparatory to withdrawing it from the lock. Mr. Romilly Allen, in the paper already referred to, gives an illustration of one precisely similar which he obtained in Persia. Figs. 13B and 14B, Plate III., shows an exactly similar lock in the India Museum, obtained by Sir Douglas Forsyth at Yarkand, a facsimile of which is in my collection. This kind of lock is also used in Turkey; their identity throughout the region here spoken of is such as to leave no doubt of their having been copied from one another, and indicates the area of their distribution, about which something will be said further on.

It appears doubtful whether or not this pin-lock was known to the ancient Egyptians. Rhind[3] states that he discovered one on a door in the interior of an ancient Egyptian tomb, but its date, from the description given in the text, appears doubtful. The tomb had certainly been opened in Roman times, if not later. Denon also says that he saw one sculptured in the Temple of Carnac, but he took no drawing of it, and the evidence of the existence of this kind of lock in ancient Egyptian times certainly requires confirmation.[4] Sir Gardner Wilkinson is of opinion that the earliest example of a key with pins such as might be used with the pin-lock, is of the Roman period, in the reign of Trajan, A.D. 90, and the earliest known mention of any key at all is in the third chapter of Judges, viz., 1336 B.C.public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@44022@[email protected]#note5" id="noteref5" class="pginternal"