ANCIENT LOCKS AND KEYS.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 1032, 13 May 1902, Page 3

ANCIENT LOCKS AND KEYS.

Keys are u old as history. Locks were in ftae four thousand years ago in Egypt, go it would seem that dishonesty is not a modern degeneracy. Among the aneients the key was a symbol of silence, while with the Hebrews the Way was giren to the bride oa the day of her marriage, as a token that the authority of the btuse' was bestowed npoa her ; and if she was afterwards divorced it was taken from her, u a symbol of her loss of authority. Ao Englishman (says the " Daily Hail") who cares to explore his hwd oooalry can to-day see oa the doors of old cathedrals, castles, and all mediaeval buildings throughout the Uaited Kqgdoa, singularderices in huge locks and ponderous keys. These were the works of the whitesmith, whose trade was of ao mean importance ia former days. Nor is it yet extinct* for in some of the-old towns the white* smith's sign still hangaorer the door of certain quaint little shops.The smith.it was who finished and beauti6ed the rough material which the blacksmith had forged. One of these old locks was taken from the door of Ksnilworth Abbey when the abbey was dismantled. It is encased in a block of wood measuring ten by eighteen inches and two iaches thick.The keyhole is two and a half inches long, and the key itself is eleven inches ia length,and weighs three-quarters of a pound. The great brass key to the main entrance of Blenheim Castle is at least ten inches long, aai is surmounted by the Marlborough coronet*

Anne Haulaway's Cottage is a modest little structure, yet probably no modern mansion boasts ao massive a doorkey. And the church where Shakespeare's body ließ is locked with keys that were meant never to be lost. The might lose his hat, bis mind, or his soul, l |but that buuch of old iron—never !

The keys of Chirk Castle, Wales, are a monument of the whitesmith's art. The key of the ■servants' hall is a trifle nearly a foot long, and: the one to the duogeon entrance is of such' ample dimensions that the poor wretch who entered could never have entertained tbe faint* est hope of ever picking bis way back to liberty.; The stables are also protected by a massive lock,; and a peculiar, large iron key, with a loose ringj for a handle.

Tbe old locks in the door of GuyFawkes's cell,j in tbe tower of London, seem nearly ready to fall to pieces, but tbe keys still maintain their l grim personality and appear to be in their very prime. Poor Guy! Their grating i made sorry music for him when the turnkey; came each day, for seventy days, to give his prisoner exercise on the rack.

The keys at Warwick Castle, and the keys in, the Castle collection of antiques; would buy theextravagant countess many a trifle, were she to< convert tbe old iron into pin-money. Thei famous C«esar's Tower, at Warwick, has a gianti key with a ward about two inches long. Thei tower was built soon after the Norman Con-i quest, but whether this key has been in service] eight hundred years is a question, though it j looks a veritable patriarch.

Leicester Hospital, founded by Lord Dudley iaj 1571, contains maoy curious old keys, the most] conspicuous being the brass key with a clover-i shaped handle. It opens a door of the chapel, j which is built over the west gate of the town ofl Warwick.

Oxford is full of keys that are curious, both) as to design ind eize. All the college boil dings, i as well as the chapels and the cathedral coa-'-nected with the University, are guarded by; antiques tn the key line. If only they might j speak, what take of ambition, of failure, and) success these eld iron seutinels could relate !

The chests and safes of bo-day are secured by combination lucks,, iustead of combination keys, and ate locked by keys which are pigmies compared with the great historic keys of antiquity, massive in their proportions, and full of suggestion to the contemplative mind. These old keys seem to unlock for us the darker days of the distant past, and to open to our view visions of the real and the fanciful, which at once repel and charm, yet lead us to preserve them among the sacred relics of the ages that are far uver goneu