Note 100 — PREFACE.

Among the objects from Lagore mentioned by Lord Talbot (Fig. 103) is a peculiar iron pipe, described as of unknown use. It is rather remarkable that it and this bayonet-like object from Buston should be the counterparts of a kind of padlock in use in the earlier Middle Ages, which acted in the following manner:—When a spring-bolt (like that of the object from Buston) was passed through the tube upwards, the spike attached to the latter passed through the perforation in the former. Inside the tube there were two small prominences, which when the bolt was pushed sufficiently home caught the tips of its springs and prevented its return. In this state the padlock was securely locked, and it could only be opened by a key consisting of another but smaller tube, which, when passed through the other end of the larger tube and over the springs, pressed the latter close to the body of the bolt until their tips became clear of the internal catches, and so allowed the spring-bolt to be extracted.