The Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew originated in the exotic garden formed by Lord Capel and greatly extended by the princess dowager, widow of Frederick, prince of Wales, and by George III., aided by the skill of William Aiton and of Sir Joseph Banks. In 1840 the gardens were adopted as a national establishment, and transferred to the department of woods and forests. The gardens proper, which originally contained only about 11 acres, were subsequently increased to 75 acres, and the pleasure grounds or arboretum adjoining extend to 270 acres. There are extensive conservatories, botanical museums, including the magnificent herbarium and a library. A lofty Chinese pagoda was erected in 1761. A flagstaff 159 ft. high is made out of the fine single trunk of a Douglas pine. In the neighbouring Richmond Old Park is the important Kew Observatory.
KEWANEE, a city of Henry county, Illinois, U.S.A., in the N. W. part of the state, about 55 m. N. by W. of Peoria. Pop. (1900), 8382, of whom 2006 were foreign-born; (1910 census), 9307. It is served by the Chicago Burlington & Quincy railroad and by the Galesburg & Kewanee Electric railway. Among its manufactures are foundry and machine-shop products, boilers, carriages and wagons, agricultural implements, pipe and fittings, working-men’s gloves, &c. In 1905 the total factory product was valued at $6,729,381, or 61.5% more than in 1900. Kewanee was settled in 1836 by people from Wethersfield, Connecticut, and was first chartered as a city in 1897.
KEY, SIR ASTLEY COOPER (1821–1888), English admiral,
was born in London in 1821, and entered the navy in 1833.
His father was Charles Aston Key (1793–1849), a well-known
surgeon, the pupil of Sir Astley Cooper, and his mother was
the latter’s niece. After distinguishing himself in active
service abroad, on the South American station (1844–1846), in
the Baltic during the Crimean War (C.B. 1855) and China (1857),
Key was appointed in 1858 a member of the royal commission
on national defence, in 1860 captain of the steam reserve at
Devonport, and in 1863 captain of H.M.S. “Excellent” and
superintendent of the Royal Naval College. He had a
considerable share in advising as to the reorganization of
administration, and in 1866, having become rear-admiral, was made
director of naval ordnance. Between 1869 and 1872 he held
the offices of superintendent of Portsmouth dockyard,
superintendent of Malta dockyard, and second in command in the
Mediterranean. In 1872 he was made president of the projected
Royal Naval College at Greenwich, which was organized by him,
and after its opening in 1873 he was made a K.C.B. and a
vice-admiral. In 1876 he was appointed commander-in-chief on the
North American and West Indian station. Having become full
admiral in 1878, he was appointed in 1879 principal A.D.C., and
soon afterwards first naval lord of the admiralty, retaining
this post till 1885. In 1882 he was made G.C.B. He died at
Maidenhead on the 3rd of March, 1888.
See Memoirs of Sir Astley Cooper Key, by Vice-Admiral Colomb (1898).
KEY, THOMAS HEWITT (1799–1875), English classical
scholar, was born in London on the 20th of March, 1799. He
was educated at St John’s and Trinity Colleges, Cambridge,
and graduated 19th wrangler in 1821. From 1825 to 1827 he
was professor of mathematics in the university of Virginia, and
after his return to England was appointed (1828) professor of
Latin in the newly founded university of London. In 1832
he became joint headmaster of the school founded in connexion
with that institution; in 1842 he resigned the professorship
of Latin, and took up that of comparative grammar together
with the undivided headmastership of the school. These two
posts he held till his death on the 29th of November 1875.
Key is best known for his introduction of the crude-form (the
uninflected form or stem of words) system, in general use among
Sanskrit grammarians, into the teaching of the classical languages.
This system was embodied in his Latin Grammar (1846). In
Language, its Origin and Development (1874), he upholds the
onomatopoeic theory. Key was prejudiced against the German
“Sanskritists,” and the etymological portion of his Latin
Dictionary, published in 1888, was severely criticized on this
account. He was a member of the Royal Society and president
of the Philological Society, to the Transactions of which he contributed largely.
See Proceedings of the Royal Society, vol. xxiv. (1876); R. Ellis in the Academy (Dec. 4, 1875); J. P. Hicks, T. Hewitt Key (1893), where a full list of his works and contributions is given.
KEY (in O. Eng. caég; the ultimate origin of the word is
unknown; it appears only in Old Frisian kei of other Teutonic
languages; until the end of the 17th century the pronunciation
was kay, as in other words in O. Eng. ending in aég; cf.
daég, day; claég, clay; the New English Dictionary takes the
change to kee to be due to northern influence), an instrument of
metal used for the opening and closing of a lock (see Lock).
Until the 14th century bronze and not iron was most commonly
used. The terminals of the stem of the keys were frequently
decorated, the “bow” or loop taking the form sometimes of a
trefoil, with figures inscribed within it; this decoration increased
in the 16th century, the terminals being made in the shape of
animals and other figures. Still more elaborate ceremonial
keys were used by court officials; a series of chamberlains’ keys
used during the 18th and 19th centuries in several courts in
Europe is in the British Museum. The terminals are decorated
with crowns, royal monograms and ciphers. The word “key”
is by analogy applied to things regarded as means for the opening
or closing of anything, for the making clear that which is hidden.
Thus it is used of an interpretation as to the arrangement of the
letters or words of a cipher, of a solution of mathematical or other
problems, or of a translation of exercises or books, &c., from a
foreign language. The term is also used figuratively of a place
of commanding strategic position. Thus Gibraltar, the “Key
of the Mediterranean,” was granted in 1462 by Henry IV. of
Castile, the arms, gules, a castle proper, with key pendant to
the gate, or; these arms form the badge of the 50th regiment
of foot (now 2nd Batt. Essex Regiment) in the British army, in
memory of the part which it took in the siege of 1782. The
word is also frequently applied to many mechanical contrivances
for unfastening or loosening a valve, nut, bolt, &c., such as a
spanner or wrench, and to the instruments used in tuning a pianoforte
or harp or in winding clocks or watches. A farther
extension of the word is to appliances or devices which serve to
lock or fasten together distinct parts of a structure, as the
“key-stone” of an arch, the wedge or piece of wood, metal, &c.,
which fixes a joint, or a small metal instrument, shaped like
a U, used to secure the bands in the process of sewing in
bookbinding.
In musical instruments the term “key” is applied in certain wind instruments, particularly of the wood-wind type, to the levers which open and close valves in order to produce various notes, and in keyboard instruments, such as the organ or the pianoforte, to the exterior white or black parts of the levers which either open or shut the valves to admit the wind from the bellows to the pipes or to release the hammers against the strings (see Keyboard). It is from this application of the word to these levers in musical instruments that the term is also used of the parts pressed by the finger in typewriters and in telegraphic instruments.
A key is the insignia of the office of chamberlain in a royal household (see Chamberlain and Lord Chamberlain). The “power of the keys” (clavium potestas) in ecclesiastical usage represents the authority given by Christ to Peter by the words, “I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. xvi. 19). This is claimed by the Roman Church to have been transmitted to the popes as the successors of St Peter.
“Key” was formerly the common spelling of “quay,” a wharf, and is still found in America for “cay,” an island reef or sandbank off the coast of Florida (see Quay).
The origin of the name Keys or House of Keys, the lower branch of the legislature, the court of Tynwald, of the Isle of Man, has been much discussed, but it is generally accepted that it is a particular application of the word “key” by English- and not Manx-speaking
