J. C. G. says that _derrick_ is an ancient British word: perhaps he will be kind enough to let us know its signification. I always understood that a _derrick_ took its name from _Derrick_, the notorious executioner at Tyburn, in the early part of the seventeenth century, whose name was long a general term for hangman. In merchant ships, the _derrick_, for hoisting up goods, is always placed at the hatchway, close by the _gallows_. The _derrick_, however, is not a nautical appliance alone; it has been long used to raise stones at buildings; but the crane, and that excellent invention the handy-paddy, has now almost put it out of employment. What will philologists, two or three centuries hence, make out of the word _handy-paddy_, which is universally used by workmen to designate the powerful winch, traversing on temporary rails, employed to raise heavy weights at large buildings. For the benefit of posterity, I may say that it is very _handy_ for the masons, and almost invariably worked by Irishmen.
As a collateral evidence to my opinion, that _painter_ is derived from the Saxon _bynder_, through the Anglo-Norman _panter_, and that _derrick_ is from _Derrick_ the hangman, I may add that these words are unknown in the nautical technology of any other language.
_Pepys's "Morena"_ (Vol. vii., p. 118.).--MR. WARDEN may like to be informed that his conjecture about the meaning of this word is fully confirmed by the following passage in the _Diary_, 6th October, 1661, which has hitherto unaccountably escaped observation:
"There was also my _pretty black girl_, Mrs. Dekins and Mrs. Margaret Pen this day come to church."
_Pylades and Corinna_ (Vol. vii., p. 305.).--If your correspondent's question have reference to the two volumes in octavo published under this title in 1731, assuredly Defoe had nothing to do with them, as must be evident to any one on the most cursory glance. The volumes contain memoirs of Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas, on whom Dryden conferred the poetical title of Corinna, and the letters which passed between her and Richard Gwinnett, her intended husband. A biography of this lady, neither whose life nor poetry were of the best, may be found in Chalmers's _Biog. Dict._, vol. xxix. p. 281., and a farther one in Cibber's _Lives_, vol. iv. The _Dunciad_, and her part in the publication of Pope's early correspondence, have given her an unhappy notoriety. I must say, however, that, notwithstanding his provocation, I cannot but think that he treated this poor woman ungenerously.