Here is that able artist's offer in his own terms, if, not his own words.
I have to inquire, are these pictures left here to the knowledge of your readers? did he, in short, find buyers as well as admirers? or, if not, did he return to Venice with those (no doubt) vividly pictured recollections of our localities under his arm?
Gondola.
A Monster found at Maidstone.—In Kilburne's Survey of Kent, 4to. 1659, under "Maidstone," is the following passage:
"Wat Tiler, that idol of clownes, and famous rebell in the time of King Richard the Second, was of this town; and in the year 1206 about this town was a monster found stricken with lightning, with a head like an asse, a belly like a man, and all other parts far different from any known creature, but not approachable nigh unto, by reason of the stench thereof."
No mention of this is made by Lambarde in his Perambulation of Kent. Has this been traditional, or whence is Kilburne's authority? And what explanation can be offered of the account?
H. W. D.
Page.—What is the derivation of this word? In the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, edited by Dr. W. Smith, 1st edit., p. 679., it is said to be from the Greek παιδαγωγὸς, pædagogus. But in an edition of Tacitus, with notes by Boxhorn (Amsterdam, 1662), it is curiously identified with the word boy, and traced to an eastern source thus:—Persian, bagoa; Polish, pokoigo; Old German, Pagie, Bagh, Bai; then the Welsh, bachgen; French, page; English, boy; and Greek, παῖς.
Some of your correspondents may be able to inform me which is correct.
B. H. C.