oesie_, published in 1589, contains
an earlier allusion to this epigram than any of those mentioned by your
correspondents at Vol. ii., p. 77., and assigns to Pope Alexander [Qy. VI.]
the doubtful honour of being the subject of it. The passage is at p. 11.,
and is as follows:--

"Another of their pretie inuentions was to make a verse of such wordes
as lay their nature and manner of construction and situation might be
turned backward word by word, and make another perfit verse, but of
quite contrary sence, as the gibing monke that wrote of Pope Alexander
these two verses:

'Laus tua non tua fraus, virtue non copia rerum,
Scandere te faciunt hoc decus eximium:'

which if ye will turne backward, they make two other good verses, but
of a contrary sence, thus:

'Eximium decus hoc faciunt te scandere, rerum
Copia, non virtus, fraus tua, non tua laus;'

and they call it _Verse Lyon_."

Query, Why? and where else is Verse Lyon alluded to?

J. F. M.

[Is not "_Verse Lyon_" Puttenham's translation of _Leonine Verse_?]

_Passage from Cymbeline_ (Vol. ii., p. 135.).--

"Some jay of Italy,
Whose mother was her _painting_, hath betrayed him."--Act III. Sc. 4.

The word _painting_ (your correspondent's stumbling-block) evidently means
resemblance--resemblance of character, and as such exactly corresponds to
the German word _Ebenbild_, an image or painting, which is used in the same
sense; _e.g._ _Sie hat das Ebenbild ihres Mutters_, "She is the very image
of her mother."

CRANMORE.

Rue de Cerf, 6. Brussels.

_Engraved Warming-pans_ (Vol. iii., pp. 84. 115.).--As an earlier instance
of this custom, it may be worth notice that I have one which was purchased
some years ago at the village of Whatcote in Warwickshire; it is engraved
with a dragon, and the date 1601. I think it probable that it originally
came from Compton Wyniatt, the ancient seat of the Earls [now Marquis] of
Northampton; the supporters of the Compton family being dragons, and
Whatcote being the next village to Compton Wyniatt.

SPES.

_Symbolism of the Fir-cone_ (Vol. i., p. 247.).--The Fir-cone on the
Thyrsus--a practice very general throughout Greece, but which is very
prevalent at Athens, may perhaps, in some degree, account for the connexion
of the Fir-cone (surmounting the Thyrsus) with the worship of Bacchus.
Incisions are made in the fir-trees for the purpose of obtaining the
t