_Lay of the Phoenix._--"SELEUCUS" (No. 13, p. 203.) asks, "Is there any published edition of the hexameter poem by Lactantius, which is said to have suggested the idea of the Anglo-Saxon _Lay of the Phoenix_?" This poem is not in hexameter, but in elegiac verse; and though, on account of its brevity, we could not expect that it would have been separately published, it is to be found very commonly at the end of the works of Lactantius; for example, in three editions before me, Basil. 1524, Lugd. 1548, Basil. 1563. That this poem, however, belongs to the Christian Cicero, at any period of his life, is more than doubtful, even by the admission of Romanists, who readily avail themselves of other compositions of similar authority. It has been sometimes ascribed to Venantius Fortunatus, and is by Sirmondus attributed to Theodulphus, Bishop of Orleans. (_Opp._, ii. 840. cf. iv. 519. Venet. 1728.) R.G. _Ordination Pledges._--Your correspondent, "CLERICUS" (no. 10. p. 156.), will find by far the most elaborate and judicious examination of the import, design, and obligation of the various oaths and subscriptions required of the clergy, in the successive numbers of _The Christian Observer_ for 1849. E.V. _Feast of St, Michael and All-Angels._--The difficulty started by "K.M.P." (No. 13, p. 203.), with regard to the double second lessons for the Feast of St. Michael and All-Angels, is easily resolved by comparing the Table of Proper Lessons before and after the last review of the _Prayer Book_ in 1662; from which it will be seen, that the proper _second_ lessons were then appointed for the first time, while the old second lessons for Sept. 29. were retained, either from inadvertence, or to avoid the necessity of disarranging all the subsequent part of the calendar. The present first lessons, Gen. xxxii., and Dan. x. v. 5., at the same time took the place of the inappropriate chapters, Eccles. xxxix. and xliv., which had been appointed for this day in Queen Elizabeth's Prayer Book, 1559. E. V. _Beaver Hat._--Mr. T. Hudson Turner (No. 7. p. 100.) asks, "What is the earliest known instance of the use of a _beaver hat_ in England?" (236}Fairholt (_Costume in England_) says, the earliest notice of it is in the reign of Elizabeth, and gives the following quotation from Stubbe's _Anatomy of Abuses,_ 1580:-- "And as the fashions be rare and strange, so is the stuff whereof their hats be made divers also; for some are of silk, some of velvet, some of taffetie, some of sarcenet, some of wool, and, which is more curious, some of a certain kind of fine haire; these they call _bever hattes_, of xx, xxx, or xl shillings price, fetched from beyond the seas, from whence a great sort of other varieties doe come besides." GASTROS. _Meaning of "Pisan."_--Mr. Turner (No. 7. p.100.) asks the meaning of the term _pisan_, used in old records for some part of defensive armour.