ge, he took a journey into Yorkshire, to
see his native place, and his old acquaintance, and there received a
letter from the court, informing him, that he was appointed secretary
to sir Richard Morisine, who was to be despatched as ambassadour into
Germany. In his return to London he paid that memorable visit to lady
Jane Gray, in which he found her reading the Phasdo in Greek, as he
has related in his Schoolmaster.

In September, 1550, he attended Morisine to Germany, and wandered over
great part of the country, making observations upon all that appeared
worthy of his curiosity, and contracting acquaintance with men of
learning. To his correspondent, Sturmius, he paid a visit, but
Sturmius was not at home, and those two illustrious friends never saw
each other. During the course of this embassy, Ascham undertook to
improve Morisine in Greek, and, for four days in the week, explained
some passages in Herodotus every morning, and more than two hundred
verses of Sophocles, or Euripides, every afternoon. He read with him,
likewise, some of the orations of Demosthenes. On the other days he
compiled the letters of business, and in the night filled up his
diary, digested his remarks, and wrote private letters to his friends
in England, and particularly to those of his college, whom he
continually exhorted to perseverance in study. Amidst all the
pleasures of novelty which his travels supplied, and in the dignity of
his publick station, he preferred the tranquillity of private study,
and the quiet of academical retirement. The reasonableness of this
choice has been always disputed; and in the contrariety of human
interests and dispositions, the controversy will not easily be
decided.

He made a short excursion into Italy, and mentions in his
Schoolmaster, with great severity, the vices of Venice. He was
desirous of visiting Trent, while the council were sitting; but the
scantiness of his purse defeated his curiosity.

In this journey he wrote his Report and Discourse of the Affairs in
Germany, in which he describes the dispositions and interests of the
German princes, like a man inquisitive and judicious, and recounts
many particularities, which are lost in the mass of general history,
in a style, which, to the ears of that age, was undoubtedly
mellifluous, and which is now a very valuable specimen of genuine
English.

By the death of king Edward, in 1553, the reformation was stopped,
Morisine was recalled, and Ascham's