ing which pervaded the court of Edward VI.

Writing in 1550 to his friend John Sturmius, the worthy and erudite
rector of the protestant university of Strasburgh, Ascham has the
following passages.

* * * * *

"Never was the nobility of England more lettered than at present. Our
illustrious king Edward in talent, industry, perseverance, and
erudition, surpasses both his own years and the belief of men.... I
doubt not that France will also yield the just praise of learning to the
duke of Suffolk[12] and the rest of that band of noble youths educated
with the king in Greek and Latin literature, who depart for that
country on this very day.

[Note 12: This was the second duke of the name of Brandon, who died
young of the sweating sickness.]

"Numberless honorable ladies of the present time surpass the daughters
of sir Thomas More in every kind of learning. But amongst them all, my
illustrious mistress the lady Elizabeth shines like a star, excelling
them more by the splendor of her virtues and her learning, than by the
glory of her royal birth. In the variety of her commendable qualities, I
am less perplexed to find matter for the highest panegyric than to
circumscribe that panegyric within just bounds. Yet I shall mention
nothing respecting her but what has come under my own observation.

"For two years she pursued the study of Greek and Latin under my
tuition; but the foundations of her knowledge in both languages were
laid by the diligent instruction of William Grindal, my late beloved
friend and seven years my pupil in classical learning at Cambridge. From
this university he was summoned by John Cheke to court, where he soon
after received the appointment of tutor to this lady. After some years,
when through her native genius, aided by the efforts of so excellent a
master, she had made a great progress in learning, and Grindal, by his
merit and the favor of his mistress, might have aspired to high
dignities, he was snatched away by a sudden illness, leaving a greater
miss of himself in the court, than I remember any other to have done
these many years.

"I was appointed to succeed him in his office; and the work which he had
so happily begun, without my assistance indeed, but not without some
counsels of mine, I diligently labored to complete. Now, however,
released from the throng of a court, and restored to the felicity of my
former learned leisure, I enjoy, through the bounty o