 Henry Craik, ed.  English Prose.  1916. Vol. I. Fourteenth to
Sixteenth Century Critical Introduction by Henry Craik Roger
Ascham (1515–1568) [Roger Ascham was born in Yorkshire in 1515,
and belonged to a family of some repute. He owed his earlier
education, and the means of subsequently pursuing a university
career, to the bounty of Sir Anthony Wingfield. In 1530 he was
entered at St. John’s College, Cambridge, then the foremost
arena of the new studies, with which were generally combined the
new religious tenets of the day. He studied Greek under Sir John
Cheke, and became one of the most ardent votaries of the
literature which was then stirring the mental activity of Europe
as it had never been stirred before. In 1531 he became a Fellow
of his college, and subsequently held the appointments of Reader
in Greek and of Public Orator. In 1545 he secured the favour of
Henry VIII. by his Toxophilus, which was intended to signalise
at once his patriotism and his learning; and he was granted a
pension which was r