History was in the form of chronicles and romances. Stow was the great contemporary writer engaged in recording for future generations the events passing around him. Books in living languages were scarce, though not so few as when the Dowager-Duchess of Buckingham left what was deemed a notable legacy of four volumes to her daughter-in-law, Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond. French and Italian, especially the latter, were studied by the nobility with continental masters, or acquired by means of travel. Great courtesy was shown to visitors from the continent by the English aristocracy, who delighted in having intercourse with men of other nationalities, and often surrounded themselves with foreign servants. In this way a taste was fostered for the Spanish, French, and Italian languages. Nobles who did not want to study themselves, liked to be surrounded by men of learning, and willingly gave poor authors a seat at their table. It became customary to dedicate every new book to some rich patron, and though it was a practice that opened the door to abuses, it secured, on the other hand, a subsistence to deserving authors who would otherwise have been unable to pursue their studies. Although the nobility extended their patronage to learned men, they were not greatly given to study themselves. In the time of Henry VIII. there was such a lack of learning among laymen, that ecclesiastics had the governance of the country largely in their hands. The generality of men among the upper classes deemed the labour involved in acquiring knowledge unfit for gentlemen, who were better employed learning to hunt, shoot, sing, and dance. Roger Ascham reproaches the young gentlemen of England for their sloth in learning, and holds up for imitation the Virgin Queen-- “whose example if the rest of our nobilitie would follow, then might England bee for learning and wisdome in nobilitie a spectacle to all the world beside.” It was otherwise with women. They toiled over Latin and Greek, frequently in manuscript, for there were not many printed books in those languages; no classics had issued from Caxton’s press. Hebrew was also studied, for divinity and theology occupied a good deal of attention. A Florentine, Petruccio Ubaldini, who visited England in 1551, writes in his comments on social life-- “The rich cause their sons and daughters to learn Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, for since this storm of heresy has invaded the land, they hold it useful to read the Scriptures in the original tongue.” Dr. Wotton, in his “Reflections on Antient and Modern Learning,” says--