“If her fortune had been as good as her bringing up, joyned with fineness of wit, undoubtedly she might have seemed comparable, not only to the house of the Vespasians, Sempronians, and mother of the Grachies; yea, to any other women besides that deserveth high praise for their singular learning; but also to the University men, who have taken many degrees of the Schools.” Lady Jane Grey’s short and troublous life was lightened and cheered by study. Roger Ascham commended her facility in Greek composition. Her studies were very extensive, for Sir Thomas Chaloner said of her that she was well versed in Hebrew, Chaldee, Arabic, French, and Italian. None of these royal ladies were destitute of lighter accomplishments. Elizabeth, as is well known, was a very graceful dancer, and could sing and play exceedingly well; Lady Jane Grey was a musician, and clever at needlework. But it was not royal ladies alone who were celebrated for their learning in the sixteenth century. The three daughters of Sir Anthony Coke, preceptor to Edward VI., were as accomplished as Queen Elizabeth and Lady Jane Grey, and attracted the attention of the great men of the age. The eldest married Lord Burleigh, the Treasurer; the second, Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, and became the mother of the celebrated Francis Bacon; the third became wife to Lord John Russell, after the death of her first husband, Sir Philip Hoby. Sir Anthony was a father much in advance of his time. He considered that women should be educated on the same lines as men, and that they were quite as capable of acquiring knowledge. So he imparted to his clever daughters the lessons he gave to the precocious boy-king, Edward VI. “It is,” says Lloyd,[39] “the happiness of foreigners that their vocations are suited to their natures, and that their education seconds their inclination, and both byass and ground do wonders. It is to the unhappiness of Englishmen that they are bred rather according to their estates than their temper; and great parts have been lost, while their calling drew one away and their genius another.” Sir Anthony seems to have known how to suit his children’s education to their “temper,” which was keenly studious. He was excessively careful to set them a good example. “My example is your inheritance, and my life is your portion,” he wrote to his eldest daughter. All his daughters were good classical scholars, could correspond in Greek, and were excellent translators. Sir Thomas More’s daughters were educated in a similar way. Margaret, wife of William Roper and her father’s favourite, is the most celebrated; but all were clever, studious women, not content with light and easy studies, but attaining great proficiency in abstruse subjects.