There was less arithmetic, history, and geography taught than is now imparted in board schools to the poorest. The curriculum for a lady of rank did not include many things which have now become matters of common knowledge among the children of the working classes. On the other hand, the education, if narrow according to modern ideas, was thorough, and without the stimulus of college life, of competitive examinations, without the prospect of rewards and honours in the shape of degrees, the attainments of women in the sixteenth century in the subjects to which they had access, were of a high order, and their knowledge of the classics was more intimate and exact than that produced by the higher education of the nineteenth century. Learning was necessarily confined to women of position and wealth, who could afford the luxury of private tutors and the equally great luxury of books. There were, doubtless, here and there families of lower rank whose daughters would have borne favourable comparison with the titled ladies who are so conspicuous. But wide diffusion of knowledge and a high standard of education among women generally, if it existed, did not excite notice among contemporary writers as did the studious habits of the upper classes. Udall, the master of Eton in Queen Mary’s reign, speaks with admiration of-- “the great number of noble women at that time in England, not only given to the study of human sciences and strange tongues, but also so thoroughly expert in Holy Scriptures that they were able to compare with the best writers, as well in enditeing and penning of godly and fruitful treatises to the instruction and edifying of realmes in the knowledge of God, as also in translating good books out of Latin or Greek into English for the use and commodity of such as are rude and ignorant of the said tongues. It was now no news in England to see young damsels in noble houses and in the courts of princes, instead of cards and other instruments of idle trifling, to have continually in their hands either psalms, homilies, and other devout meditations, or else Paul’s Epistles or some book of Holy Scripture matters, and as familiarly both to read and reason thereof in Greek, Latin, French, or Italian as in English. It was now a common thing to see young virgins so trained in the study of good letters that they willingly set all other vain pastimes at naught for learning sake. It was now no news at all to see Queens and ladies of most high estate and progeny, instead of courtly dalliance, to embrace virtuous exercises of reading and writing, and with most earnest study both early and late to apply themselves to the acquiring of knowledge, as well in all other liberal artes and disciplines, as also most especially of God and his holy word.”