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 Ascham to see him in 1552, but Sturm was from home (Epist. cxl.), and the two friends never met, although they continued to correspond in terms of the utmost intimacy from 1550 till a few days before Ascham's death. On the death of Martin Bucer on 28 Feb. 1550-1, Ascham offered to aid Sturm in writing his life. With Sir Richard Morysin Ascham seems to have lived on excellent terms; he read Greek with him five days a week, and between 12 Oct. 1550 and 12 Aug. 1551 they went through all Herodotus with five tragedies (probably of Sophocles) and seventeen orations of Demosthenes. He kept a diary in English throughout his foreign sojourn, in which he described the German princes he met and the political questions at issue in Europe. The greater part of it he forwarded in 1552 in a letter to his friend, John Astley, in attendance on Princess Elizabeth at Hatfield, and this document was published at London in 1553 under the title of 'A Report. . . of the Affaires and State of Germany.' On the accession of Queen Mary, Ascham's prospects in England looked very gloomy. His pension of 10l., which had been renewed and increased by Edward VI, had again terminated. While in Germany he had, through the influence of Cheke and William Cecil, been nominated Latin secretary to the king and his librarian, but he had never exercised these functions, and the appointments now ceased to have effect. He still retained the public oratorship at Cambridge and a fellowship. Before the close of 1553 his fortunes improved. He sought the favour of his old friend Gardiner, and through him was appointed Latin secretary to Queen Mary, with an annual salary of twenty pounds. The bishop, on hearing how he had lost his pension, bade him have the patent written out again, and Ascham brought the document to him, leaving a blank space for the sum of money. He showed Gardiner that, through the carelessness of the scrivener, the space was too wide for 'the old word ten' and begged him to use his influence with the queen to obtain twenty pounds a year for him. In one letter to Gardiner (Epist. clxx.) he naively wrote: 'The space which is left by chance doth seem to crave by good luck some words of length, as viginti or triginta, yea, with the help of a little dash, quadraginta would serve best of all.' He told the same story to Queen Elizabeth in 1567, with some variations to give it a more avowedly amusing tone (ii.lxxxvii.). But his device succeeded, and Queen Mary gave him twenty pounds a year. Through the favour of Sir William Petre he obtained a grant from the crown of the lease of a farm at Walthamstow, Essex, called Salisbury Hall, at the low rent of twenty pounds. He soon afterwards gave proof of his industry as the queen's Latin secretary by writing with his wonted skill forty-seven letters for her to persons of exalted rank, of whom cardinals were the lowest, within three days. One other exceptional favour was bestowed on him at the time. While his friend Cheke was compelled to renounce the reformed religion, and Ridley suffered for his adherence to it with his life, Ascham was permitted to continue in its profession, and Gardiner's friends incited him in vain to interfere with his religious liberty (Epist. cxci.). This exemption has been attributed to various causes, but Ascham was doubtless worldly-minded enough, as Dr. Johnson has suggested, to avoid any obnoxious display of his opinions, and thus escaped notice. It is noticeable that in his voluminous correspondence, while he bestows approval on Gardiner's policy (Epist. clxxv.), to whose personal kindness he repeatedly refers, keeps Pope Paul IV informed, in the exercise of his official duties, of the progress that the Roman catholic revival makes in England (Epist. cxciv.), and seeks with success the patronage of Cardinal Pole (Epist. clxxxix.), he preserves an ominous silence as to the fate of Lady Jane Grey, to whom he had last written with friendly familiarity from Germany in 1551 (Epist. cxiv.), and makes no mention of his friends, Ridley and Cranmer. But Ascham in the early part of Mary's reign continued on intimate terms with Elizabeth, who never concealed her religious opinion, and found leisure to read with her Demosthenes and Æschines (Epist. cxci.)

On 1 Jan. 1554 Ascham married Margaret Howe, and he consequently resigned his fellowship and public oratorship at Cambridge. The lady was a niece by marriage of Sir Henry Wallop. Ascham, writing to Sturm at the time, speaks in high praise of his wife's beauty (Epist. cxci.), and in a later letter to Queen Elizabeth (ii. Ixxxvii.), describes her as very young compared with himself, who was now 'well stept into years.' Elsewhere (ii. clxxi.) he writes of her under date 18 Jan. 1554-5: 'God, I thancke him, hath given me such an one as the lesse she seeth I doe for herr the more loveing in all causes she is to me,' and adds that 'hitherto she hath founde rather a loveing than a luckye husband unto her.' The close of Mary's reign saw Ascham steadily at work in her service, but his private letters are full of complaints of his poverty and his inability to maintain on his income his wife and his son Giles. The accession of Elizabeth did not appreciably improve his fortunes. He was