In our fathers' time nothing was read but books of feigned chivalry, wherein a man by reading should be led to none other end, but only to manslaughter and bawdry.

From this private tuition Ascham was sent "about 1530" at the age it is said of fifteen to St John's College Cambridge then the largest and most learned college in either university where he devoted himself specially to the study of Greek then newly revived.

He was born at Kirby Wiske a village in the North Riding of Yorkshire near Northallerton the third son of John Ascham steward to Baron Scrope of Bolton. 1515 – 30 December 1568) was an English scholar and didactic writer famous for his prose style his promotion of the vernacular and his theories of education. The authority for this statement as for most here concerning Ascham's early life is Edward Grant headmaster of Westminster who collected and edited his letters and delivered a panegyrical oration on his life in 1576.