A pension of ten pounds granted by a king of England to a man of letters, appears, to modern readers, so contemptible a benefaction, that it is not unworthy of inquiry what might be its value at that time, and how much Ascham might be enriched by it.  Nothing is more uncertain than the estimation of wealth by denominated money; the precious metals never retain long the same proportion to real commodities, and the same names in different ages do not imply the same quantity of metal; so that it is equally difficult to know how much money was contained in any nominal sum, and to find what any supposed quantity of gold or silver would purchase; both which are necessary to the commensuration of money, or the adjustment of proportion between the same sums at different periods of time.

A numeral pound, in king Henry’s time, contained, as now, twenty shillings; and, therefore, it must be inquired what twenty shillings could perform.  Bread-corn is the most certain standard of the necessaries of life.  Wheat was generally sold, at that time for one shilling, the bushel; if, therefore, we take five shillings the bushel for the current price, ten pounds were equivalent to fifty.  But here is danger of a fallacy.  It may be doubted whether wheat was the general bread-corn of that age; and if rye, barley, or oats, were the common food, and wheat, as I suspect, only a delicacy, the value of wheat will not regulate the price of other things.  This doubt, however, is in favour of Ascham; for if we raise the worth of wheat, we raise that of his pension.

But the value of money has another variation, which we are still less able to ascertain:  the rules of custom, or the different needs of artificial life, make that revenue little at one time which is great at another.  Men are rich and poor, not only in proportion to what they have, but to what they want.  In some ages, not only necessaries are cheaper, but fewer things are necessary.  In the age of Ascham, most of the elegancies and expenses of our present fashions were unknown:  commerce had not yet distributed superfluity through the lower classes of the people, and the character of a student implied frugality, and required no splendour to support it.  His pension, therefore, reckoning together the wants which he could supply, and the wants from which he was exempt, may be estimated, in my opinion, at more than one hundred pounds a year; which, added to the income of his fellowship, put him far enough above distress.

This was a year of good fortune to Ascham.  He was chosen orator to the university on the removal of sir John Cheke to court, where he was made tutor to prince Edward.  A man once distinguished soon gains admirers.  Ascham was now received to notice by many of the nobility, and by great ladies, among whom it was then the fashion to study the ancient languages.  Lee, archbishop of York, allowed him a yearly pension; how much we are not told.  He was, probably, about this time, employed in teaching many illustrious persons to write a fine hand; and, among others, Henry and Charles, dukes of Suffolk, the princess Elizabeth, and prince Edward.