After this he visited England, going along with a young Gentleman, to whom he was Tutor, who, as he says himself, was rather his Friend than his Patron.  In England he was received with universal Respect; and, as he tells us himself in his Life, he won the Affections of all good Men in our Island.  During his Residence here, he was intimately acquainted with Sir Thomas More, William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, John Colet, Dean of St. Pauls, the Founder of St. Paul’s School, a Man remarkable for the Regularity of his Life, great Learning and Magnificence; with Hugh Latimer Bishop of Winchester, Linacre, Grocinus, and many other honourable and learned Persons, and passed some Years at Cambridge, and is said to have taught there; but whether this was after his first or second Time of visiting England, I do not determine:  However, not meeting with the Preferment he expected, he went away hence to make a Journey to Italy, in the Company of the Sons of Baptista Boetius, a Genoese, Royal Professor of Physick in England; which Country, at that Time, could boast of a Set of learned Men, not much inferior to the Augustan Age:  But as he was going to France, it was his ill Fortune, at Dover, to be stripp’d of all he had; this he seems to hint at in his Colloquy, intitled, the Religious Pilgrimage:  But yet he was so far from revenging the Injury, by reflecting upon the Nation, that he immediately published a Book in Praise of the King and Country; which Piece of Generosity gained him no small Respect in England.  And it appears by several of his Epistles, that he honoured England next to the Place of his Nativity.

It appears by Epist. 10.  Lib. 16. that when he was in England Learning flourished very much here, in that he writes, Apud Anglos triumphant bonae Literae recta Studia; and in Epist. 12.  Lib. 16. he makes no Scruple to equal it to Italy itself; and Epist. 26.  Lib. 6. commends the English Nobility for their great Application to all useful Learning, and entertaining themselves at Table with learned Discourses, when the Table-Talk of Churchmen was nothing but Ribaldry and Profaneness.  In Epist. 10. Lib. 5, which he addresses to Andrelinus, he invites him to come into England, recommending it as worth his While, were it upon no other Account, than to see the charming Beauties with which this Island abounded; and in a very pleasant Manner describes to him the Complaisance and innocent Freedom of the English Ladies, telling him, that when he came into a Gentleman’s House he was allowed to salute the Ladies, and also to do the same at taking Leave:  And tho’ he seems to talk very feelingly on the Subject, yet makes no Reflections upon the Virtue of English Women.  But to return to him;