28 FEBRUARY 1863, Page 23

The Scholemaster. By Roger Ascham. Edited by J. E. B.

Mayor, M.A., Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. (Bell and Daldy.)— We have to thank Mr. Mayor for a remarkably well executed edition of Roger Ascham's quaint and interesting treatise on " teachyng children to understand, write, and speake the Latin tong." The book possesses, as Mr. Mayor justly observes, a twofold claim on the attention of scho- lars, both as a clear exposition of the only sound method of acquiring a dead language, and as presenting a lively picture of the state of learning and, incidentally, of life and manners, in England at the era of the Reformation. Roger Ascham's denunciation of "the butcherlie fearo in making of Latines," which, in his time, caused " diverse scholers of Eaton to runne awaio from the schole for feare of beating," is by no means out of date at the present time. The copious notes which Mr. Mayor has appended to this edition contain much interesting and valu-

able matter. •