THE DEVOTED DAUGHTER. ficiency in the highest branches of learning, that their fame was not confined to England, but was spread throughout all Europe, Sir Thomas More's house being reputed " a little academy." Erasmus, the great restorer of learning, spoke of the sisters with admiration, and corresponded regularly with them , Margaret he held in peculiar esteem, styling her, after the fashion of the period, " Britannic F- decus,"-ornament of Britain ; and on issuing- some hymns of Prudentius, he dedicated the volume to her, in preference to any of his vast number of noble patrons, who were eager to have their names and memories perpetuated in his works. Her father sending him a valuable picture representing himself and his whole family,-including the poor jester, Patteson, - painted by the incomparable . Hans Holbein, Erasmus sent his most grateful acknow- ledgments in a Latin epistle to Margaret, saying he knew every person represented in the picture, yet he was more than ordinarily pleased with hers, which brought to mind all the excellent qualities he had long admired in her ; with many more compli- ments. The young lady soon replied in an elegantly phrased Latin letter, expressing pleasure that the picture was so acceptable to him, and acknowledging him as her preceptor, to whomshe would lye for ever grateful. Cardinal Pole was so surprised with the beauty of her " Latin style " that he could not believe the works he saw were the production of a female ; while John Leland, the celebrated antiquarian, chap- 11
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