Edgar Cardew Marchant

“ He was one of the group of scholars whose reputation raised that college to the highest place among English centres of learning. He taught Greek to Roger Ascham, with whom he formed a close friendship, and of whose talents he had a very high opinion. His advice to Ascham is summed up in a figurative sentence contained in a letter to him: ‘Use diligence that thou mayest be perfect, not according to the stoical, but the lyrical perfection, that thou mayest touch the harp aright’ (cf. Quarterly Review, liv. 346) . ”

“ He was an enthusiastic lover of English and Latin poetry, and possessed considerable literary taste, combined with the faculty of inspiring his boys with admiration for English literature, at a time when such a taste was rare in schools. He adapted several English, Latin, and Greek plays for performance by his boys, and on the occasion of the triennial visitation of the school these were acted in the town-hall for the benefit of local charities (Star, London, 1818 and 1821; Darter, Memoirs of an Octogenarian; Reading School Poems, ed. Valpy, 1804) . ”

“ Before 1711 Upton received the rectory of Brimpton, near Yeovil, and in 1712 the rectory of Monksilver, near Taunton, both from the Sydenham family. In 1724, at the request of Lord Powlett and other gentlemen, he removed from Eton to Ilminster, Somerset, where he took pupils until 1730, when he was appointed headmaster of Taunton grammar school. All his pupils went with him, and he so greatly raised the reputation of the school that it became the largest provincial school in England, having over two hundred boys. In 1731 he received the vicarage of Bishop's Hull, Somerset. ”