Burke's distempered fancy, fed by some scandal which Francis brought from India, to taunt Warren Hastings with his 'low, obscure, and vulgar origin.' Had the charge been never so well founded, it could have taken nothing from the honour due to one whose public record needed no blazonry from the College of Heralds. It is clear that Hastings was a gentleman by birth and breeding; and his great accuser has only bespattered, himself with the mud which he flung so recklessly at the object of his wrath.
From the village school at Churchill, where tradition said that he 'took his learning kindly,' little Warren at the age of eight was transferred by his uncle Howard to a school at Newington-Butts, near London. Child as he was, he had already conceived a purpose which many years afterwards blossomed into a fact. One bright summer s day, as he lay and mused beside a stream which skirted his native village, he 'formed the determination to purchase back Daylesford.'
The boys at Newington appear to have been well taught, but very poorly and scantily fed. After two years of semi-starvation, which no doubt stunted his growth and impaired his natural strength, Warren was removed to Westminster School, of which Dr. Nichols was then head-master. The list of under-masters included the scholarly Vincent Bourne. Among Warren's schoolfellows were Lord Shelburne, Churchill, Cowper, and his lifelong friend, Elijah Impey. In mental aptitudes and fine scholarly tastes
