Westminster School

We know little about their school days, but we think we may safely venture to guess that whenever Hastings wished to play any trick more than usually naughty, he hired Impey with a tart or a ball to act as fag in the worst part of the prank.

warren was distinguished among his comrades as an excellent swimmer boatman and scholar at fourteen he was first in the examination for the foundation his name in gilded letters on the walls of the dormitory still attests his victory over many older competitors he stayed two years longer at the school and was looking forward to a studentship at christchurch when an event happened which changed the whole course of his life howard hastings died bequeathing his nephew to the care of a friend and distant relation named this gentleman though he did not absolutely refuse the charge was desirous to rid himself of it as soon as possible dr nichols made strong remonstrances against the cruelty of interrupting the studies of a youth who seemed likely to be one of the first scholars of the age he even offered to bear the expense of sending his favourite pupil to oxford but mr chiswick was inflexible he thought the years which had already been wasted on hexameters and pentameters quite sufficient he had it in his power to obtain for the lad a writership in the service of the east india company whether the young adventurer when once shipped off made a fortune or died of a liver complaint he equally ceased to be a burden to anybody Warren was accordingly removed from Westminster School and placed for a few months at a commercial academy to study arithmetic and bookkeeping.

In January 1750, a few days after he had completed his seventeenth year, he sailed for Bengal and arrived at his destination in the October following.

he was immediately placed at a desk in the secretary's office at calcutta and laboured there during two years fort william was then a purely commercial settlement in the south of india the encroaching policy of dupleix had transformed the servants of the east india company against their will into diplomatists and generals the war of the succession was raging in the carnatic and the tide had been suddenly turned against the french by the genius of young robert clive but in bengal the european settlers at peace with the natives and with each other were wholly occupied with ledgers and bills of lading after two years passed in keeping accounts in calcutta hastings was sent up the country to cosimbazar a town which lies on the hooghly about a mile from morshedabad and which then bore to morshedabad a relation if we may compare small things with great such as the city of london bears to westminster morshadabad was the abode of the prince who by an authority ostensibly derived from the mogul but really independent ruled the three great provinces of bengal orissa and bahar at morshadabad were the court the haram and the public offices was a port and a place of trade renowned for the quantity and excellence of the silks which were sold in its marts and constantly receiving and sending forth fleets of richly laden barges at this important point the company had established a small factory subordinate to that of fort william here during several years hastings was employed in making bargains for stuffs with native brokers when he was thus engaged surajah dowlah succeeded to the government and declared war against the english the defenceless settlement of cossimbazar lying close to the tyrant's capital was instantly seized hastings was sent a prisoner to morshedabad but in consequence of the humane intervention of the servants of the dutch company was treated with indulgence meanwhile the nabob marched on calcutta the governor and the commandant fled the town and the citadel were taken and most of the english prisoners perished in the black hole in these events originated the greatness of warren hastings the fugitive governor and his companions had taken refuge on the dreary island of fulda near the mouth of the hooghly they were naturally desirous to obtain full information respecting the proceedings of the nabob and no person seemed so likely to furnish it as hastings who was a prisoner at large in the immediate neighbourhood of the court He thus became a diplomatic agent, and soon established a high character for ability and resolution.

There was something congenial to the season in the mournful magnificence of the old pile, and as I passed its threshold it seemed like stepping back into the regions of antiquity and losing myself among the shades of former ages.

I entered from the inner court of Westminster School through a long, low-vaulted passage that had an almost subterranean look, being dimly lighted in one part by circular perforations in the massive walls.

Through this dark avenue I had a distant view of the cloisters, with the figure of an old verger in his black gown moving along their shadowy vaults, and seeming like a spectre from one of the neighboring tombs.

The approach to the abbey through these gloomy monastic remains prepares the mind for its solemn contemplation.

Born in one of the more charming of the rural districts of England, not far, however, from a city which was then one of the most important centers of commerce and politics, sprung from respectable and well-to-do parents, of whom the father at least possessed more than ordinary intelligence, accustomed from his earliest boyhood to watch the progress of great events and to listen to the discussion of great and stirring questions, there seems to have been nothing in his early life to retard or mar the development of his genius, and much that we may not unreasonably connect with the marked peculiarities, both moral and intellectual, of his subsequent career.

It was probably in the year sixteen forty-six that through the interest of Colonel Popham, a friend and client of his father, Locke was admitted at Westminster School, where probably in the following year he was elected on the foundation.

Here he must have remained about six years till his election to a Westminster studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, in sixteen fifty-two.

Of the manner in which Locke spent three years we have no definite information.