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WALPOLE, HORATIO

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 290 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WALPOLE, HORATIO or See also:HORACE (1717-1797), See also:English politician and See also:man of letters, 4th See also:earl of See also:Orford—a See also:title to which he only succeeded at the end of his See also:life, and by which he is little known—was See also:born in See also:Arlington See also:Street, See also:London, on the 24th of See also:September 1717. He was the youngest of the five See also:children of the 1st earl of Orford (See also:Sir See also:Robert Walpole) by See also:Catherine Shorter, but by some of the See also:scandal-mongers of a later See also:age, Carr, See also:Lord See also:Hervey, See also:half-See also:brother of See also:John, Lord Hervey, afterwards second earl of See also:Bristol, has been called his See also:father. If this rumour be correct, no such suspicion ever entered into the mind of Horace Walpole. To his See also:mother he erected a See also:monument, with an inscription couched in terms of sincere See also:affection, in the See also:chapel of See also:Henry VII. in See also:Westminster See also:Abbey, and from the beginning to the end of his public life his sarcasms never spared the Newcastles and the Hardwickes, who had shown, as he thought, lukewarmness in support of his father's See also:ministry. On the 26th of See also:April 1727 he was sent to See also:Eton, where he formed what was known as the " Quadruple See also:Alliance " with See also:Thomas See also:Gray, See also:Richard See also:West and Thomas See also:Ashton, and became very intimate with Henry See also:Seymour See also:Conway, See also:George See also:Augustus See also:Selwyn and the two Montagus, and in 1735 matriculated at See also:King's See also:College, See also:Cambridge. Two years (1739-1741) were spent in Gray's See also:company in the recognized See also:grand tour of See also:France and See also:Italy. They stopped a few See also:weeks in See also:Paris, and lingered for three months at Rheims, on the pretence of learning the See also:French See also:language. Henry Seymour Conway, whose mother was a See also:sister of See also:Lady Walpole, shared their society in the French See also:city. The other two members of this little circle next proceeded to See also:Florence, where Walpole rested for more than a See also:year in the See also:villa of Horace See also:Mann, the See also:British See also:envoy-extraordinary for See also:forty-six years to the See also:court of See also:Tuscany. Mann's See also:family had See also:long been on terms of the closest intimacy with his guests, and they continued correspondents until 1786. As they never met again, their friendship, unlike most of Walpole's attachments, remained unbroken. After a See also:short visit to See also:Rome (See also:March-See also:June 1740), and after a further sojourn at Florence, Walpole and Gray parted in resentment at Reggio.

Walpole in after years took the blame of this See also:

quarrel on himself, and it is generally believed that it arose from his laying too much stress on his superiority in position. In 1744 the two See also:friends were nominally reconciled, but the See also:breach was not cemented. Walpole came back to See also:England on the 12th of September 1741. He had been returned to See also:parliament on the 14th of May 1741 for the Cornish See also:borough of Callington, over which his See also:elder brother, through his See also:marriage with the heiress of the Rolles, exercised supreme See also:influence. He represented three constituencies in See also:succession, Callington 1741–1754, the family borough of See also:Castle Rising from 1754 to 1757, and the more important See also:constituency of King's See also:Lynn, for which his father had long sat in parliament, from the latter date until 1768. In that year he retired, probably because his success in See also:political life had not equalled his expectations, but he continued until the end of his days to follow and to See also:chronicle the acts and the speeches of both houses of parliament. Through his father's influence he had obtained three lucrative sinecures in the ex-chequer, and for many years (1745–1784) he enjoyed a See also:share, estimated at about L1500 a year, of a second family See also:perquisite, the collectorship of customs. These resources, with a See also:house in Arlington Street, which was See also:left to him by his father, enabled him, a See also:bachelor all his days, to gratify his tastes. He acquired in 1747 the See also:lease and in the next year See also:purchased the reversion of the charmingly situated villa of See also:Strawberry See also:Hill, near See also:Twickenham, on the See also:banks of the See also:Thames. Six years later he began a See also:series of alterations in the See also:Gothic See also:style, not completed for nearly a See also:quarter of a See also:century later, under which the See also:original cottage became transformed into a See also:building without parallel in See also:Europe. On the 25th of June 1757 he established a See also:printing-See also:press there, which he called " Officina Arbuteana," and many of the first See also:editions of his own See also:works were struck off within its walls. Through Walpole's influence See also:Dodsley published in 1753 the See also:clever, if See also:eccentric, designs of Richard See also:Bentley (the youngest See also:child of the See also:great See also:scholar, and for some See also:time a protege of Horace Walpole) for the poems of Gray.

The first See also:

work printed at Strawberry Hill was two odes of Gray (8th of See also:August 1757), and among the reprints were the Life of Lord See also:Herbert of Cherbury, See also:Memoirs of See also:Grammont, Hentzner's See also:Journey into England, and Lord See also:Whitworth's See also:Account of See also:Russia. The rooms of this whimsical edifice were crowded with curiosities of every description, and the house and its contents were shown, by tickets to admit four persons, between 12 and 3 from May to See also:October, but only one party was admitted on each See also:day, and the owner, although enamoured of notoriety, simulated discontent at this limited intrusion into his privacy. Walpole paid several visits to Paris, where he made the acquaintance of Madame du See also:Deffand (q.v.) in 1765, and they corresponded until her See also:death in 1780. His See also:nephew, the reckless 3rd earl, died on the 5th of See also:December 1791, and Horace succeeded to the See also:peerage, but he never took his See also:place in the House of Lords, and sometimes signed his name as " the See also:uncle of the See also:late earl of Orford." All his life long he was a victim of the See also:gout, but he lived to extreme old age, and died unmarried, in See also:Berkeley Square, London, to which he had re-moved in October 1779, on the 2nd of March 1797. He was buried privately at See also:Houghton. The family See also:estate descended to the earl of Cholmondeley, whose ancestor had married Horace Walpole's younger sister. All Walpole's printed books and See also:manuscripts were left to Robert See also:Berry (d. 19th of May 1817) and his two daughters, See also:Mary (1763–1852) and See also:Agnes (1764-1852), and Mary Berry edited the five volumes of Walpole's works which were published in 1798. Their friendship had been xxvIll. Iovery dear to the declining days of Walpole, who, it has even been said, wished to marry Mary Berry. By his will each of the ladies obtained a pecuniary See also:legacy of £4000, and for their lives the house and See also:garden, formerly the See also:abode of his friend Kitty See also:Clive, which adjoined Strawberry Hill. Strawberry Hill went to Mrs See also:Anne Darner, daughter of his lifelong friend See also:General Conway, for her life, but it was entailed on his niece the countess See also:dowager of See also:Waldegrave and her heirs.

The collections of See also:

Straw-berry Hill, which he had spent nearly fifty years in amassing, were dispersed under the See also:hammer of George See also:Robins in 1842. They are described in a See also:catalogue of that date, and in a series of articles in the See also:Gentleman's See also:Magazine for that year. The See also:pen was ever in Horace Walpole's hands, and his entire compositions would fill many volumes. His two works of See also:imagination, the See also:romance of the Castle of See also:Otranto (1764) and the tragedy of the Mysterious Mother (1768), are now all but for-gotten. The Castle of Otranto, purporting to be a See also:story translated by See also:William See also:Marshal, gent., from the original See also:Italian of Onuphrio Muralto, See also:canon of the See also:church of St See also:Nicholas at Otranto, was often reprinted in England, and was translated into both French and Italian. By Sir See also:Walter See also:Scott it was lauded to the skies for its See also:power in raising the passions of fear and pity, but from Hazl.itt it met with intense condemnation; its real importance, however, lies in the fact that it started the romantic revival. The Mysterious Mother, a tragedy too horrible for See also:representation on any See also:stage, was never intended for performance in public, and only fifty copies of it were printed at Strawberry Hill. By See also:Byron, who, like Horace Walpole, affected extreme liberalism, and like him never forgot that he was born within the See also:purple, this tragedy was pronounced " of the highest See also:order." Several of Walpole's antiquarian works merit high praise. The See also:volume of Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of King Richard the Third (1760), one of the earliest attempts to rehabilitate a See also:character previously stamped with See also:infamy, showed acuteness and See also:research. These doubts provoked several answers, which are criticized in a supplement edited by Dr E. C. See also:Hawtrey for the Philobiblon Society (1854).

A work of more lasting reputation, which has retained its vitality for more than a century, is entitled Anecdotes of See also:

Painting in England, with some Account of the See also:Principal Artists; collected by George See also:Vertue, and now digested and published from his original manuscripts by Horace Walpole (4 vols., 1762–1771). Its value to See also:art students and to admirers of See also:biographical literature demanded its frequent See also:reproduction, and it was re-edited with additions by the Rev. See also:James Dallaway in five volumes (1826–1828), and then again was revised and edited by R. N. Wornum in 1849. A cognate volume, also based on the materials of Vertue, is entitled the Catalogue of Engravers Born and See also:Resident in England (1763), which, like its more famous predecessor, often passed through the press. On the Catalogue of Royal and See also:Noble Authors of England (1758) Walpole spent many See also:hours of toilsome research. The best edition is that which appeared in five volumes, in 18o6, under the competent editorship of Thomas See also:Park, who carefully verified and diligently augmented the labours of the original author. As a senator himself, or as a private See also:person following at a distance the combats of St See also:Stephen's, Walpole recorded in a See also:diary the See also:chief incidents in English politics. For twenty-seven years he studied, a silent spectator for the most See also:part, the characters of the chief personages who trod the stage of politics, and when he quitted the See also:scene he retained the acquaintance of many of the chief actors. If he was sometimes prejudiced, he rarely distorted the acts of those whom he disliked; and his prejudices, which See also:lie on the See also:surface, were mainly against those whom he considered traitors to his father. These diaries extend from 1750 to 1783, and See also:cover a See also:period of momentous importance in the See also:annals of the See also:national See also:history.

The Memoirs of the Last Ten Years of the Reign of George II. was edited by Lord See also:

Holland (1846); its successor, Memoirs of the Reign of King George III., was published under the editorial care of Sir See also:Denis Le Marchant (4 vols., 1845), and re-edited in 1894 by Mr G. F. See also:Russell See also:Barker; the last volumes of the series, See also:Journal of the Reign of George III. from 1771 to 1783, .were edited and illustrated by John See also:Doran (2 vols., 1859), and were II edited with an introduction by A. F. See also:Steuart (London, 19o9). To these works should be added the Reminiscences (2 vols., 1819), which Walpole wrote in 1788 for the gratification of the Misses Berry. These labours would in themselves have rendered the name of Horace Walpole famous for all time, but his delightful Letters are the crowning See also:glory of his life. His correspondents were numerous and widespread, but the chief of them were William See also:Cole (1714-1782), the clerical See also:antiquary of See also:Milton; Robert See also:Jephson, the dramatist; William See also:Mason, the poet; Lord See also:Hertford during his See also:embassy in Paris; the countess of See also:Ossory; Lord See also:Harcourt; George See also:Montagu, his friend at Eton; Henry Seymour Conway (1721-1795) and Sir Horace Mann. With most of these friends he quarrelled, but the friendship of the last two, in the former See also:case through genuine liking, and in the latter through his fortunate See also:absence from England, was never interrupted. The Letters were published at different See also:dates, but the See also:standard collection is that by Mrs See also:Paget See also:Toynbee (1903-1905), and to it should be added the volumes of the letters addressed to Walpole by his old friend Madame du Deffand (4 vols., 181o). Dr Doran's publication, Mann and See also:Manners at the Court of Florence (1876), is founded on the epistles sent in return to Walpole by the envoy-extraordinary. Other works See also:relating to him are Horace Walpole and his See also:World, by L.

B. See also:

Seeley (1884); Horace Walpole, a memoir by See also:Austin See also:Dobson (1890 and 1893); Horace Walpole and the Strawberry Hill Press, by M. A. Havens (1901). Walpole has been called " the best See also:letter-writer in the English language "; and few indeed are the names which can compare with his. In these compositions his very foibles are penned for our amusement, and his love of trifles —for, in the words of another Horace, he was ever " nescio quid meditans nugarum et totus in illis "—ministers to our instruction. To these friends he communicated every fashionable scandal, every social event, and the details of every political struggle in English life. The politicians and the courtiers of his day were more akin to his character than were the chief authors of his age, and the weakness of his intellectual perceptions stands out most prominently in his estimates of such writers as See also:Johnson and See also:Goldsmith, See also:Gibbon and See also:Hume. On many occasions he displayed great liberality of disposition, and he bitterly deplored for the See also:rest of his days his neglect of the unhappy See also:Chatterton. Chatter-ton wrote to Walpole in 1769, sending some See also:prose and See also:verse fragments and offering to place See also:information on English art in Walpole's hands. Encouraged by a kindly reply, Chatterton appealed for help. Walpole made inquiries and came to the conclusion that he was an imposter.

He finally returned the manuscripts in his See also:

possession, and took no See also:notice of subsequent letters from Chatterton. Abundant information about Horace Walpole will be found in the Memcirs of him and of his contemporaries edited by See also:Eliot See also:Warburton (1851), J. H. See also:Jesse's George Selwyn and his Contemporaries (4 vols., 1843–1844) and the extracts from the See also:journals and See also:correspondence of See also:Miss Berry (3 vols., 1866) ; and it would be unpardonable to omit mention of See also:Macaulay's See also:sketch of Walpole's life and character. (W. P.

End of Article: WALPOLE, HORATIO

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