I'
HORACE WALPOLE
a iiHematr
m^"-':^'''^
Horace Walpole,
Horace Walpole
a ittemoir
WITH AN APPENDIX OF BOOKS PRINTED A T
THE STRAWBERRY-HILL PRESS
BY
AUSTIN DOBSON
NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
1893
Copyright, 1890,
By Dodd, Mead and Company.
<f¥7:z-r
SSnitofrstto 53rfss:
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Page
The Walpoles of Houghton. — Horace Walpole bom, 24
September, 1717. — Lady Louisa Stuart's Story. —
Scattered Facts of his Boyhood. — Minor Anecdotes —
• La belle Jennings.' — The Bugles. — Interview with
George L before his Death. — Portrait at this time. —
Goes to Eton, 26 April, 1727. — His Studies and School-
fellows. — The ' Triumvirate,' the * Quadruple Alliance.'
— Entered at Lincoln's Inn, 27 May, 1731. — Leaves
Eton, September, 1734. — Goes to King's College, Cam-
bridge, II March, 1735. — ^^^ University Studies. —
Letters from Cambridge. — Verses in the Gratiilatio. —
\'erses in Memory of Henry VI. — Death of Lady Wal-
pole, 20 August, 1737 I
CHAPTER II.
Patent Places under Government. — Starts with Gray on the
Grand Tour, March, 1739. — From Dover to Paris. —
Life at Paris. — Versailles. — The Convent of the Char-
treux. — Life at Rheims. — A Fete Galante. — The
Grande Chartreuse. — Starts for Italy. — The tragedy
of Tory. — Turin ; Genoa. — Academical Exercises at
vi Contents.
Page
Bologna. — Life at Florence. — Rome ; Naples : Hercu-
laneum. — The Pen of Radicofani. — English at Florence.
— Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. — Preparing for Home.
— Quarrel with Gray. — Walpole's Apologia ; his Illness,
and return to England 27
CHAPTER III.
Gains of the Grand Tour — * Epistle to Ashton.' — Resig-
nation of Sir Robert Walpole, who becomes Eatl of
Orford. — Collapse of the Secret Committee. — Life at
Houghton. — The Picture Gallery. — ' A Sermon on
Painting.' — Lord Orford as Moses. — The ' /Edes
Walpolianae.' — Prior's ' Protogenes and Apelles.' —
Minor Literature. — Lord Orford's Decline and Death;
his Panegyric. — Horace Walpole's Means , . . . 57
CHAPTER IV.
stage-gossip and Small-talk. — Ranelagh Gardens — Fon-
tenoy and Leicester House. — Echoes of the '45. —
Preston Pans. — CuUoden. — Trial of the Rebel Lords.
— Deaths of Kilmarnock and Balmerino — Epilogue
to Tamerlane — Walpole and his Relatives. - Lady
Orford. — Literary Efforts. — The Beauties. — Takes a
House at Windsor 83
CHAPTER V.
The New House at Twickenham. — Its First Tenants. —
Christened ' Strawberry Hill.' — Planting and Embel-
lishing. — Fresh Additions. — Walpole's Description
Contents. vii
Page
of it in 1753. — Visitors and Admirers. — Lord Bath's
Verses. — Some Rival Mansions. — Minor Literature
— Robbed by James Maclean. — Sequel from The
World. — The Maclean Mania, — High Life at Vaux-
hall. — Contributions to The World. — Theodore of
Corsica. — Reconciliation with Gray. — Stimulates his
Works. — 'Y\\ePoemata-Grayo-Bentleiana. — Richard
Bentley. — Mimtz the Artist. — Dwellers at Twicken-
ham. — Lady Suffolk and Mrs. Clive 107
CHAPTER VI.
Gleanings from the Short Notes. — Letter from Xo Ho.
— The Strawberry Hill Press. — Robinson the Printer.
— Gray's Odes. — Other Works. — Catalogue of Royal
and Noble Authors. — Anecdotes of Faulting. —
Humours of the Press. — The Parish Register of
Twickenham. — Lady Fanny Shirley. — Fielding. —
The Castle of Otranto .141
CHAPTER VH.
State of French Society in 1765. — Walpole at Paris. —
The Royal Family and the Bete du Gevaudan. — French
Ladies of Quality. — Madame du Deffand. — A Letter
from Madame de Sevigne. — Rousseau and the King of
Prussia. — The Hume-Rousseau Quarrel. — Returns to
England, and hears Wesley at Bath, — Paris again. —
Madame du Deffand's Vitality. — Her Character. —
Minor Literary Efforts. — The Historic Doubts. — The
Mysterious Mother. — Tragedy in England. — Doings
of the Strawberry Press. — Walpole and Chatterton . 166
viii Contents.
CHAPTER VIII.
Page
OJd Friends and New. — Walpole's Nieces. —Mrs.
Darner. — Progress of Strawberry Hill. — Festivities
and Later Improvements. — A Description, etc., 1774.
— The House and Approaches. — Great Parlour. Wait-
ing Room, China Room, and Yellow Bedchamber. —
Breakfast Room — Green Closet and Blue Bedchamber.
— Armoury and Library. — Red Bed-chamber; Holbein
Chamber, and Star Chamber. — Gallery. — Round
Drawing Room and Tribune. — Great North Bed-
chamber. — Great Cloister and Chapel. — Walpole on
Strawberry. — Its Dampness. — A Drive from Twicken-
ham to Piccadilly 201
CHAPTER IX.
Occupations and Correspondence. — Literary Work. —
Jephson and the Stage. — Nature will Prevail. —
Issues from the Strawberry Press. — Fourth Volume
of the Anecdotes of Painting. — The Beauclerk Tower
and Lady Di. — George, third Earl of Orford. — Sale
of the Houghton Pictures. — Moves to Berkeley Square.
— Last Visit to Madame du Deffand. — Her Death. —
Themes for Letters. — Death of Sir Horace Mann. —
Pinkerton, Madame de Genlis, Miss Burney, Hannah
More. — Mary and Agnes Berry. — Their Residence at
Twickenham. — Becomes fourth Earl of Orford. — Epi-
taphiuni vivi Auctoris. — The Berrys again. — Death
of Marshal Conway. — Last Letter to Lady Ossory. —
Dies at Berkeley Square, 2 March. 1797. — His Fortune
and Will. — The Fate of Strawberry 232
Contents. ix
CHAPTER X.
Page
Macaulay on Walpole. — Effect of the Edinburgh Essay.
— Macaulay and Mary Berry. — Portraits of Walpole.
— Miss Hawkins's Description. — Pinkerton's Rainy
Day at Strawberry. — Walpole's Character as a Man ;
as a Virtuoso ; as a Politician ; as an Author and Letter-
writer 271
Appendix 299
Index
325
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Page
Horace WaLPOLE Frontispiece
Lady Walpole 9
Thomas Gray . 29
Sir Robert Walpole 79
Charles Edward, the Pretender 91
Mrs. Howard, Countess of Suffolk .... 123
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu 133
Holbein 153
Madame du Deffand 177
Hume 185
Mrs. Clive 217
Hannah More 259
Miss Berry .... 263
Lord Macaulay 275
HORACE WALPOLE
211 Memoir.
CHAPTER I.
The Walpoles of Houghton. — Horace Walpole born, 24 Sep-
tember, 1717. — Lady Louisa Stuart's Story. — Scattered
Facts of his Boyhood. — Minor Anecdotes. — ' La belle
Jennings.' — The Bugles. — Interview with George L before
his Death. — Portrait at this time. — Goes to Eton, 26 April,
1727. — His Studies and Schoolfellows. — The 'Triumvir-
ate,' the ' Quadruple Alliance.' — Entered at Lincoln's Inn,
27 May, 1731. — Leaves Eton, September, 1734. — Goes to
King's College, Cambridge, 11 March, 1735. — His University
Studies. — Letters from Cambridge. — Verses in the Gratu-
latio. — Verses in Memory of Henry VI. — Death of Lady
Walpole, 20 August, 1737.
^HE Walpoles of Houghton, in Norfolk, ten
-*" miles from King's Lynn, were an ancient
family, tracing their pedigree to a certain Regi-
nald de Walpole who was living in the time of
William the Conqueror. Under Henry H.
there was a Sir Henry de Walpol of Houton
and Walpol ; and thenceforward an orderly pro-
cession of Henrys and Edwards and Johns (all
2 Horace IValpole :
' of Houghton ') carried on the family name to
the coronation of Charles II., when, in return
for his vote and interest as a member of the
Convention Parliament, one Edward Walpole
was made a Knight of the Bath. This Sir
Edward was in due time succeeded by his son,
Robert, who married well, sat for Castle Rising,^
one of the two family boroughs (the other being
King's Lynn, for which his father had been
member), and reputably filled the combined
offices of county magnate and colonel of militia.
But his chief claim to distinction is that his
eldest son, also a Robert, afterwards became
the famous statesman and Prime Minister to
whose ' admirable prudence, fidelity, and suc-
cess ' England owes her prosperity under the
first Hanoverians. It is not. however, with the
life of ' that corrupter of parliaments, that disso-
lute tipsy cynic, that courageous lover of peace
and liberty, that great citizen, patriot, and states-
man,' — to borrow a passage from one of Mr.
Thackeray's graphic vignettes, — that these pages
are concerned. It is more material to their pur-
pose to note that in the year 1700, and on the
30th day of July in that year (being the day of the
death of the Duke of Gloucester, heir presump-
1 Another member for Castle Rising was Samuel Pepys,
the Diarist.
A Memoir, 3
tive to the crown of England), Robert Walpole,
junior, then a young man of three-and-twenty,
and late scholar of King's College, Cambridge,
took to himself a wife. The lady chosen was
Miss Catherine Shorter, eldest daughter of John
Shorter, of Bybrook, an old Elizabethan red-
brick house near Ashford in Kent. Her grand-
father. Sir John Shorter, had been Lord Mayor
of London under James IL, and her father was
a Norway timber merchant, having his wharf
and countins^-house on the Southwark side of
the Thames, and his town residence in Norfolk
Street, Strand, where, in all probability, his
daughter met her future husband. They had
a family of four sons and two daughters. One
of the sons, William, died young. The third
son, Horatio,^ or Horace, born, as he himself
tells us, on the 24th September, 1717, O. S., is
the subject of this memoir.
With the birth of Horace Walpole is con-
nected a scandal so industriously repeated by
his later biographers that (although it has
1 The name of Horatio I dislike. It is theatrical, and
not English. I have, ever since I was a youth, written
and subscribed Horace, an English name for an English-
man. In all my books (and perhaps you will think of the
numerosus Horatius) I so spell my name. — Walpoliana,
i. 62.
4 Horace IValpole •
received far more attention than it deserves) it
can scarcely be left unnoticed here. He had,
it is asserted, little in common, either in tastes
or appearance, with his elder brothers Robert
and Edward, and he was born eleven years after
the rest of his father's children. This led to a
suggestion which first found definite expression
in the Introductory Anecdotes supplied by Lady
Louisa Stuart to Lord Wharncliffe's edition of
the works of her grandmother. Lady Mary
Wortley Montagu.^ It was to the effect that
Horace was not the son of Sir Robert Walpole,
but of one of his mother's admirers, Carr, Lord
Hervey, elder brother of Pope's ' Sporus,' the
Hervey of the Memoirs. It is advanced in
favour of this supposition that his likeness to
the Herveys, both physically and mentally, was
remarkable ; that the whilom Catherine Shorter
was flighty, indiscreet, and fond of admiration ;
and that Sir Robert's cynical disregard of his
wife's vagaries, as well as his own gallantries
(his second wife. Miss Skerret, had been his
mistress), were matters of notoriety. On the
1 It is also to be found asserted as a current story in
the JVote Books (unpublished) of the Duchess of Portland,
the daughter of Edward Harley, second Earl of Oxford,
and the ' noble, lovely little Peggy ' of her father's friend
and protegi, Matthew Prior.
A Memoir, 5
other hand, there is no indication that any sus-
picion of his parentage ever crossed the mind of
Horace Walpole himself. His devotion to his
mother was one of the most consistent traits in
a character made up of many contradictions ;
and although between the frail and fastidious
virtuoso and the boisterous, fox-hunting Prime
Minister there could have been but little sym-
pathy, the son seems nevertheless to have sedu-
lously maintained a filial reverence for his father,
of whose enemies and detractors he remained,
until his dying day, the implacable foe. More-
over, it must be remembered that, admirable as
are Lady Louisa Stuart's recollections, in speak-
ing of Horace Walpole she is speaking of one
whose caustic pen and satiric tongue had never
spared the reputation of the vivacious lady
whose granddaughter she was.
With this reference to what can be, at best,
but an insoluble question, we may return to the
story of Walpole's earlier years. Of his child-
hood little is known beyond what he has him-
self told in the Short Notes of my Life which
he drew up for the use of Mr. Berry, the nomi-
nal editor of his works. ^ His godfathers, he
1 These, hereafter referred to as the Short Notes, are
the chief authority for three parts of Walpole's not very
eventful life. They were first published with the con-
6 Horace Walpole :
says, were the Duke of Grafton and his father's
second brother, Horatio, who afterwards be-
came Baron "Walpole of Wolterton. His god-
mother was his aunt, the beautiful Dorothy
Walpole, who, escaping the snares of Lord
Wharton, as related by Lady Louisa Stuart,
had become the second wife of Charles, second
Viscount Townshend. In 1724, he was ' inoc-
ulated for the small-pox ; ' and in the following
year, was placed with his cousins, Lord Towns-
hend's younger sons, at Bexley, in Kent, under
the charge of one Weston, son to the Bishop of
Exeter of that name. In 1726, the same course
was pursued at Twickenham, and in the winter
months he went to Lord Townshend's. Much
of his boyhood, however, must have been spent
in the house ' next the College ' at Chelsea, of
which his father became possessed in 1722. It
still exists in part, with but little alteration, as
the infirmary of the hospital, and Ward No. 7 is
said to have been its dining-room.^ With this,
or with some other reception-chamber at Chel-
sea, is connected one of the scanty anecdotes of
eluding series of his Letters to Sir Horace Mann, 2 vols.,
1844, and are reprinted in Mr, Peter Cunningham's edi-
tion of the Correspondence^ vol. i. (1857), pp. Ixi-lxxvii.
1 Martin's Old Chelsea, 18S9, p. 82 ; Beaver's Memorials
of Old Chdsca, 1892, p. 291.
A Memoir. 7
this time. Once, when Walpole was a boy,
there came to see his mother one of those for-
merly famous beauties chronicled by Anthony
Hamilton, — 'la belle Jennings,' elder sister to
the celebrated Duchess of Marlborough, and
afterwards Duchess of Tyrconnell. At this date
she was a needy Jacobite seeking Lady Wal-
pole's interest in order to obtain a pension. She
no longer possessed those radiant charms which
under Charles had revealed her even through
the disguise of an orange-girl ; and now, says
Walpole, annotating his own copy of the Me-
moirs of Grammont, ' her eyes being dim, and
she full of flattery, she commended the beauty
of the prospect ; but unluckily the room in
which they sat looked only against the garden-
wall.' ^
Another of the few events of his boyhood
which he records, illustrates the old proverb
that ' One half of the world knows not how the
1 Cunningham, v. 36, and ix. 519. The Duchess of
Tyrconnell's portrait, copied by Milbourn from the origi-
nal at Lord Spencer's, was one of the prominent orna-
ments of the Great Bedchamber at Strawberry Hill.
(See A Description of the Villa, etc., 1774, p. 138.) There
are some previously unpublished particulars respecting
her as ' Mile. Genins ' in M. Jusserand's extremely interest-
ing French Ambassador at the Court of Charles the Secojid,
1892, pp. 153 et seq., 170, 182.
8 Horace IValpole :
other half lives,' rather than any particular phase
of his biography. Going with his mother to buy
some bugles beads), at the time when the oppo-
sition to his father was at its highest, he notes
that having made her purchase, — beads were
then out of fashion, and the shop was in some
obscure alley in the City, where lingered un-
fashionable things, — Lady Walpole bade the
shopman send it home. Being asked whither,
she replied, ' To Sir Robert Walpole's.' ' And
who,' rejoined he coolly, ' is Sir Robert Wal-
pole?'^ But the most interesting incident of
his youth was the visit he paid to the King,
which he has himself related in Chapter I. of
the Reminiscences. How it came about he does
not know, but at ten years old an overmaster-
ing desire seized him to inspect His Majesty.
This childish caprice was so strong that his
mother, who seldom thwarted him, solicited the
Duchess of Kendal (the maitressc en Hire) to
obtain for her son the honour of kissing King
George's hand before he set out upon that visit
to Hanover from which he was never to return.
It was an unusual request, but being made by
the Prime Minister's wife, could scarcely be re-
fused. To conciliate etiquette and avoid prece-
dent, however, it was arranged that the audience
1 IValpole to the Miss Berrys, 5 March, 1791.
Lady Walpole.
2-
A Memoir, 9
should be in private and at night. ' Accord-
ingly, the night but one before the King began
his last journey [i. ^., on i June, 1727], my
mother carried me at ten at night to the apart-
ment of the Countess of Walsingham [Melusina
de Schulemberg, the Duchess's reputed niece],
on the ground floor, towards the garden at
St. James's, which opened into that of her
aunt, . . . apartments occupied by George II.
after his Queen's death, and by his successive
mistresses, the Countesses of Suffolk [Mrs.
Howard] and Yarmouth [Madame de Walmo-
den]. Notice being given that the King was
come down to supper, Lady Walsingham took
me alone into the Duchess's ante-room, where
we found alone the King and her. I knelt down,
and kissed his hand. He said a few words to
me, and my conductress led me back to my
mother. The person of the King is as perfect
in my memory as If I saw him but yesterday.
It was that of an elderly man, rather pale, and
exactly like his pictures and coins ; not tall ; of
an aspect rather good than august ; with a dark
tie-wig, a plain coat, waistcoat, and breeches of
snuff-coloured cloth, with stockings of the same
colour^ and a blue ribband over all. So entirely
was he my object that I do not believe I once
looked at the Duchess ; but as I could not
10 Horace JValpole :
avoid seeing her on entering the room, I re-
member that just beyond His Majesty stood a
very tall, lean, ill-favoured old lady ; but I did
not retain the least idea of her features, nor
know what the colour of her dress was.' ^ In
the WalpoUana (p. 2y) ^ Walpole is made to say
that his introducer was his father, and that the
King took him up in his arms and kissed him.
Walpole's own written account is the more
probable one. His audience must have been
one of the last the King granted, for, as already
stated, it was almost on the eve of his departure ;
and ten days later, when his chariot clattered
swiftly into the courtyard of his brother's palace
at Osnabruck, he lay dead in his seat, and the
reign of his successor had begun.
Although Walpole gives us a description of
George I., he does not, of course, supply us
with any portrait of himself. But in Mr. Peter
1 Reminiscences of the Courts of George the First and
Secoftd, in Cunningham's Corr.., i. xciii-xciv.
2 The book referred to is a * little lounging miscellany '
of notes and anecdotes by John Pinkerton, and was
printed, soon after Wal pole's death, by Bensley, who lived
in Johnson's old house, No. S Bolt Court. It requires to
to be used with caution (see Quarterly Revieru, vol. Ixxii.,
No. cxliv.), and must not be confused with Lord Hard-
vvicke's privately printed WalpoUana^ which relate to Sir
Robert Walpole.
A Memoir. ii
Cunningham's excellent edition of the Corre-
spondence there is a copy of an oil-painting be-
longing (18^7) to Mrs. Bedford of Kensington,
which, upon the faith of a Cupid who points
with an arrow to the number ten upon a dial,
may be accepted as representing him about the
time of the above interview. It is a full length
of a slight, effeminate-looking lad in a stiff-
skirted coat, knee-breeches, and open-breasted
laced waistcoat, standing in a somewhat affected
attitude at the side of the afore-mentioned sun-
dial. He has dark, intelligent eyes, and a pro-
fusion of light hair curling abundantly about his
ears and reaching to his neck. If the date given
in the Short Notes be correct, he must have
already become an Eton boy, since he says that
he went to that school on the 26th April, 1727,
and he adds in the Reminiscences that he shed a
flood of tears for the King's death, when, ' with
the other scholars at Eton College,' he walked
in procession to the proclamation of his suc-
cessor. Of the cause of this emotion he seems
rather doubtful, leaving us to attribute it partly
to the King's condescension in gratifying his
childish loyalty, partly to the feeling that, as the
Prime Minister's son, it was incumbent on him
to be more concerned than his schoolfellows ;
while the spectators, it is hinted, placed it to the
12 Horace IValpole :
credit of a third and not less cogent cause, —
the probability of that Minister's downfall. Of
this, however, as he says, he could not have had
the slightest conception. His tutor at Eton
was Henry Bland, eldest son of the master
of the school. ' I remember,' says Walpole,
writing later to his relative and schoolfellow
Conway, * when I was at Eton, and Mr. Bland
had set me an extraordinary task, I used some-
times to pique myself upon not getting it,
because it was not immediately my school busi-
ness. What, learn more than I was absolutely
forced to learn ! I felt the weight of learning
that, for I was a blockhead, and pushed up
above my parts.' That, as the son of the great
Minister, he was pushed, is probably true ; but,
despite his own disclaimer, it is clear that his abil-
ities were by no means to be despised. Indeed,
one of the piUes jiistificalires in the story of
Lady Louisa Stuart, though advanced for another
purpose, is distinctly in favour of something
more than average talent. Supporting her theory
as to his birth by the statement that in his boy-
hood he was left so entirely in the hands of his
mother as to have little acquaintance with his
father, she goes on to say that ' Sir Robert
Walpole took scarcely any notice of him, till his
proficiency at Eton School, when a lad of some
A Memoir, 13
standing, drew his attention, and proved that
whether he had or had not a right to the name
he went by, he was likely to do it honour.'^
Whatever this may be held to prove, it certainly
proves that he was not the blockhead he declares
himself to have been.
Among his schoolmates he made many friends.
For his cousins, Henry (afterwards Marshal)
Conway and Lord Hertford, Conway's elder
brother, he formed an attachment which lasted
through life^ and many of his best letters were
written to these relatives. Other associates
were the later lyrist, Charles Hanbury Williams,
and the famous wit, George Augustus Selwyn,
both of whom, if the child be father to the
man, must be supposed to have had unusual
attractions for their equally witty schoolmate.
Another contemporary at school, to whom, in
after life, he addressed many letters, was William
Cole, subsequently to develop into a labori-
ous antiquary, and probably already exhibiting
proclivities towards ' tall copies ' and black
letter. But his chiefest friends, no doubt,
were grouped in the two bodies christened
1 This is quoted by Mr. Hayward and others as if the
last words were Sir Robert Walpole's. But Lady Louisa
Stuart says nothing to indicate this (Lady Mary Wortley
Montagu's Letters ^ etc., 1887, i. xciii).
14 Horace IValpole :
respectively the ' triumvirate ' and the ' quad-
ruple alliance.'
Of these the ' triumvirate ' was the less impor-
tant. It consisted of Walpole and the two sons of
Brigadier-General Edward Montagu. George,
the elder, afterwards M.P. for Northampton,
and the recipient of some of the most genuine
specimens of his friend's correspondence, is
described in advanced age as ' a gentleman-like
body of the vieille cour^' usually attended by a
younger brother, who was still a midshipman at
the mature age of sixty, and whose chief occu-
pation consisted in carrying about his elder's
snuff-box. Charles Montagu, the remaining
member of the ' triumvirate,' became a Lieut. -
General and Knight of the Bath. But it was
George, who had ' a fine sense of humour, and
much curious information,' who was Walpole's
favourite. ' Dear George,' — he writes to him
from Cambridge, — ' were not the playing fields
at Eton food for all manner of flights ? No old
maid's gown, though it had been tormented
into all the fashions from King James to King
George, ever underwent so many transformations
as those poor plains have in my idea. At first
I was contented with tending a visionary flock,
and sighing some pastoral name to the echo of
the cascade under the bridge. How happy
A Memoir. 15
should I have been to have had a kingdom only
for the pleasure of being driven from it, and
living disguised in an humble vale ! As I got
further into Virgil and Clelia, I found myself
transported from Arcadia to the garden of Italy;
and saw Windsor Castle in no other view than
the Capitoli immobile saxum.' Further on he
makes an admission which need scarcely surprise
us. ' I can't say I am sorry I was never quite
a schoolboy : an expedition against bargemen,
or a match at cricket, may be very pretty things
to recollect ; but, thank my stars, I can remem-
ber things that are very near as pretty. The
beginning of my Roman history was spent in
the asylum, or conversing in Egeria's hallowed
grove ; not in thumping and pummelling King
Amulius's herdsmen.'^ The description seems
to indicate a schoolboy of a rather refined and
effeminate type, who would probably fare ill with
robuster spirits. But Walpole's social position
doubtless preserved him from the persecution
which that variety generally experiences at the
hands — literally the hands — of the tyrants of
the playground.
The same delicacy of organisation seems to
have been a main connecting link in the second
or ' quadruple alliance ' already referred to, — an
1 LeUer to Montagu, 6 May, 1736.
i6 Horace JValpole :
alliance, it may be, less intrinsically intimate, but
more obviously cultivated. The most important
figure in this quartet was a boy as frail and deli-
cate as Walpole himself, ' with a broad, pale
brow, sharp nose and chin, large eyes, and a
pert expression,' who was afterwards to become
famous as the author of one of the most popu-
lar poems in the language, the Elegy written in
a Country Church Yard. Thomas Gray was at
this time about thirteen, and consequently some-
what older than his schoolmate. Another
member of the association was Richard West,
also slightly older, a grandson of the Bishop
Burnet who wrote the History of My Own
Time, and son of the Lord Chancellor of Ire-
land. West, a slim, thoughtful lad, was the
most precocious genius of the party, already
making verses in Latin and English, and making
them even in his sleep. The fourth member
was Thomas Ashton, afterwards Fellow of Eton
College and Rector of St. Botolph, Bishops-
gate. Such was the group which may be pictured
sauntering arm in arm through the Eton mea-
dows, or threading the avenue which is still
known as the ' Poet's Walk.' Each of the four
had his nickname, either conferred by himself
or by his schoolmates. Ashton, for example,
was Plato ; Gray was Orosmades.
A Memoir. 17
On 27 May, 173 1, Walpole was entered at
Lincoln's Inn, his father intending him for the
law. ' But ' — he says in the Short Notes — ' I
never went thither, not caring for the profes-
sion,' On 23 September, 1734, he left Eton
for good, and no further particulars of his school-
days remain. That they were not without their
pleasant memories may, however, be inferred
from the letters already quoted, and espe-
cially from one to George Montagu written
some time afterwards upon the occasion of a
visit to the once familiar scenes. It is dated
from the Christopher Inn, a famous old hostelry,
well known to Eton boys, — ' The Christopher.
How great I used to think anybody just landed
at the Christopher I But here are no boys for
me to send for ; there I am, like Noah, just
returned into his old world again, with all sorts
of queer feels about me. By the way, the clock
strikes the old cracked sound ; I recollect so
much, and remember so little ; and want to
play about ; and am so afraid of my playfel-
lows ; and am ready to shirk Ashton ; and
can't help making fun of myself ; and envy a
dame over the way, that has just locked in her
boarders, and is going to sit down in a little hot
parlour to a very bad supper, so comfortably !
And I could be so jolly a dog if I did not fat, —
1 8 Horace JValpole :
which, by the way, is the first time the word was
ever applicable to me. In short, I should be
out of all bounds if I was to tell you half I
feel, — how young again I am one minute, and
how old the next. But do come and feel with
me, when you will, — to-morrow. Adieu! If
I don't compose myself a little more before
Sunday morning, when Ashton is to preach
[ ' Plato ' at the date of this letter had evidently
taken orders], I shall certainly be in a bill for
laughing at church; but how to help it, to see
him in the pulpit, when the last time I saw him
here was standing up funking over against a
conduit to be catechised.' ^
This letter, of which the date is not given,
but which Cunningham places after March,
1737, must have been written some time after
the writer had taken up his residence at Cam-
bridge in his father's college of King's.^ This
he did in March, 173^, following an interval of
residence in London. By this time the ' quad-
1 Walpole to Montagu. Cunningham, 1S57, i. 15.
2 Mr. D. C. Tovey [Gray and his Friends, 1S90, 3 n.)
thinks that Ashton probably never preached at Eton
before he was made Fellow, in December, 1745, — which
would greatly advance the date of Walpole's communica-
tion. But it is cited here solely for its reminiscences of
his school-days.
A Memoir, 19
ruple alliance ' had been broken up by the
defection of West^ who, much against his will,
had gone to Christ Church, Oxford. Ashton
and Gray had, however, been a year at Cam-
bridge, the latter as a fellow-commoner of
Peterhouse, the former at Walpole's own col-
lege, King's. Cole and the Conways were
also at Cambridge, so that much of the old inter-
course must have been continued. Walpole"s
record of his university studies is of the most
scanty kind. He does little more than give us
the names of his tutors, public and private. In
civil law he attended the lectures of Dr. Dickens
of Trinity Hall ; in anatomy, those of Dr. Battie.
French, he says, he had learnt at Eton. His
Italian master at Cambridge was Signor Piazza
(who had at least an Italian name !), and his
instructor in drawing was the miniaturist Bernard
Lens, the teacher of the Duke of Cumberland
and the Princesses Mary and Louisa. Lens
was the author of a New and Complete Draiv-
ing Book for curious foung Gentlemen and Ladies
that study and practice the noble and commend-
able Art of Drawing, Colouring, etc., and is
kindly referred to in the later Anecdotes of
Painting. In mathematics, which Walpole seems
to have hated as cordially as Swift and Goldsmith
and Gray did, he sat at the feet of the blind
20 Horace Walpole:
Professor Nicholas Saunderson, author of the
Elements of Algebra} Years afterwards (d
propos of a misguided enthusiast who had put
the forty-seventh proposition of Euclid into
Latin verse) he tells one of his correspondents
the result of these ministrations : M . . . was
always so incapable of learning mathematics
that I could not even get by heart the multipli-
cation table, as blind Professor Saunderson hon-
estly told me, above threescore years ago, when
I went to his lectures at Cambridge. After the
first fortnight he said to me, * Young man, it
would be cheating you to take your money ; for
you can never learn what I am trying to teach
you.' I was exceedingly mortified, and cried ;
for, being a Prime Minister's son, I had firmly
believed all the flattery with which I had been
assured that my parts were capable of anything.
I paid a private instructor for a year; but, at
the year's end, was forced to own Saunderson
^ Saunderson had lost both his eyes in infancy from
small-pox. This, however, did not prevent him from
lecturing on Newton's Optics, and becoming Lucasian
Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge. Another under-
graduate who attended his lectures was Chesterfield. (See
Letter to Jouneau, 12 Oct., 1712.) There is an interest-
ing account of Saunderson by a former pupil, together
with an excellent portrait, in the Gentleman's Magazine
for September, 1754.
A Memoir, 21
had been in the right.' ^ This private instruc-
tor was in all probability Mr. Trevigar, who,
Walpole says, read lectures to him in mathe-
matics and philosophy. From other expressions
in his letters, it must be inferred that his pro-
gress in the dead languages, if respectable, was
not brilliant. He confesses, on one occasion,
his inability to help Cole in a Latin epitaph, and
he tells Pinkerton that he never was a good
Greek scholar.
His correspondence at this period, chiefly
addressed to West and George Montagu, is
not extensive, but it is already characteristic.
In one of his letters to Montagu he encloses a
translation of a little French dialogue between
a turtle-dove and a passer-by. The verses are
of no particular merit, but in the comment one
recognizes a cast of style soon to be familiar.
' You will excuse this gentle nothing, I mean
mine, when I tell you I translated it out of
pure good-nature for the use of a disconsolate
wood-pigeon in our grove, that was made a
widow by the barbarity of a gun. She coos
and calls me so movingly, 't would touch your
heart to hear her. I protest to you it grieves
me to pity her. She is so allichoUy ^ as any
1 Walpole to Miss Berry, i6 Aug., 1796.
2 Indeed, she is given too much to allicholly and
musing. — Merry Wives of Windsor, act i. sc. iv.
22 Horace Walpole :
thing. I '11 warrant you now she 's as sorry as
one of us would be. Well, good man, he 's
gone, and he died like a lamb. She 's an unfortu-
nate woman, but she must have patience.' i In
another letter to West, after expressing his
astonishment that Gray should be at Burnham
in Buckinghamshire^ and yet be too indolent to
revisit the old Eton haunts in his vicinity, he
goes on to gird at the university curriculum.
At Cambridge, he says, they are supposed to
betake themselves ' to some trade, as logic,
philosophy, or mathematics.' But he has been
used to the delicate food of Parnassus, and
can never condescend to the grosser studies
of Alma Mater. ^ Sober cloth of syllogism
colour suits me ill; or, what's worse, I hate
clothes that one must prove to be of no colour
at all. If the Muses ccclique vias et sidera
monsircnt, and qud pi maria alta iumcscant ;
why accipiaiil : but 't is thrashing, to study
philosophy in the abstruse authors. I am not
against cultivating these studies, as they are
certainly useful ; but then they quite neglect all
polite literature, all knowledge of this world.
Indeed, such people have not much occasion for
this latter ; for they shut themselves up from it,
and study till they know less than any one.
1 Walpole to Montagu, 30 May, 1736.
A Memoir. 23
Great mathematicians have been of great use ;
but the generality of them are quite uncon-
versible : they frequent the stars, mh pcdibus-
qiie vident nubes, but they can 't see through
them. I tell you what I see ; that by living
amongst them, I write of nothing else : my let-
ters are all parallelograms, two sides equal to
two sides ; and every paragraph an axiom,
that tells you nothing but what every mortal
almost knows.' -^ In an earlier note he has
been on a tour to Oxford, and, with a pre-
monition of the future connoisseur of Straw-
berry Hill, criticises the gentlemen's seats on
the road. ' Coming back, we saw Easton
Neston [in Northamptonshire], a seat of Lord
Pomfret, where in an old greenhouse is a
wonderful fine statue of Tully, haranguing a
numerous assemblage of decayed emperors, ves-
tal virgins with new noses, Colossus's, Venus's,
headless carcases and carcaseless heads, pieces
of tombs, and hieroglyphics.'^ A little later
he has been to his father's seat at Houghton:
' I am return'd again to Cambridge, and can
tell you what I never expected, — that I like
Norfolk. Not any of the ingredients, as Hunt-
ing or Country Gentlemen, for I had nothing to
1 Walpole to West, 17 Aug., 1736.
2 Walpole to Montagu, 20 May, 1736.
24 Horace JValpoIe:
do with them, but the county ; which a little
from Houghton is woody, and full of delight-
full prospects. I went to see Norwich and
Yarmouth, both which I like exceedingly. I
spent my time at Houghton for the first week
almost alone. We have a charming garden, all
wilderness ; much adapted to my Romantick
inclinations.' In after life the liking for Nor-
folk here indicated does not seem to have
continued, especially when his father's death
had withdrawn a part of its attractions. He
' hated Norfolk,' — says Mr. Cunningham.
' He did not care for Norfolk ale, Norfolk
turnips, Norfolk dumplings, or Norfolk turkeys.
Its flat, sandy, aguish scenery was not to his
taste.' He preferred ' the rich blue pros-
pects' of his mother's county, Kent,
Of literary effort while at Cambridge, Wal-
pole's record is not great. In 1736, he was one
of the group of university poets — Gray and
West being also of the number — who addressed
congratulatory verses to Frederick, Prince of
Wales, upon his marriage with the Princess
Augusta of Saxe-Gotha; and he wrote a poem
(which is reprinted in vol. i. of his works) to
the memory of the founder of King's College,
Henry VI. This is dated 2 February, 1758.
In the interim Lady Walpole died. Her son's
A Memoir. 25
references to his loss display the most genuine
regret. In a letter to Charles Lyttelton (after-
wards the well-known Dean of Exeter, and
Bishop of Carlisle), which is not included in
Cunningham's edition, and is apparently dated
in error September, 1732, instead of 1737,^
he dwells with much feeling on ' the surpriz-
ing calmness and courage which my dear Mother
show'd before her death. I believe few women
wou'd behave so well, & I am certain no man
cou'd behave better. For three or four days
before she dyed, she spoke of it with less
indifference than one speaks of a cold ; and
while she was sensible, which she was within
her two last hours, she discovered no manner
of apprehension.' That his warm affection for
her was well known to his friends may be
inferred from a passage in one of Gray's letters
to West : ' While I write to you, I hear the
bad news of Lady Walpole's death on Saturday
night last [20 Aug., 1737]. Forgive me if the
thought of what my poor Horace must feel on
that account, obliges me to have done.' ^ Lady
Walpole was buried in Westminster Abbey,
where, on her monument in Henry VHth's
Chapel, may be read the piously eulogistic
1 Notes and Queries, 2 Jan., 1869.
2 Gray's Works, by Gosse, 1884, ii- 9-
26 Horace IValpole :
inscription which her youngest son composed
to her memory, — an inscription not easy to
reconcile in all its terms with the current
estimate of her character. But in August,
1737, she was considerably over fifty, and had
probably long outlived the scandals of w^hich
she had been the subject in the days when
Kneller and Eckardt painted her as a young
and beautiful woman.
A Memoir, 27
CHAPTER II.
Patent Places under Government. — Starts with Gray on the
Grand Tour, March, 1739. — From Dover to Paris. — Life
at Paris. — Versailles. — The Convent of the Chartreux. —
Life at Rheims.— A Feie Galante. — The Grande Chartreuse.
— Starts for Italy. — The tragedy of Tory. — Turin ; Genoa.
— Academical Exercises at Bologna. — Life at Florence. —
Rome; Naples; Herculaneum. — The Pen of Radicofani. —
English at Florence. — Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. — Pre-
paring for Home. — Quarrel with Gray. — Walpole's Apologia;
his Illness, and Return to England.
THAT, in those piping days of patronage,
when even very young ladies of quality
drew pay as cornets of horse, the son of the
Prime Minister of England should be left un-
provided for, was not to be expected. While
he was still resident at Cambridge, lucrative
sinecures came to Horace Walpole. Soon
after his mother's death, his father appointed
him Inspector of Imports and Exports in the
Custom House, — a post which he resigned in
January, 1738, on succeeding Colonel William
Townshend as Usher of the Exchequer. When,
later in the year, he came of age (17 Septem-
ber), he ' took possession of two other little
28 Horace Walpole :
patent-places in the Exchequer, called Comp-
troller of the Pipe, and Clerk of the Estreats,'
which had been held for him by a substitute.
In 1782, when he still filled them, the two
last-mentioned offices produced together about
^300 per annum, while the Ushership of the
Exchequer, at the date of his obtaining it,
was reckoned to be worth ^^900 a year.
'■ From that time [he says] I lived on my
own income, and travelled at my own expense ;
nor did I during my father's life receive from
him but ^^250 at different times^ — which I say
not in derogation of his extreme tenderness
and goodness to me, but to show that I was
content with what he had given to me, and
that from the age of twenty I was no charge
to my family.'^
He continued at Kini/'s Collefre for some
time after he had attained his majority, only
quitting it formally in March, 1739, not with-
out regretful memories of which his future
correspondence was to bear the traces. If
he had neglected mathematics, and only mo-
derately courted the classics, he had learnt
something of the polite arts and of modern
Continental letters, — studies which would natu-
rally lead his inclination in the direction of
1 Accojuit of my Conduct, etc, ]Vorks, 1798, ii. 363-70.
Thomas Gray.
^
i
A Memoir, 29
the inevitable ' Grand Tour/ Two years
earlier he had very unwillingly declined an
invitation from George Montagu and Lord
Conway to join them in a visit to Italy. Since
that date his desire for foreign travel, fostered
no doubt by long conversations with Gray,
had grown stronger, and he resolved to see
• the palms and temples of the south ' after
the orthodox eighteenth-century fashion. To
think of Gray in this connection was but
natural, and he accordingly invited his friend
(who had now quitted Cambridge, and was
vegetating rather disconsolately in his father's
house on Cornhill) to be his travelling com-
panion. Walpole was to act as paymaster ;
but Gray was to be independent. Further-
more, Walpole made a will under which, if he
died abroad. Gray was to be his sole legatee.
Dispositions so advantageous and considerate
scarcely admitted of refusal, even if Gray had
been backward, which he was not. The two
friends accordingly set out for Paris. Walpole
makes the date of departure 10 March, 1739;
Gray says they left Dover at twelve on the
29th.
The first records of the journey come from
Amiens in a letter written by Gray to his
mother. After a rough passage across the
30 Horace IValpole:
Straits, they reached Calais at five. Next day
they started for Boulogne in the then new-
fangled invention, a post-chaise, — a vehicle
which Gray describes ' as of much greater use
than beauty, resembling an ill-shaped chariot,
only with the door opening before instead of
[at] the side.' Of Boulogne they see little,
and of Montreuil (where later Sterne engaged
La Fleur) Gray's only record, besides the
indifferent fare, is that ' Madame the hostess
made her appearance in long lappets of bone
lace, and a sack of linsey-woolsey.' From
Montreuil they go by Abbeville to Amiens,
where they visit the cathedral, and the chapels
of the Jesuits and Ursuline Nuns. But the
best part of this first letter is the little pic-
ture with which it (or rather as much of it as
Mason published) concludes. ' The country
we have passed through hitherto has been
fiat, open, but agreeably diversified with vil-
lages, fields well cultivated, and little rivers.
On every hillock is a windmill, a crucifix, or
a Virgin Mary dressed in flowers and a sar-
cenet robe ; one sees not many people or
carriages on the road ; now and then indeed
you meet a strolling friar, a countryman with
his great muff, or a woman riding astride on a
A Memoir. 31
little ass, with short petticoats, and a great
head-dress of blue wool/ ^
The foregoing letter is dated the ist April,
and it speaks of reaching Paris on the 3rd.
But it was only on the evening of Saturday
the 9th that they rolled into the French
capital, ' driving through the streets a long
while before they knew where they were.'
Walpole had wisely resolved not to hurry,
and they had besides broken down at Lu-
zarches, and lingered at St. Denis over the
curiosities of the abbey, particularly a vase of
oriental onyx carved with Bacchus and the
nymphs, of which they had dreamed ever
since. At Paris, they found a warm welcome
among the English residents, — notably from
Mason's patron, Lord Holdernesse, and Wal-
pole's cousins, the Conways. They seem to
have plunged at once into the pleasures of the
place, — pleasures in which, according to Wal-
pole, cards and eating played far too absorbing a
part. At Lord Holdernesse's they met at supper
the famous author of Manon Lescaut, M. TAbbe
Antoine-Francois Prevost d'Exilles, who had
just put forth the final volume of his tedious
and scandalous Histoire de M. CUpeland,fils
naturel de Crormvel. They went to the spec-
1 Gray's Works, by Gosse, 18S4, ii. 18-19.
32 Horace Walpole :
tacle of Pandore at the Salle des Machines of
the Tuileries ; and they went to the opera,
where they saw the successful Ballet de la Paix,
— a curious hotchpot, from Gray's description,
of cracked voices and incongruous mythology.
With the Comedie Fran^aise they were belter
pleased, although Walpole, strange to say, unlike
Goldsmith ten years later, was not able to com-
mend the performance of Moliere's L'Avare.
They saw Mademoiselle Gaussin (as yet unri-
valled by the unrisen Mademoiselle Clairon)
in La Noue's tragedy of Mahomet Second, then
recently produced, with Dufresne in the leading
male part ; and they also saw the prince of
petits-mailres, Grandval, acting with Dufresne's
sister. Mademoiselle Jeanne-Fran^oise Qui-
nault (an actress ' somewhat in Mrs. Clive's
way,' says Gray), in the Philosophc marii of
Nericault Destouches, — a charming comedy
already transferred to the English stage in the
version by John Kelly of The Universal
Spectator.
Theatres, however, are not the only amuse-
ments which the two travellers chronicle to
the home-keeping West. A great part of
their time is spent in seeing churches and
palaces full of pictures. Then there is the
inevitable visit to Versailles, which, in sum,
A Memoir, 33
they concur in condemning. ' The great
front,' says Walpole, ' is a lumber of little-
ness, composed of black brick, stuck full of
bad old busts, and fringed with gold rails.'
Gray (he says) likes it ; but Gray is scarcely
more complimentary, — at all events is quite
as hard upon the facade, using almost the
same phrases of depreciation. It is 'a huge
heap of littleness,' in hue ' black, dirty red,
and yellow ; the first proceeding from stone
changed by age ; the second, from a mixture
of brick ; and the last, from a profusion of
tarnished gilding. You cannot see a more
disagreeable tout ensemble ; and, to finish the
matter, it is all stuck over in many places
with small busts of a tawny hue between
every two windows.' The garden, however,
pleases him better ; nothing could be vaster
and more magnificent than the coup deceit, with
its fountains and statues and grand canal. But
the ' general taste of the place ' is petty and
artificial. ' All is forced, all is constrained
about you ; statues and vases sowed every-
where without distinction ; sugar-loaves and
minced pies of yew ; scrawl work of box, and
little squirting /V/s d'eau, besides a great same-
ness in the walks, — cannot help striking one at
first sight ; not to mention the silliest of laby-
3
34 Horace JValpoIe:
rinths, and all ^Esop's fables in water.' ^ 'The
garden is littered with statues and fountains,
each of which has its tutelary deity. In partic-
ular, the elementary god of fire solaces himself
in one. In another, Enceladus, in lieu of a
mountain, is overwhelmed with many waters.
There are avenues of water-pots, who disport
themselves much in squirting up cascadelins.
In short, 'tis a garden for a great child.' ^
The day following, being Whitsunday, they
witness a grand ceremonial, — the installation
of nine Knights of the Saint Esprit : ' high
mass celebrated with music, great crowd, much
incense. King, Queen, Dauphin, Mesdames,
Cardinals, and Court ; Knights arrayed by His
Majesty ; reverences before the altar, not bows,
but curtsies ; stiff hams ; much tittering among
the ladies ; trumpets, kettle-drums, and fifes.' *
It is Gray who thus summarises the show.
But we must go to Walpole for the account of
another expedition, the visit to the Convent of
the Chartreux, the uncouth horror of which,
with its gloomy chapel and narrow cloisters,
seems to have fascinated the Gothic soul of the
future author of the Castle of Olranlo. Here,
1 Gray to West, 22 May, 1739.
2 Walpole to West, no date, 1 739.
3 Gray to West, 22 May, 1739.
A Memoir, 35
in one of the cells, they make the acquaintance
of a fresh initiate into the order, — the account
of whose environment suggests retirement rather
than solitude. ' He was extremely civil, and
called himself Dom Victor. We have promised
to visit him often. Their habit is all white : but
besides this he was infinitely clean in his person ;
and his apartment and garden, which he keeps
and cultivates without any assistance, was neat
to a degree. He has four little rooms, furnished
in the prettiest manner, and hung with good
prmts. One of them is a library, and another a
gallery. He has several canary-birds disposed
in a pretty manner in breeding-cages. In his
garden was a bed of good tulips in bloom,
flowers and fruit-trees, and all neatly kept.
They are permitted at certain hours to talk to
strangers, but never to one another, or to go
out of their convent.' In the same institution
they saw Le Sueur's history (in pictures) of St.
Bruno, the founder of the Chartreux. Wal-
pole had not yet studied Raphael at Rome, but
these pictures, he considered, excelled every-
thing he had seen in England and Paris. ^
' From thence [Paris],' say Walpole's Short
Notes, * we went with my cousin, Henry Conway,
to Rheims, in Champagne, [and] staid there three
1 Walpole to West, no date, 1739.
36 Horace Walpole :
months.' One of their chief objects was to
improve themselves in French. ^ You must not
wonder,' he tells West, ' if all my letters resem-
ble dictionaries, with French on one side, and
English on t' other ; I deal in nothing else at
present, and talk a couple of words of each
language alternately from morning till night/ ^
But he does not seem to have yet developed
his later passion for letter-writing, and the
' account of our situation and proceedings ' is
still delegated to Gray, some of whose de-
spatches at this time are not preserved. There
is, however, one from Rheims to Gray's mother
which gives a vivid idea of the ancient French
Cathedral city, slumbering in its vast vine-clad
plain, with its picturesque old houses and lonely
streets, its long walks under the ramparts, and
its monotonous frog-haunted moat. They have
no want of society, for Henry Conway pro-
cured them introductions everywhere ; but the
Rhemois are more constrained, less familiar, less
hospitable, than the Parisians. Quadrille is the
almost invariable amusement, interrupted by one
entertainment (for the Rhemois as a rule give
neither dinners nor suppers) ; to wit, a five
o'clock goilter, which is ' a service of wine,
fruits, cream, sweetmeats, crawfish, and cheese,'
1 Walpole to West, i8 June, 1739.
A Memoir, 37
after which they sit down to cards again. Occa-
sionally, however, the demon of impromptu
flutters these ' set, gray lives,' and (like Dr.
Johnson) even Rheims must ' have a frisk.'
' For instance,' says Gray, * the other evening
we happened to be got together in a company
of eighteen people, men and women of the best
fashion here, at a garden in the town, to walk ;
when one of the ladies bethought herself of
asking, Why should we not sup here ? Imme-
diately the cloth was laid by the side of a foun-
tain under the trees, and a very elegant supper
served up ; after which another said. Come, let
us sing ; and directly began herself. From
singing we insensibly fell to dancing, and sing-
ing in a round ; when somebody mentioned the
violins, and immediately a company of them was
ordered. Minuets were begun in the open air,
and then came country dances, which held till
four o'clock next morning ; at which hour the
gayest lady there proposed that such as were
weary should get into their coaches, and the rest
of them should dance before them with the
music in the van ; and in this manner we par-
aded through all the principal streets of the city,
and waked everybody in it.' Walpole, adds Gray,
would have made this entertainment chronic.
But ' the women did not come into it,' and
38 Horace Walpole :
shrank back decorously ' to their dull cards, and
usual formalities/ ^
At Rheims the travellers lingered on in the
hope of being joined by Selwyn and George
Montagu. In September they left Rheims for
Dijon, the superior attractions of which town
made them rather regret their comparative rusti-
cation of the last three months. From Dijon
they passed southward to Lyons, whence Gray
sent to West (then drinking the Tunbridge
waters) a daintily elaborated conceit touching
the junction of the Rhone and the Saone.
While at Lyons they made an excursion to
Geneva to escort Henry Conway, who had up
to this time been their companion, on his way
to that place. They took a roundabout route
in order to visit the Convent of the Grande
Chartreuse, and on the 28th Walpole writes to
West from * a Hamlet among the mountains of
Savoy [Echelles].' He is to undergo many trans-
migrations, he says, before he ends his letter.
' Yesterday I was a shepherd of Dauphine ;
to-day an Alpine savage ; to-morrow a Carthu-
sian monk ; and Friday a Swiss Calvinist.'
When he next takes up his pen, he has passed
through his third stage, and visited the Char-
treuse. With the convent itself neither Gray
1 Gray's IVorks, by Gosse, 1SS4, ii. 30.
A Memoir. 39
nor his companions seem to have been much
impressed, probably because their expectations
had been indefinite. For the approach and the
situation they had only enthusiasm. Gray is the
accredited landscape-painter of the party, but
here even Walpole breaks out: 'The road,
West, the road ! winding round a prodigious
mountain, and surrounded with others, all
shagged with hanging woods, obscured with
pines, or lost in clouds ! Below, a torrent
breaking through cliffs, and tumbling through
fragments of rocks ! Sheets of cascades forcing
their silver speed down channelled precipices,
and hastening into the roughened river at the
bottom ! Now and then an old foot bridge,
with a broken rail, a leaning cross, a cottage, or
the ruin of an hermitage 1 This sounds too
bombast and too romantic to one that has not
seen it, too cold for one that has. If I could
send you my letter post between two lovely tem-
pests that echoed each other's wrath, you might
have some idea of this noble roaring scene, as
you were reading it. Almost on the summit,
upon a fine verdure, but without any prospect,
stands the Chartreuse.' ^
The foregoing passage is dated Aix-in-Savoy,
30 September. Two days later, passing by
Annecy, they came to Geneva. Here they
1 Walpole to West, Sept. 2S-2 Oct., 1739.
40 Horace Walpole :
stayed a week to see Conway settled^ and made
a '■ solitary journey ' back to Lyons, but by a
different road, through the spurs of the Jura
and across the plains of La Bresse. At Lyons
they found letters awaiting them from Sir Robert
Walpole, desiring his son to go to Italy, — a pro-
posal with which Gray, only too glad to exchange
the over-commercial city of Lyons for ' the
place in the world that best deserves seeing.'
was highly delighted. Accordingly, we speedily
find them duly equipped with ' beaver bonnets,
beaver gloves, beaver stockings, muffs, and
bear-skins ' en route for the Alps. At the foot
of Mont Cenis their chaise was taken to pieces
and loaded on mules, and they themselves were
transferred to low matted legless chairs carried
on poles, — a not unperilous mode of progres-
sion, when, as in this case, quarrels took place
among the bearers. But the tragedy of the
journey happened before they had quitted the
chaise. Walpole had a fat little black spaniel
of King Charles's breed, named Tory, and he
had let the little creature out of the carriage for
the air. While it was waddling along content-
edly at the horses' heads, a gaunt wolf rushed
out of a fir wood, and exit poor Tory before
any one had time to snap a pistol. In later
years, Gray would perhaps have celebrated this
A Memoir. 41
mishap as elegantly as he sang the death of his
friend's favourite cat ; but in these pre-poetic
days he restricts himself to calling it an ' odd
accident enough.'^
' After eight days' journey through Green*
land,' — as Gray puts it to West, — they
reached Turin, where among other English
they found Pope's friend, Joseph Spence, Pro-
fessor of Poetry at Oxford. Beyond Walpole's
going to Court, and their visiting an extraor-
dinary play called La Rappresenta^ione deW
Anima Dannata (for the benefit of an Hospital),
a full and particular account of which is con-
tained in one of Spence's letters to his mother, ^
nothing remarkable seems to have happened
to them in the Piedmontese capital. From
Turin they went on to Genoa, — ' the happy
country where huge lemons grow ' (as Gray
quotes, not textually, from Waller), — whose
blue sea and vine-trellises they quit reluctantly
1 Tory, however, was not illachrymabilis. He found
his vates sacer in one Edward Burnaby Greene, once of
Bennet College ; and in referring to this, thirty-five
years later, Walpole explains how Tory got his name.
' His godmother was the widow of Alderman Parsons
[Humphrey Parsons, of Goldsmith's * black champagne '],
who gave him at Paris to Lord Conway, and he to me '
( Walpole to Cole, lo Dec, 1775).
2 Spence's AnecdoteSyhy Singer, 2d ed., 1858, pp. 305-8.
42 Horace IValpole :
for Bologna, by way of Tortona, Piacenza,
Parma (where they inspect the Correggios in
the Duomo), Reggio, and Modena. At Bo-
logna, in the absence of introductions, picture-
seeing is their main occupation. ' Except
pictures and statues,' writes Walpole, ' we
are not very fond of sights. . . . Now and then
we drop in at a procession, or a high mass,
hear the music, enjoy a strange attire, and hate
the foul monkhood. Last week was the feast
of the Immaculate Conception. On the eve
we went to the Franciscans' church to hear the
academical exercises. There were moult and
moult clergy, about two dozen dames, that
treated one another with illustrissima and brown
kisses, the vice-legate, the gonfalonier, and
some senate. The vice-legate ... is a young
personable person of about twenty, and had on
a mighty pretty cardinal-kind of habit ; 't wou'd
make a delightful masquerade dress. We asked
his name : Spinola. What, a nephew of the
cardinal-legate? Signer, no; ma credo che gli
sia qiialche cosa. He sat on the right hand
with the gonfalonier in two purple fauteuils.
Opposite was a throne of crimson damask,
with the device of the Academy, the Gelati ; ^
1 Jarchius has taken the trouble to give us a list of
those clubs, or academies [i.e., //;<? acaJt-mies of Hal)'],
A Memoir, 43
and trimmings of gold. Here sat at a table,
in black, the head of the Academy, between
the orator and the first poet. At two semicir-
cular tables on either hand sat three poets and
three ; silent among many candles. The chief
made a little introduction, the orator a long
Italian vile harangue. Then the chief, the poet,
the poets, — who were a Franciscan, an Olive-
tan, an old abbe, and three lay, — read their
compositions ; and to-day they are pasted up in
all parts of the town. As we came out of the
church, we found all the convent and neighbour-
ing houses lighted all over with lanthorns of red
and yellow paper, and two bonfires.' -^
In the Christmas of 1739, the friends crossed
the Apennines, and entered Florence. If they
had wanted introductions at Bologna, there was
no lack of them in Tuscany, and they were to
find one friend who afterwards figured largely
in Walpole's correspondence. This was Mr.
which amount to five hundred and fifty, each distinguished
by somewhat whimsical in the name. The academicians of
Bologna, for instance, are divided into the Abbandonati,
the Ausiosi, Ociosi, Arcadi, Confusi, Dubbiosi, etc. There
are few of these who have not published their Transactions,
and scarce a member who is not looked upon as the most
famous man in the world, at home. — Goldsmith, in The
Bee, No. vi., for lo November, 1759.
1 Walpole to West, no date, 1739.
44 Horace IValpole :
(afterwards Sir Horace) Mann, British Minister
Plenipotentiary at the Court of Florence. * He
is the best and most obliging person in the
world,' says Gray, and his house, with a brief
interval, was their residence for fifteen months.
Their letters from Florence are less interesting
than those from which quotations have already
been made, while their amusements seem to
have been more independent of each other than
before. Gray occupied himself in the galleries
taking the notes of pictures and statuary after-
wards published by Mitford, and in forming a
collection of MS. music ; Walpole. on the other
hand, had slightly cooled in his eagerness for
the antique, which now ^pleases him calmly."
' I recollect ' — he says — 'the joy I used to
propose if I could but see the Great Duke's
gallery ; I walk into it now with as little
emotion as I should into St. Paul's. The
statues are a congregation of good sort of
people that I have a great deal of unruffled
regard for.' The fact was, no doubt, that
society had now superior attractions. As the
son of the English Prime Minister, and with
Mann, who was a relation,^ at his elbow, all
1 Dr. Doran (' Mann ' and Manners at the Court of
Florence, 1876, i. 2) describes this connection as * a distant
cousinship.'
A Memoir, 45
doors were open to him. A correct record ot
his time would probably show an unvaried
succession of suppers, balls, and masquerades.
In the carnival week, when he snatches ' a little
unmasqued moment ' to write to West, he says
he has done nothing lately ' but slip out of his
domino into bed, and out of bed into his
domino. The end of the Carnival is frantic,
bacchanalian ; all the morn one makes parties
in masque to the shops and coffee-houses, and
all the evening to the operas and balls.' If
Gray was of these junketings, his letters do not
betray it. He was probably engaged in writ-
ing uncomplimentary notes on the Venus de'
Medici, or transcribino^ a score of Persrolesi.
The first interruption to these diversions came
in March, when they quitted Florence for
Rome in order to witness the coronation of the
successor of Clement XII., who had died in
the preceding month. On their road from Siena
they were passed by a shrill-voiced figure in a
red cloak, with a white handkerchief on its head,
which they took for a fat old woman, but which
afterwards turned out to be Farinelli's rival,
Senesino. Rome disappointed them, — espe-
cially in its inhabitants and general desolation.
' I am very glad,' writes Walpole, ' that I see
it while it yet exists ; ' and he goes on to
46 Horace Walpole :
prophesy that before a great number of years it
will cease to exist. ' I am persuaded/ he says
again, ' that in an hundred years Rome will not
be worth seeing ; 't is less so now than one
would believe. All the public pictures are
decayed or decaying ; the few ruins cannot last
long ; and the statues and private collections
must be sold, from the great poverty of
the families.' Perhaps this last consideration,
coupled with the depressing character of Roman
hospitality (' Roman conversations are dread-
ful things I ' he tells Conway), revived his
virtuoso tastes. ' I am far gone in medals,
lamps, idols, prints, etc., and all the small com-
modities to the purchase of which I can attain ;
I would buy the Coliseum if I could.' Mean-
while as the cardinals are quarrelling, the
coronation is still deferred ; and they visit
Naples, whence they explore Herculaneum,
then but recently exposed and identified. But
neither Gray nor Walpole waxes very eloquent
upon this theme, — probably because at this
time the excavations were only partial, while
Pompeii was, of course, as yet under ground.
Wal pole's next letter is written from Radico-
fani, — ' a vile little town at the foot of an old
citadel,' which again is at ' the top of a black
barren mountain ; ' the whole reminding the
A Memoir, 47
writer of ' Hamilton's Bawn ' in Swift's verses.
In this place, although the traditional residence
of one of the Three Kings of Cologne, there
is but one pen, the property of the Governor,
who when Walpole borrows it, sends it to him
under ' conduct of a sergeant and two Swiss,'
with special injunctions as to its restoration, —
a precaution which in Walpole's view renders
it worthy to be ranked with the other pre-
cious relics of the poor Capuchins of the place,
concerning which he presently makes rather
unkindly fun. A few days later they were
once more in the Casa Ambrosio, Mann's
pleasant house at Florence, with the river
running so close to them that they could fish
out of the windows. ' I have a terreno [ground-
floor] all to myself,' says Walpole, ' with an
open gallery on the Arno, where I am now
writing to you [j.e., Conway]. Over against
me is the famous Gallery ; and, on either hand,
two fair bridges. Is not this charming and
cool ? ' Add to which, on the bridges aforesaid,
in the serene Italian air, one may linger all night
in a dressing-gown, eating iced fruits to the
notes of a guitar. But (what was even better
than music and moonlight) there is the society
that was the writer's '■ fitting environment.' Lady
Pomfret, with her daughters, Lady Charlotte,
48 Horace IValpole :
afterwards governess to the children of George
III., and the beauty Lady Sophia, held a
'charming conversation' once a week; while
the Princess Craon de Beauvau has 'a constant
pharaoh and supper every night, where one is
quite at one's ease.' Another lady-resident,
scarcely so congenial to Walpole, was his
sister-in-law, the wife of his eldest brother,
Robert, who, with Lady Pomfret, made certain
(in Walpole's eyes) wholly preposterous pre-
tentions to the yet uninvented status of
blue-stocking. To Lady Walpole and Lady
Pomfret was speedily added another ' she-
meteor ' in the person of the celebrated Lady
Mary Wortley Montagu.
When Lady Mary arrived in Florence in the
summer of 1740, she was a woman of more
than fifty, and was just entering upon that
unexplained exile from her country and hus-
band which was prolonged for two-and-twenty
years. Her brilliant abilities were unimpaired ;
but it is probable that the personal eccen-
tricities which had exposed her to the satire
of Pope, had not decreased with years. That
these would be extenuated under Walpole's
malicious pen was not to be expected ; still
less, perhaps, that they would be treated justly.
Although, as already intimated, he was not
A Memoir, 49
aware of the scandal respecting himself which
her descendants were to revive, he had ample
ground for antipathy. Her husband was the
bitter foe of Sir Robert Walpole ; and she
herself had been the firm friend and protec-
tress of his mother's rival and successor, Miss
Skerret.^ Accordingly, even before her advent,
he makes merry over the anticipated issue of
this portentous ' triple alliance ' of mysticism
and nonsense, and later he writes to Conway :
' Did I tell you Lady Mary Wortley is here ?
She laughs at my Lady Walpole, scolds my
Lady Pomfret, and is laughed at by the whole
town. Her dress, her avarice, and her impu-
dence must amaze any one that never heard her
name. She wears a foul mob, that does not
cover her greasy black locks, that hang loose,
never combed or curled ; an old mazarine blue
wrapper, that gaps open and discovers a canvas
petticoat. ... In three words, I will give you
her picture as we drew it in the Sorles Virgi-
liancu, — Insanam vatem aspicies. I give you
my honour we did not choose it ; but Gray,
Mr. Coke, Sir Francis Dashwood, and I, with
1 Shortly after Lady Walpole's death, Sir Robert Wal-
pole married his mistress, Maria Skerret, who died 4 June,
1738, leaving a daughter, Horace Walpole's half-sister,
subsequently Lady Mary Churchill.
50 Horace Walpole :
several others, drew it fairly amongst a thousand
for different people.'^ In justice to Lady Mary
it is only fair to say that she seems to have
been quite unconscious that she was an object
of ridicule, and was perfectly satisfied with her
reception at Florence. ' Lord and Lady Pom-
fret ' — she tells Mr. Wortley — 'take pains
to make the place agreeable to me, and I have
been visited by the greatest part of the people
of quality.'^ But although Walpole's portrait
is obviously malicious (some of its details are
suppressed in the above quotation), it is plain
that even unprejudiced spectators could not
deny her peculiarities. ' Lady Mary,' said
Spence, ' is one of the most shining charac-
ters in the world, but shines like a comet ; she
is all irregularity, and always wandering ; the
most wise, the most imprudent ; loveliest, most
disagreeable ; best-natured^ cruellest woman in
the world: '*all things by turns, but nothing
long."'«
By this time the new pope, Benedict XIV.,
had been elected. But although the friends
were within four days, journey of Rome, the
fear of heat and malaria forced them to forego
1 Walpole to Cojiway, 25 September, 1740.
2 Letters, etc., of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, ii. 325.
8 S/>eftce's AfUYi/otes, by Singer, 2nd edn., 1S5S, p. xxiii.
A Memoir, 51
the spectacle of the coronation. They con-
tinued to reside with Mann at Florence until
May in the following year. Upon Gray the
' violent delights ' of the Tuscan capital had
already begun to pall. It is, he says, * an
excellent place to employ all one's animal
sensations in, but utterly contrary to one's
rational powers.' Walpole, on the other hand,
is in his element. 'I am so well within and
without,' he says in the same letter which
sketches Lady Mary, ' that you would scarce
know me : I am younger than ever, think of
nothing but diverting myself, and live in a round
of pleasures. We have operas, concerts, and
balls, mornings and evenings. I dare not tell
you all of one's idlenesses ; you would look so
grave and senatorial at hearing that one rises at
eleven in the morning, goes to the opera at nine
at night, to supper at one, and to bed at three !
But literally here the evenings and nights are so
charming and so warm, one can't avoid 'em.'
In a later letter he says he has lost all curiosity,
and ' except the towns in the straight road to
Great Britain, shall scarce see a jot more of a
foreign land.' Indeed, save a sally concerning
the humours of * Moll Worthless ' (Lady Mary)
and Lady Walpole, and the record of the pur-
chase of a few pictures, medals, and busts, —
52 Horace Walpole :
one of the last of which, a Vespasian in basalt,
was subsequently among the glories of the
Twickenham Gallery, — his remaining letters
from Florence contain little of interest. Early
in 1741, the homeward journey was mapped out.
They were to go to Bologna to hear the
Viscontina sing, they were to visit the Fair
at Reggio, and so by Venice homewards.
But whether the Viscontina was in voice or
not, there is, as far as our travellers are con-
cerned^ absence of evidence. No further letter
of Gray from Florence has been preserved, nor
is there any mention of him in Walpole's next
despatch to West from Reggio. At that place
a misunderstanding seems to have arisen, and
they parted, Gray going forward to Venice with
two other travelling companions, Mr. John
Chute and Mr. Whitehed. In the rather barren
record of Walpole's story, this misunderstanding
naturally assumes an exaggerated importance.
But it was really a very trifling and a very intel-
ligible affair. They had been too long together;
and the first fascination of travel, which formed
at the outset so close a bond, had gradually
faded with time. As this alteration took place,
their natural dispositions began to assert them-
selves, and Walpole's normal love of pleasure
and Gray's retired studiousness became more
A Memoir, 53
and more apparent. It is probable too, that,
in all the Florentine gaieties. Gray, who was
not a great man's son, fell a little into the
background. At all events, the separation was
imminent, and it needed but a nothing — the
alleged opening by Walpole of a letter of Gray ^
— to bring it about. Whatever the proximate
cause, both were silent on the subject, although^
years after the quarrel had been made up, and
Gray was dead, Walpole took the entire blame
upon himself. When Mason was preparing
Gray's Memoirs in 1773, he authorized him to
insert a note by which, in general terms, he
admitted himself to have been in fault, assign-
ing as his reason for not being more explicit,
that while he was living it would not be pleasant
to read his private affairs discussed in magazines
and newspapers. But to Mason personally he
was at the same time thoroughly candid, as well
as considerate to his departed friend : ' I am
conscious,' he says, ' that in the beginning of
1 This rests upon the authority of a shadowy Mr.
Roberts of the Pell-office, who told it to Isaac Reed in
1799, more than half a century after the event. The
subject is discussed at some length, but of necessity in-
conclusively, by Mr. D. C. Tovey in his interesting Grajy
and his Friends, 1890. Mr. Tovey thinks that Ashton
was obscurely connected with the quarrel.
54 Horace IValpole :
the differences between Gray and me, the fault
was mine. I was too young, too fond of my
own diversions, nay, I do not doubt, too much
intoxicated by indulgence, vanity, and the
insolence of my situation, as a Prime Minis-
ter's son, not to have been inattentive and
insensible to the feelings of one I thought
below me ; of one, I blush to say it, that I
knew was obliged to me ; of one whom pre-
sumption and folly perhaps made me deem not
my superior then in parts, though I have since
felt my infinite inferiority to him. I treated
him insolently: he loved me, and I did not think
he did. I reproached him with the difference
between us when he acted from conviction of
knowing he was my superior ; I often dis-
regarded his wishes of seeing places, which I
would not quit other amusements to visit,
though I offered to send him to them without
me. Forgive me, if I say that his temper was
not conciliating. At the same time that I will
confess to you that he acted a more friendly
part, had I had the sense to take advantage of
it ; he freely told me of my faults. I declared
I did not desire to hear them, nor would correct
them. You will not wonder that with the
dignity of his spirit, and the obstinate care-
A Memoir. 55
lessness of mine, the breach must have grown
wider till we became incompatible.' ^
' Sir, you have said more than was necessary '
was Johnson's reply to a peace-making speech
from Topham Beauclerk. It is needless to
comment further upon this incident, except to
add that Walpole's generous words show that
the disagreement was rather the outcome of a
sequence of long-strained circumstances than
the result of momentary petulance. For a time
reconciliation was deferred, but eventually it
was effected by a lady, and the intimacy thus
renewed continued for the remainder of Gray's
life.
Shortly after Gray's departure in May, Wal-
pole fell ill of a quinsy. He did not, at first,
recognise the gravity of his ailment, and doc-
tored himself. By a fortunate chance, Joseph
Spence, then travelling as governor to the Earl
of Lincoln, was in the neighbourhood, and,
1 Walpole to Mason, 2 March, 1773. The letters to
Mason were first printed in 1851 by Mitford. But Pinker-
ton, in the Walpoliana, i. 95, had reported much the same
thing. ' The quarrel between Gray and me [Walpole]
arose from his being too serious a companion. I had
just broke loose from the restraints of the university, with
as much money as I could spend, and I was willing to
indulge myself. Gray was for antiquities, etc., while I was
for perpetual balls and plays. The fault was mine.*
56 Horace IValpole :
responding to a message from Walpole, ' found
him scarce able to speak.' Spence immediately
sent for medical aid, and summoned from Flor-
ence one Antonio Cocchi, a physician and author
of some eminence. Under Cocchi's advice,
Walpole speedily showed signs of inprovement,
though, in his own words in the Short Notes,
he ' was given over for five hours, escaping with
great difficulty.' The sequel may be told from
the same source. ' I went to Venice with Henry
Clinton, Earl of Lincoln, and Mr. Joseph
Spence, Professor of Poetry, and after a
month's stay there, returned with them by sea
from Genoa, landing at Antibes ; and by the
way of Toulon, Marseilles, Aix, and through
Languedoc to Montpellier, Toulouse, and
Orleans, arrived at Paris, where I left the
Earl and Mr. Spence, and landed at Dover,
September 12th, 1741, O. S., having been
chosen Member of Parliament for Kellington
[Callington], in Cornwall, at the preceding
General Election [of June], which Parliament
put a period to my father's administration,
which had continued above twenty years.'
A Memoir. 57
CHAPTER III.
Gains of the Grand Tour. — ' Epistle to Ashton.' — Resignation
of Sir Robert Walpole, who becomes Earl of Orford. — Col-
lapse of the Secret Committee. — Life at Houghton. — The
Picture Gallery. — ' A Sermon on Painting.' — Lord Orford
as Moses. — The * /Edes Walpolianae.' — Prior's ' Proto-
genes and Apelles.' — Minor Literature. — Lord Orford's
Decline and Death : his Panegyric. — Horace Walpole's
Means.
A LTHOUGH, during his stay in Italy,
-^"^ Walpole had neglected to accumulate the
store of erudition which his friend Gray had
been so industriously hiving for home consump-
tion, he can scarcely be said to have learned
nothing, especially at an age when much is
learned unconsciously. His epistolary style,
which, with its peculiar graces and pseudo-
graces, had been already formed before he left
England, had now acquired a fresh vivacity
from his increased familiarity with the French
and Italian languages ; and he had carried on,
however discursively, something more than a
mere flirtation with antiquities. Dr. Conyers
Middleton, whose once famous Lif& of Cicero
was published early in 1741, and who was him-
58 Horace Walpole :
self an antiquary of distinction, thought highly
of Walpole's attainments in this way/ and in-
deed more than one passage in a poem written
by Walpole to Ashton at this time could scarcely
have been penned by any one not fairly familiar
with (for example) the science of those ' medals '
upon which Mr. Joseph Addison had discoursed
so learnedly after his Italian tour : —
•What scanty precepts ! studies how confin'd!
Too mean to fill your comprehensive mind ;
Unsatisfy'd with knowing when or where
Some Roman bigot rais'd a fane to Fear ;
On what green medal Virtue stands express'd,
How Concord 's pictur'd, Liberty how dress'd ;
Or with wise ken judiciously define
When Pius marks the honorary coin
Of Caracalla, or of Antgnine.'^
The poem from which these lines are taken
— An Epistle from Florence. To Thomas
1 Juvenis, non tarn generis nobilitate, ac paterni no-
minis gloria, quam ingenio, doctrina, et virtute propria
illustris. Ille vero haud citius fere in patriam reversus
est, quam de studiis meis, ut consuerat, familiariter per
literas quaerens, mihi ultro de copia sua, quicquid ad argu-
menti mei rationem, aut libelli ornamentum pertineret,
pro arbitrio meo utendum obtulit, — /Vc/. mi Germana
qiiadam Antiq. Mofiurne?ita,tXc., p. 6 (quoted in Mitford's
Corr. of Walpole arul Mason, 1S51, i. x-xi).
2 Walpole's Works, 1798, i. 6.
A Memoir. 59
Ashton, Esq., Tutor to the Earl of Plimouth —
extends to some four hundred lines, and exhibits
another side of Walpole's activity in Italy.
' You have seen ' — says Gray to West in July,
1740 — 'an Epistle to Mr. Ashton, that seems
to me full of spirit and thought, and a good
deal of poetic fire.' Writing to him ten years
later, Gray seems still to have retained his first
impression. ' Satire ' — he says — ^will be
heard, for all the audience are by nature her
friends ; especially when she appears in the
spirit of Dryden, with his strength, and often
with his versification, such as you have caught in
those lines on the Royal Unction, on the Papal
dominion, and Convents of both Sexes ; on
Henry VIII. and Charles II., for these are to
me the shining parts of your Epistle. There
are many lines I could wish corrected, and some
blotted out, but beauties enough to atone for a
thousand worse faults than these.' ^ Walpole
has never been ranked among the poets ; but
Gray's praise, in which Middleton and others
concurred, justifies a further quotation. This is
the passage on the Royal Unction and the Papal
Dominion : —
* When at the altar a new monarch kneels,
What conjur'd awe upon the people steals !
1 Gray's Works, by Gosse, 1884, ii. 221.
6o Horace JValpole :
The chosen He adores the precious oil,
Meekly receives the solemn charm, and while
The priest some blessed nothings mutters o'er,
Sucks in the sacred grease at every pore :
He seems at once to shed his mortal skin,
And feels divinity transfus'd within.
The trembling vulgar dread the royal nod,
And worship God's anointed more than God.
' Such sanction gives the prelate to such kings '.
So mischief from those hallow'd fountains springs.
But bend your eye to yonder harass'd plains,
Where king and priest in one united reigns ;
See fair Italia mourn her holy state,
And droop oppress'd beneath a papal weight ;
Where fat celibacy usurps the soil,
And sacred sloth consumes the peasant's toil :
The holy drones monopolise the sky.
And plunder by a vow of poverty.
The Christian cause their lewd profession taints,
Unlearn'd, unchaste, uncharitable saints.' ^
That the refined and fastidious Horace Walpole
of later years should have begun as a passable
imitator of Dryden is sufficiently piquant. But
that the son of the great courtier Prime Min-
ister should have distinguished himself by the
vigour of his denunciations of kings and priests,
especially when, as his biographers have not
failed to remark, he was writing to one about
to take orders, is more noticeable still. The
1 Walpole's JForJi-s, 179S, i. S-9.
A Memoir, 6i
poem was reprinted in his works, but he makes
no mention of it in the Shori Notes, nor of an
Inscription for the Neglected Column in the Place
of St. Mark at Florence, written at the same
time, and characterized by the same anti-monar-
chical spirit.
His letters to Mann, his chief correspondent
at this date, are greatly occupied, during the
next few months, with the climax of the catas-
trophe recorded at the end of the preceding
chapter, — the resignation of Sir Robert Walpole.
The first of the long series was written on his
way home in September, 1741, when he had for
his fellow-passengers the Viscontina, Amorevoli,
and other Italian singers, then engaged in invad-
ing England. He appears to have at once taken
up his residence with his father in Downing
Street. Into the network of circumstances which
had conspired to array against the great peace
Minister the formidable opposition of disaffected
Whigs, Jacobites, Tories, and adherents of the
Prince of Wales, it would here be impossible
to enter. But there were already signs that
Sir Robert was nodding to his fall ; and that,
although the old courage was as high as ever,
the old buoyancy was beginning to flag. Fail-
ing health added its weight to the scale. In
October Walpole tells his correspondent that
62 Horace Walpole :
he had ' been very near sealing his letter with
black wax/ for his father had been in danger
of his life, but was recovering, though he is no
longer the Sir Robert that Mann once knew.
He who formerly would snore before they had
drawn his curtains, now never slept above an
hour without waking ; and ' he who at dinner
always forgot that he was Minister,' now sat
silent, with eyes fixed for an hour together. At
the opening of Parliament, however, there was
an ostensible majority of forty for the Court,
and Walpole seems to have regarded this as
encouraging. But one of the first motions was
for an inquiry into the state of the nation, and
this was followed by a division upon a Cornish
petition which reduced the majority to seven, —
a variation which sets the writer nervously jest-
ing about apartments in the Tower. Seven days
later, the opposition obtained a majority of four ;
and although Sir Robert, still sanguine in the
remembrance of past successes, seemed less
anxious than his family, matters were growing
grave, and his youngest son was reconciling
himself to the coming blow. It came practi-
cally on the 2ist January, 1742, when Pulteney
moved for a secret committee, which (in reality)
was to be a committee of accusation against
the Prime Minister. Walpole defeated this
A Memoir. 63
manoeuvre with his characteristic courage and
address, but only by a narrow majority of three.
So inconsiderable a victory upon so crucial a
question was perilously close to a reverse ; and
when, in the succeeding case of the disputed
Chippenham Election, the Government were
defeated by one, he yielded to the counsels of
his advisers, and decided to resign. He was
thereupon raised to the peerage as Earl of
Orford, with a pension of ^4,000 a year,^ while
his daughter by his second wife, Miss Skerret,
was created an Earl's daughter in her own
right. His fall was mourned by no one more
sincerely than by the master he had served so
staunchly for so long ; and when he went to
kiss hands at St. James's upon taking leave,
the old king fell upon his neck, embraced him,
and broke into tears.
The new Earl himself seems to have taken
his reverses with his customary equanimity, and,
like the shrewd ' old Parliamentary hand ' that
he was, to have at once devoted himself to the
difficult task of breaking the force of the attack
which he foresaw would be made upon himself
by those in power. He contrived adroitly to
1 He gave this up at first, but afterwards, when his
affairs became involved, reclaimed it (Cunningham's
Corr., i. 126 n.)
64 Horace Walpole :
foster dissension and disunion among the hete-
rogeneous body of his opponents ; he secured
that the new Ministry should be mainly com-
posed of his old party, the Whigs ; and he
managed to discredit his most formidable ad-
versary, Pulteney. One of the first results of
these precautionary measures was that a motion
by Lord Limerick for a committee to examine
into the conduct of the last twenty years was
thrown out by a small majority. A fortnight
later the motion was renewed in a fresh form,
the scope of the examination being limited to
the last ten years. Upon this occasion Horace
Walpole made his maiden speech, — a graceful
and modest, if not very forcible, effort on his
father's side. In this instance, however, the
Government were successful, and the Commit-
tee was appointed. Yet, despite the efforts to
excite the public mind respecting Lord Orford,
the case against him seems to have faded away
in the hands of his accusers. The first report
of the Committee, issued in May, contained
nothing to criminate the person against whom
the inquiry had been directly levelled ; and
despite the strenuous and even shameless efforts
of the Government to obtain evidence incul-
pating the late Minister, the Committee were
obliged to issue a second report in June, of
A Memoir. 65
which, — so far as the chief object was con-
cerned, — the gross result was nil. By the
middle of July, Walpole was able to tell Mann
that the ' long session was over, and the Secret
Committee already forgotten,' — as much for-
gotten, he says in a later letter, ' as if it had
happened in the last reign.'
When Sir Robert Walpole had resigned, he
had quitted his official residence in Downing
Street (which ever since he first occupied it in
1735 has been the official residence of the First
Lord of the Treasury), and moved to No. 5,
Arlington Street, opposite to, but smaller than,
the No. 17 in which his youngest son had been
born, and upon the site of which William Kent
built a larger house for Mr. Pelham. No. 5 is
now distinguished by a tablet erected by the
Society of Arts, proclaiming it to have been the
house of the ex-Minister. From Arlington
Street, or from the other home at Chelsea
already mentioned, most of Walpole's letters
were dated during the months which succeeded
the crisis. But in August, when the House had
risen, he migrated with the rest of the family
to Houghton, — the great mansion in Norfolk
which had now taken the place of the ancient
seat of the Walpoles, where during the summer
months his father had been accustomed in his
5
66 Horace Walpole:
free-handed manner to keep open house to all
the county. Fond of hospitality, fond of field-
sports, fond of gardening, and all out-door
occupations, Lord Orford was at home among
the flat expanses and Norfolk turnips. But the
family seat had no such attractions to his son,
fresh from the multi-coloured Continental life,
and still bearing about him, in a certain frailty
of physique and enervation of spirit, the tokens
of a sickly childhood. ' Next post ' — he says de-
spairingly to Mann — ' I shall not be able to write
to you ; and when I am there [at Houghton],
shall scarce find materials to furnish a letter
above every other post. I beg, however, that
you will write constantly to me ; it will be my
only entertainment ; for I neither hunt, brew,
drink, nor reap.' 'Consider' — he says again
— ' I am in the barren land of Norfolk, where
news grows as slow as anything green ; and
besides, I am in the house of a fallen minister 1 '
Writing letters (in company with the little white
dog ' Patapan ' ^ which he had brought from
1 Patapan's portrait was painted by John Wootton,
who illustrated Gay's Fables in 1727 with Kent. It hung
in Walpole's bedroom at Strawberry, and now (1S92)
belongs to Lord Lifford. In 1743 Walpole wrote a Fable
in imitation of La Fontaine, to which he gave the title of
Fatapan ; or^ the Little White Dog. It was never printed.
A Memoir, 6y
Rome as a successor to the defunct Tory),
walking, and playing comet with his sister Lady
Mary or any chance visitors to the house, "seem
to have been his chief resources. A year later
he pays a second visit to Houghton, and he is
still unreconciled to his environment. ' Only
imagine that I here every day see men, who are
mountains of roast beef, and only just seem
roughly hewn out into the outlines of human
form, like the giant-rock at Pratolino ! I shud-
der when I see them brandish their knives in
act to carve, and look on them as savages that
devour one another.' Then there are the enforced
civilities to entirely uninteresting people, — the
intolerable female relative, who is curious about
her cousins to the fortieth remove. ' I have an
Aunt here, a family piece of goods, an old rem-
nant of inquisitive hospitality and economy,
who, to all intents and purposes, is as beefy as
her neighbours. She wore me so down yes-
terday with interrogatories that I dreamt all
night she was at my ear with "who's" and
" why's," and '' when's " and " where's," till at
last in my very sleep I cried out, " For heaven's
sake, Madam, ask me no more questions." ' And
then, in his impatience of bores in general, he
goes on to write a little essay upon that ' growth
of English root,' that ' awful yawn, which sleep
68 Horace JValpole :
cannot abate,' as Byron calls it, — Ennui. ' I am
so far from growing used to mankind [he means
' uncongenial mankind'] by living amongst them,
that my natural ferocity and vvildness does but
every day grow worse. They tire me, they
fatigue me ; I don't know what to do with them ;
I don't know what to say to them ; I fling open
the windows, and fancy I want air ; and when I
get by myself, I undress myself, and seem to
have had people in my pockets, in my plaits,
and on my shoulders ! I indeed find this fatigue
worse in the country than in town, because one
can avoid it there, and has more resources ; but
it is there too. I fear 't is growing old ; but I
literally 'seem to have murdered a man whose
name was Ennui, for his ghost is ever before
me. They say there is no English word for
ennui; I think you may translate it most literally
by what is called " entertaining people" and
" doing the honours : " that is, you sit an hour
with somebody you don't know and don't care
for, talk about the wind and the weather, and
ask a thousand foojish questions, which all begin
with, " I think you live a good deal in the coun-
try," or " I think you don't love this thing or
that." Oh, 'tis dreadful 1 '^
1 Walpole to Chute, 20 August. 1743. ^^^- Jdm Chute
was a friend whom Walpole had made at Florence, and
A Memoir. 69
But even Houghton, with its endless ' doing
the honours,' must have had its compensations.
There was a library, and — what must have had
even stronger attractions for Horace Walpole
— that magnificent and almost unique collection
of pictures which under a later member of the
family, the third Earl of Orford, passed to
Catherine of Russia. For years Lord Orford,
with unwearied diligence and exceptional oppor-
tunities, had been accumulating these treasures.
Mann in Florence, Vertue in England, and a
host of industrious foragers had helped to bring
together the priceless canvases which crowded
the rooms of the Minister's house next the
Treasury at Whitehall. And if he was inex-
perienced as a critic, he was far too acute a man
to be deceived by the shiploads of ' Holy
Families, Madonnas, and other dismal dark
subjects, neither entertaining nor ornamental,'
against which the one great native artist of his
time, — the painter of the ' Rake's Progress,' so
with whom, as already stated in Chapter II., Gray had
travelled when they parted company. Until, by the death
of a brother, he succeeded to the estate called The Vyne,
in Hampshire, he lived principally abroad. His portrait
by Miintz, after Pompeio Battoni, hung over the door in
Walpole's bedchamber at Strawberry Hill. An exhaustive
History of The Vyne was published in iS8S by the late
Mr. Chaloner W. Chute, at that time its possessor.
70 Horace IValpole :
persistently inveighed. There was no doubt
about the pedigrees of the Wouvermanns and
Teniers, the Guidos and Rubens, the Vandykes
and Murillos, which decorated the rooms at
Downing Street and Chelsea and Richmond.
From the few records which remain of prices,
it would seem that, in addition to the merit of
authenticity, many of the pictures must have had
the attraction of being ' bargains.' In days
when ;£4,ooo or ;^^,ooo is no extravagant price
to be given for an old master, it is instructive to
read that £'/"')0 was the largest sum ever given
by Lord Orford for any one picture, and Walpole
himself quotes this amount as ^(y'yO. For four
great Snyders, which Vertue bought for him, he
only paid ;^428, and for a portrait of Clement
IX. by Carlo Maratti no more than ;^200.
Many of the other pictures in his gallery cost
him still less, being donations — no doubt some-
times in gratitude for favours to come — from
his friends and adherents. The Earl of Pem-
broke, Lord Waldegrave, the Duke of Mon-
tagu, Lord Tyrawley, were among these. But,
upon the whole, the collection was gathered
mainly from galleries like the Zambecari at
Bologna, the Arnaldi Palace at Florence, the
Pallavicini at Rome, and from the stores of
noble collectors in England.
A Memoir. 71
In 1743, the majority of these had apparently
been concentrated at Houghton, where there
was special accommodation for them. ' My
Lord/ says Horace, groaning over a fresh visit
to Norfolk, ^ has pressed me so much that I
could not with decency refuse : he is going to
furnish and hang his picture-gallery, and wants
me.' But it is impossible to believe that he
really objected to a duty so congenial to his
tastes. In fact, he was really greatly interested
in it. His letters contain frequent references
to a new Domenichino, a Virgin and Child,
which Mann is sending from Florence, and he
comes up to London to meet this and other
pictures, and is not seriously inconsolable to
find that owing to the quarantine for the plague
on the Continent, he is detained for some days
in town. One of the best evidences of his
solicitude in connection with the arrangements
of the Houghton collection is, however, the
discourse which he wrote in the summer of
1742, under the title of a Sermon on Painting,
and which he himself tells us was actually
preached by the Earl's chaplain in the gallery,
and afterwards repeated at Stanno, his elder
brother's house. The text was taken from
Psalm CXV. : ' They have Mouths, but they
speak not : Eyes have they, but they see not :
^2 Horace IValpole :
neither is there any Breath in their Nostrils ; ' and
the writer, illustrating his theme by reference to
the pictures around his audience in the gallery,
or dispersed through the building, manages to
eulogize the painter's art with considerable skill.
He touches upon the pernicious effect which
the closely realized representation of popish
miracles must have upon the illiterate spectator,
and points out how much more commendable
and serviceable is the portraiture of benignity,
piety, and chastity, — how much more instruc-
tive the incidents of the Passion, where every
• touch of the pencil is a lesson of contrition,
each figure an apostle to call you to repentance.'
He lays stress, as Lessing and other writers
have done, on the universal language of the
brush, and indicates its abuse when restricted
to the reproduction of inquisitors, visionaries,
imaginary hermits, ' consecrated gluttons,' or
' noted concubines,' after which (as becomes
his father's son) he does not fail to disclose its
more fitting vocation, to perpetuate the likeness
of William the Deliverer, and the benign, the
honest house of Hanover. The Dircs and La-
:{arus of Veronese and the Prodigal Son of
Salvator Rosa, both on the walls, are pressed
into his service, and the famous Usurers of
Quentin Matsys also prompt their parable.
A Memoir. 73
Then, after adroitly dwelling upon the pictorial
honours lavished upon mere asceticism to the
prejudice of real heroes, taking Poussin's pic-
ture of Moses Striking the Rock for his text, he
winds into what was probably the ultimate pur-
pose of his discourse, a neatly veiled panegyric
of Sir Robert Walpole under guise of the great
lawgiver of the Israelites, which may be cited as
a favourable sample of this curious oration :
' But it is not necessary to dive into profane
history for examples of unregarded merit ; the
Scriptures themselves contain instances of the
greatest patriots, who lie neglected, while new-
fashioned bigots or noisy incendiaries are the
reigning objects of public veneration. See the
great Moses himself, — the lawgiver, the de-
fender, the preserver of Israel I Peevish orators
are more run after, and artful Jesuits more popu-
lar. Examine but the life of that slighted patriot,
how boldly in his youth he understood the
cause of liberty ! Unknown, without interest,
he stood against the face of Pharaoh ! He
saved his countrymen from the hand of tyranny,
and from the dominion of an idolatrous king.
How patiently did he bear for a series of years
the clamours and cabals of a factious people,
wandering after strange lusts, and exasperated
by ambitious ringleaders I How oft did he
74 Horace IValpole :
intercede for their pardon, when injured him-
self I How tenderly deny them specious favours,
which he knew must turn to their own destruc-
tion ! See him lead them through opposition,
through plots, through enemies, to the enjoy-
ment of peace, and to the possession of a land
flowing with milk and hone/. Or with more
surprise see him in the barren desert, where
sands and wilds overspread the dreary scene,
where no hopes of moisture, no prospect of
undiscovered springs, could flatter their parching
thirst ; see how with a miraculous hand —
* " He struck the rock, and straight the waters flowed." '
Whoever denies his praises to such evidences
of merit, or with jealous look can scowl on such
benefits, is like the senseless idol, that has a
moidh that speaks not, and eyes that cannot
sec/
If, in accordance with some perverse fashion
of the day, the foregoing production had not
been disguised as a sermon, and actually preached
with the orthodox accompaniment of bands and
doxology, there is no reason why it should not
have been regarded as a harmless and not unac-
complished essay on Art. But the objectionable
spirit of parody upon the ritual, engendered by
the strife between ' high ' and ' low ' (Walpole
A Memoir. 75
himself wrote some Lessons for the Day, 1742,
which are to be found in the works of Sir
Charles Hanbury Williams), seems to have dic-
tated the title of what in other respects is a
serious Spectator, and needed no spice of irrev-
erence to render it palatable. The Sermon had,
however, one valuable result, namely, that it
suggested to its author the expediency of pre-
paring some record of the pictorial riches of
Houghton upon the model of the famous y^des
Barberini and GiustinianiV. As the dedication
of the yEdes Walpoliance is dated 24 August,
1 743 , it must have been written before that date ;
but it was not actually published until 1747, and
then only to give away. Another enlarged and
more accurate edition was issued in 17^2, and it
was finally reprinted in the second volume of the
Works of 1798, pp. 221-78, where it is followed
by the Sermon on Painting. Professing to be
more a catalogue of the pictures than a descrip-
tion of them, it nevertheless gives a good idea
of a collection which (as its historian says) both
in its extent and the condition of its treasures
excelled most of the existing collections of Italy.
In an ' Introduction/ the characteristics of the
various artists are distinguished with much
discrimination, although it is naturally more
sympathetic than critical. Perhaps one of its
yG Horace Walpole :
happiest pages is the following excursus upon
a poem of Prior : ' I cannot conclude this topic
of the ancient painters without taking notice of
an extreme pretty instance of Prior's taste, and
which may make an example on that frequent
subject, the resemblance between poetry and
painting, and prove that taste in the one will
influence in the other. Everybody has read his
tale of Protogenes and Apelles. If they have
read the story in Pliny they will recollect that
by the latter's account it seemed to have been
a trial between two Dutch performers. The
Roman author tells you that when Apelles was
to write his name on a board, to let Protogenes
know who had been to inquire for him, he drew
an exactly straight and slender line. Protogenes
returned, and with his pencil and another colour,
divided his competitor's. Apelles, on seeing
the ingenious minuteness of the Rhodian master,
took a third colour, and laid on a still finer and
indivisible line. But the English poet, who
could distinguish the emulation of genius from
nice experiments about splitting hairs, took the
story into his own hands, and in a less number
of trials, and with bolder execution, compre-
hended the whole force of painting, and flung
drawing, colouring, and the doctrine of light
and shade into the noble contention of those two
A Memoir. 77
absolute masters. In Prior, the first wrote his
name in a perfect design, and
* " with one judicious stroke
On the plain ground Apelles drew
A circle regularly true." '
Protogenes knew the hand, and showed Apelles
that his own knowledge of colouring was as
great as the other's skill in drawing.
* " Upon the happy line he laid
Such obvious light and easy shade
That Paris' apple stood confest,
Or Leda's egg, or Chloe's breast." ' ^
Apelles acknowledged his rival's merit, without
jealously persisting to refine on the masterly
reply : —
*" Pugnavere pares, succubuere pares" ' ^
Among the other efforts of his pen at this
time were some squibs in ridicule of the new
^ Mr. Vertue the engraver made a very ingenious con-
jecture on this story, he supposes that Apelles did not
draw a straight line, but the outline of a human figure,
which not being correct, Protogenes drew a more correct
figure within his ; but that still not being perfect, Apelles
drew a smaller and exactly proportioned one within both
the former. — WalpoWs note.
2 Walpole's Works, 1798, ii. 229-30. The final quota-
tion is from Martial.
yS Horace Walpole:
Ministry. One was a parody of a scene in
Macbeth ; the other of a scene in Corneille's
Cinna. He also wrote a paper against Lord
Bath in the Old England Journal.
In the not very perplexed web of Horace
Walpole's life, the next occurrence of impor-
tance is his father's death. When, as Sir Robert
Walpole, he had ceased to be Prime Minister,
he was sixty-five years of age ; and though
his equanimity and wonderful constitution still
seemed to befriend him, he had personally little
desire, even if the ways had been open, to
recover his ancient power- ' I believe nothing
could prevail on him to return to the Treasury,'
writes his son to Mann in 1743. ' He says
he will keep the 12th of February — the day
he resigned — with his family as long as he
lives.' He continued, nevertheless, to assist
his old master with his counsel, and more than
one step of importance by which the King
startled his new Ministry owed its origin to
a confidential consultation with Lord Orford.
When, in January, 1744, the old question of
discontinuing the Hanoverian troops was revived
with more than ordinary insistence, it was
through Lord Orford's timely exertions, and his
personal credit with his friends, that the motion
was defeated by an overwhelming majority. On
Sir Robert IValpoIe,
UNITEBSITl
A Memoir. 79
the other hand, a further attempt to harass him
by another Committee of Secret Inquiry was
wholly unsuccessful, and signs were not wanting
that his old prestige had by no means departed.
Towards the close of 1744, however, his son
begins to chronicle a definite decline in his
health. He is evidently suffering seriously from
stone, and is forbidden to take the least exer-
cise by the King's serjeant-surgeon, that famous
Mr. Ranby who was the friend of Hogarth and
Fielding.^ In January of the next year, he is
trying a famous specific for his complaint, Mrs.
Stephens's medicine. Six weeks later, he has
been alarmingly ill for about a month ; and
although reckoned out of absolute danger, is
hardly ever conscious more than four hours out
of the four-and-twenty,from the powerful opiates
he takes in order to deaden pain. A month later,
on the i8th March, 174^, he died at Arlington
Street, in his sixty-ninth year. At first his son
dares scarcely speak of his loss, but a fortnight
afterwards he writes more fully. After showing
that the state of his circumstances proved how
little truth there had been in the charges of self-
enrichment made against him, Walpole goes on
to say : ' It is certain, he is dead very poor :
1 Ranby wrote a Narrative of the last Illness of the Earl
of Orfordy 1745, which provoked much controversy.
8o Horace Walpole :
his debts, with his legacies, which are trifling,
amount to fifty thousand pounds. His estate,
a nominal eight thousand a year, much mort-
gaged. In short, his fondness for Houghton has
endangered him. If he had not so overdone it,
he might have left such an estate to his family as
might have secured the glory of the place for
many years : another such debt must expose it to
sale. If he had lived, his unbounded generosity
and contempt of money would have run him into
vast difficulties. However irreparable his per-
sonal loss may be to his friends, he certainly did
critically well for himself: he had lived to stand
the rudest trials with honour, to see his character
universally cleared, his enemies brought to
infamy for their ignorance or villainy, and the
world allowing him to be the only man in
England fit to be what he had been ; and he
died at a time when his age and infirmities
prevented his again undertaking the support of
a government, which engrossed his whole care,
and which he foresaw was falling into the last
confusion. In this I hope his Judgment failed I
His fortune attended him to the last, for he died
of the most painful of all distempers, ^^•ith little
or no pain.' ^
From the Short Notes we learn further :
1 Wa/J^ole to MiVin, 15 April, 1745.
A Memoir. 8i
' He [my father] left me the house in Arling-
ton-street in which he died, ;^)000 in money,
and ;^iooo a year from the Collector's place
in the Custom-house, and the surplus to be
divided between my brother Edward and me/
82 Horace Walpole :
CHAPTER IV.
stage-gossip and Small-talk. — Ranelagh Gardens. — Fontenoy
and Leicester House. — Echoes of the '45. — Preston Pans, —
Culloden. — Trial of the Rebel Lords. — Deaths of Kilmar-
nock and Balmerino. — Epilogue to Tamerlane. — Walpole
and his Relatives. — Lady Orford — Literary Efforts. — The
Beauties. — Takes a House at Windsor.
"pvURING the period between Walpole's
-'-^ return to England and the death of Lord
Orford, his letters, addressed almost exclusively
to Mann, are largely occupied with the occur-
rences which accompanied and succeeded his
father's downfall. To Lord Orford's proUgi
and relative these particulars were naturally of
the first importance, and Walpole's function of
' General Intelligencer ' fell proportionately into
the background. Still, there are occasional refer-
ences to current events of a merely social
character. After the Secret Committee, he is
interested (probably because his friend Conway
was pecuniarily interested) in the Opera, and
the reception by the British public of the
Viscontina, Amorevoli, and the other Italian
singers whom he had known abroad. Of the
A Memoir. 83
stage he says comparatively little, dismissing
poor Mrs. Woflfington, who had then just made
her appearance at Covent Garden, as ' a bad
actress,' who, nevertheless, 'has life,' — an
opinion in which he is supported by Conway,
who calls her ' an impudent, Irish-faced girl.'
In the acting of Garrick, after whom all the
town is (as Gray writes) ' horn-mad ' in May,
1742, he sees nothing wonderful, although he
admits that it is heresy to say so, since that
infallible stage critic, the Duke of Argyll, has
declared him superior to Betterton. But he
praises ' a little simple farce " at Drury Lane,
Mhs Lucy in Town, by Henry Fielding, in
which his future friend, Mrs. Clive, and Beard
mimic Amorevoli and the Muscovita. The
same letter contains a reference to another
famous stage-queen, now nearing eighty, Anne
Bracegirdle, who should have had the money
that Congreve left to Henrietta, Duchess of
Marlborough. 'Tell Mr. Chute [he says] that
his friend Bracegirdle breakfasted with me this
morning. As she went out, and wanted her
clogs, she turned to me, and said, " I remember
at the playhouse, they used to call, Mrs.
Oldfield's chair 1 Mrs. Barry's clogs I and
Mrs. Bracegirdle's pattens!"'-^ One pictures
1 JValJ>oIe to Mann, 26 May, 1742.
84 Horace Walpole :
a handsome old lady, a little bent, and leaning
on a crutch stick as she delivers this parting
utterance at the door.^
Among the occurrences of 1742 which find
fitting record in the correspondence, is the
opening of that formidable rival to Vauxhall,
Ranelagh Gardens. All through the spring the
great Rotunda, with its encircling tiers of galle-
ries and supper-boxes, — the coup deceit of which
Johnson thought was the finest thing he had
ever seen, — had been rising slowly at the side
of Chelsea Hospital. In April it was practi-
cally completed, and almost ready for visitors.
Walpole, of course, breakfasts there, like the
rest of the beau monde. ' The building is not
finished [he says], but they get great sums by
people going to see it and breakfasting in the
1 According to Pinkerton, another anecdote connects
Mrs. Bracegirdle with the Walpoles. * Mr. Shorter, my
mother's father [he makes Horace say], was walking
down Norfolk Street in the Strand, to his house there,
just before poor Mountfort the player was killed in that
street, by assassins hired by Lord Mohun. This nobleman,
lying in wait for his prey, came up and embraced Mr.
Shorter by mistake, saying, ' Dear Mountfort ! ' It was
fortunate that he was instantly undeceived, for Mr. Shorter
had hardly reached his house before the murder took
place ' {IViilpoliana, ii. 96). Mountfort, it will be remem-
bered, owed his death to Mrs. Bracegirdle's liking for
him.
A Memoir. 85
house ; there were yesterday no less than three
hundred and eighty persons, at eighteenpence
a-piece. You see how poor we are. when, with
a tax of four shillings in the pound, we are lay-
ing out such sums for cakes and ale.' ^ A week
or two later comes the formal inauguration.
' Two nights ago [May 24] Ranelagh-gardens
were opened at Chelsea ; the Prince, Princess,
Duke, much nobility, and much mob besides,
were there. There is a vast amphitheatre, finely
gilt, painted, and illuminated, into which every-
body that loves eating, drinking, staring, or
crowding, is admitted for twelvepence. The
building and disposition of the gardens cost
sixteen thousand pounds. Twice a week there
are to be Ridottos at guinea-tickets, for w^hich
you are to have a supper and music. I w^as
there last night [May 2)1, ' — the writer adds, —
• but did not find the joy of it,' ^ and, at present,
he prefers Vauxhall, because of the approach by
water, that ' trajet du flcuve fatal,' — as it is
styled in the Vauxhall de Londres which a
French poet dedicated in 1769 to M. de
Fontenelle. He seems, however, to have taken
Lord Orford to Ranelagh, and he records in
July that they walked with a train at their heels
1 IValpole to Mann, 22 April, 1742.
2 Walpolc to Mann, 26 May, 1742.
86 Horace Walpole:
like two chairmen going to fight, — from which
he argues a return of his father's popularity.
Two years later Fashion has declared itself on
the side of the new garden, and Walpole has
gone over to the side of Fashion. ' Every night
constantly [he tells Conway] I go to Ranelagh ;
which has totally beat Vauxhall. Nobody goes
anywhere else, — everybody goes there. My
Lord Chesterfield is so fond of it that he says
he has ordered all his letters to be directed
thither. If you had never seen it, I would make
you a most pompous description of it, and tell
you how the floor is all of beaten princes ; that
you can 't set your foot without treading on
a Prince of Wales or Duke of Cumberland.
The company is universal : there is from his
Grace of Grafton down to children out of the
Foundling Hospital ; from my Lady Townshend
to the kitten ; from my Lord Sandys to your
humble cousin and sincere friend.' ^
After Lord Orford's death, the next landmark
in Horace Walpole's life is his removal to the
house at Twickenham, subsequently known as
Strawberry Hill. To a description of this his-
torical mansion the next chapter will be in part
devoted. In the mean time we may linger for
a moment upon the record which these letters
1 Walpole to Conway, 29 June, 1744.
A Memoir. Sy
contain of the famous '4). No better oppor-
tunity will probably occur of exhibiting Walpole
as the reporter of history in the process of
making. Much that he tells Mann and Mon-
tagu is no doubt little more than the skimming
of the last Gazette ; but he had always access to
trustworthy information, and is seldom a dull
reporter, even of newspaper news. Almost the
next letter to that in which he dwells at length
upon the loss of his father, records the disaster
of Tournay, or Fontenoy, in which, he tells
Mann, Mr. Conway has highly distinguished
himself, magnificently engaging — as appears
from a subsequent communication — no less than
two French Grenadiers at once. His account of
the battle is bare enough ; but what apparently
interests him most is the patriotic conduct of
the Prince of Wales, who made a chanson on
the occasion, after the fashion of the Regent
Orleans : —
* Venez, mes cheres Deesses,
Venez calmer mon chagrin ;
Aidez, mes belles Princesses,
A le noyer dans le vin.
Poussons cette douce Ivresse
Jusqu'au milieu de la nuit,
Et n'ecoutons que la tendresse
D'un charmant vis-a-vis.
88 Horace IValpole :
'Que m'importe que I'Europe
Ait un ou plusieurs tyrans ?
Prions seulement Calliope,
Qu'elle inspire nos vers, nos chants.
Laissons Mars et toute la gloire ;
Livrons nous tous a I'amour ;
Que Bacchus nous donne a boire;
A ces deux fasions [sic] la cour '
The goddesses addressed were Lady Cathe-
rine Hanmer, Lady Fauconberg, and Lady
Middlesex, who played Congreve's Judgment
of Paris at Leicester House, with his Royal
Highness as Paris, and Prince Lobkowitz for
Mercury. Walpole says of the song that it
' miscarried in nothing but the language, the
thoughts, and the poetry.' Yet he copies the
whole five verses, of which the above are two,
for Mann's delectation.
A more logical sequence to Fontenoy than
the lyric of Leicester House is the descent of
Charles Edward upon Scotland. In August
Walpole reports to Mann that there is a procla-
mation out ' for apprehending the Pretender's
son,' who had landed in July ; in September he
is marching on Edinburgh. Ten days later the
writer is speculating half ruefully upon the pos-
sibilities of being turned out of his comfortable
sinecures in favour of some forlorn Irish peer.
' I shall wonderfully dislike being a loyal suf-
A Memoir. 89
ferer in a threadbare coat, and shivering in an
ante-chamber at Hanover, or reduced to teach
Latin and English to the young princes at Co-
penhagen, The Dowager Strafford has already
written cards for my Lady Nithsdale, m.y Lady
Tullibardine, the Duchess of Perth and Berwick,
and twenty more revived peeresses, to invite
them to play at whisk, Monday three months ;
for your part, you will divert yourself with their
old taffeties, and tarnished slippers, and their
awkwardness, the first day they go to Court in
shifts and clean linen. Will you ever write to
me in my garret at Herrenhausen r " ^ Then
upon this come the contradictions of rumour, the
' general supineness,' the raising of regiments,
and the disaster of Preston Pans, with its inev-
itable condemnation of Cope. ' I pity poor him,
who, with no shining abilities, and no experience,
and no force, was sent to ficrht for a crown !
He never saw a battle but that of Dettingen,
where he got his red ribbon ; Churchill, whose
led-captain he was, and my Lord Harrington,
had pushed him up to this misfortune.^ We
1 IValpole to Monhis^ic, ly Sept., 1745.
2 Walpole later revised this verdict : * General Cope
was tried afterwards for his behaviour in this action, and
it appeared very clearly that the Ministry, his inferior
officers, and his troops, were greatly to blame ; and that
Charles EdwurJ, the Pretender.
IDKlVEBBIll
A Memoir. 91
it quite out. Once more, on the 23rd February,
it flares fitfully at Falkirk, and then fades as sud-
denly. The battle that Walpole hourly expects,
not without some trepidation, for Conway is
one of the Duke of Cumberland's aides-de-
camp, is still deferred, and it is April before the
two armies face each other on Culloden Moor.
Then he writes jubilantly to his Florentine cor-
respondent : ' On the i6th, the Duke, by
forced marches, came up with the rebels a little
on this side Inverness, — by the way, the battle
is not christened yet ; I only know that neither
Preston Pans nor Falkirk are to be god-fathers.
The rebels, who had fled from him after their
victory [of Falkirk], and durst not attack him,
when so much exposed to them at his passage
of the Spey, now stood him, they seven thou-
sand, he ten. They broke through Barril's
res^iment and killed Lord Robert Kerr, a hand-
some young gentleman, who was cut to pieces
with about thirty wounds ; but they were soon
repulsed, and fled ; the whole engagement not
lasting above a quarter of an hour. The young
Pretender escaped, Mr. Conway says, he
hears, wounded : he certainly was in the rear.
They have lost above a thousand men in the
engagement and pursuit ; and six hundred were
already taken ; among which latter are their
94 Horace IValpole :
but the first appearance of the prisoners shocked
me I their behaviour melted me.' After going
on to speak of Lord Kilmarnock and Lord
Cromartie (afterwards reprieved), he continues :
' For Lord Balmerino, he is the most natural
brave old fellow I ever saw : the highest intre-
pidity, even to indifference. At the bar he
behaved like a soldier and a man ; in the inter-
vals of form, with carelessness and humour.
He pressed extremely to have his wife, his
pretty Peggy [Margaret Chalmers], with him in
the Tower, Lady Cromartie only sees her
husband through the grate, not choosing to be
shut up with him, as she thinks she can serve
him better by her intercession without : she is
big with child and very handsome : so are their
daughters. When they were to be brought from
the Tower in separate coaches, there was some
dispute in which the axe must go: old Bal-
merino cried, ' Come, come, put it with me.'
At the bar he plays with his fingers upon the
axe, while he talks to the gentleman-gaoler ;
and one day somebody coming up to listen, he
took the blade and held it like a fan between
their faces. During the trial, a little boy was
near him, but not tall enough to see ; he made
room for the child, and placed him near himself.' ^
1 Walpole to Mann, I Aug., 1746.
A Memoir. 95
Balmerino's gallant demeanour evidently fas-
cinated Walpole. In his next letter he relates
how on his way back to the Tower the sturdy
old dragoon had stopped the coach at Charing
Cross to buy some 'honey-blobs' (gooseber-
ries) ; and when afterwards he comes to write
his account of the execution, although he tells
the story of Kilmarnock's death with feeling,
the best passage is given to his companion in
misfortune. He describes how, on the fatal
1 3th August, before he left theTower, Balmerino
drank a bumper to King James ; how he wore
his rebellious regimentals (blue and red) over a
flannel waistcoat and his shroud ; how, embrac-
ing Lord Kilmarnock, he said, ' My Lord, I
wish I could suffer for both.' Then followed
the beheading of Kilmarnock; and the nar-
rator goes on : ' The scaffold was immediately
new-strewed with sawdust, the block new cov-
ered, the executioner new-dressed, and a new
axe brought. Then came old Balmerino, tread-
ing with the air of a general. As soon as he
mounted the scaffold, he read the inscription on
his coffin, as he did again afterwards : he then
surveyed the spectators, who were in amazing
numbers, even upon masts upon ships in the
river ; and pulling out his spectacles, read a
treasonable speech, which he delivered to the
96 Horace Walpole :
Sheriff, and said, the young Pretender was so
sweet a Prince that flesh and blood could not
resist following him ; and lying down to try the
block, he said, ' If I had a thousand lives, I
would lay them all down here in the same
cause.' He said if he had not taken the sacra-
ment the day before, he would have knocked
down Williamson, the Lieutenant of the Tower,
for his ill-usage of him. He took the axe and
felt it, and asked the headsman how many blows
he had given Lord Kilmarnock ; and gave him
three guineas. Two clergymen, who attended
him, coming up, he said, ' No, gentlemen, I
believe you have already done me all the service
you can.' Then he went to the corner of the
scafl'old, and called very loud for the warder, to
give him his perriwig, which he took off, and
put on a night-cap of Scotch plaid, and then
pulled off his coat and waistcoat and lay down ;
but being told he was on the wrong side, vaulted
round, and immediately gave the sign by tossing
up his arm, as if he were giving the signal for
battle. He received three blows; but the first
certainly took away all sensation. He was not
a quarter of an hour on the scafl'old ; Lord
Kilmarnock above half a one. Balmerino cer-
tainly died with the intrepidity of a hero, but
the insensibility of one too. As he walked from
A Memoir. 97
his prison to execution, seeing every window
and top of house filled with spectators, he cried
out, " Look, look, how they are all piled up
like rotten oranges.'"^
In the old print of the execution, the scaffold
on Tower Hill is shown surrounded by a wide
square of dragoons, beyond which the crowd —
' the immense display of human countenances
which surrounded it like a sea,' as Scott has it
— are visible on every side. No. 14 Tower
Hill is said to have been the house from which
the two lords were led to the block, and a trail
of blood along the hall and up the first flight of
stairs was long shown as indicating the route by
which the mutilated bodies were borne to await
interment in St. Peter's Chapel. A few months
later Walpole records the execution in the same
place of Simon Fraser. Lord Lovat, the cunning
old Jacobite, whose characteristic attitude and
1 Walpole to Maim, 21 August, 1746. Gray, who was
at the trial, also mentions Balmerino, not so enthusiasti-
cally. * He is an old soldier-like man, of a vulgar manner
and aspect, speaks the broadest Scotch, and shews an
intrepidity, that some ascribe to real courage, and some
to brandy ' {Letter to Wharton, August). ' Old Balmerino,
when he had read his paper to the people, pulled off his
spectacles, spit upon his handkerchief, and wiped them
clean for the use of his posterity ; and that is the last page
of his history' {Letter to Wharton, il Sept., 1746).
7
98 Horace Walpole :
' pawky ' expression live for ever in the admir-
able sketch which Hogarth made of him at St.
Albans. He died (says Walpole) ' extremely
well, without passion, affectation, buffoonery,
or timidity.' But he is not so distinguished as
either Kilmarnock or Balmerino, and, however
Roman his taking-off, the chief memorable thing
about it is, that it was happily the last of these
sanguinary scenes in this country. The only
other incident which it is here needful to chron-
icle in connection with the ' Forty Five ' is
Walpole's verses on the Suppression of the late
Rebellion. On the 4th and ^th November, the
anniversaries of King William's birth and land-
ing, it was the custom to play Rowe's Tamer-
lane, and this year (1746) the epilogue spoken
by Mrs. Pritchard ' in the Character of the
Comic Muse ' was from Walpole's pen. Accord-
ing to the writer, special terrors had threatened
the stage from the advent of ' Rome's young mis-
sionary spark,' the Chevalier, and the Tragic
Muse, raising, ' to eyes well-tutor'd in the trade
of grief,' *a small and well-lac'd handkerchief,'
is represented by her lighter sister as bewailing
the prospect to her ' buskined progeny ' after
this fashion : —
' Ah ! sons, our dawn is over-cast ; and all
Theatric glories nodding to their fall.
A Memoir. 99
From foreign realms a bloody chief is come,
Big with the work of slav'ry and of Rome.
A general ruin on his sword he wears,
Fatal alike to audience and to play'rs.
For ah ! my sons, what freedom for the stage
When bigotry with sense shall battle wage?
When monkish laureats only wear the bays,
Inquisitors lord chamberlains of plays ?
Plays shall be damn'd that 'scap'd the critic's rage.
For priests are still worse tyrants to the stage.
Cato, receiv'd by audiences so gracious,
Shall find ten Caesars in one St. Ignatius,
And god-like Brutus here shall meet again
His evil genius in a capuchin.
For heresy the fav'rites of the pit
Must burn, and excommunicated wit ;
And at one stake, we shall behold expire
My Anna Bullen, and the Spanish Fryar.' ^
After this the epilogue digresses into a com-
parison of the Duke of Cumberland with King
William. Virgil, Juvenal, Addison. Dryden,
and Pope, upon one of whose lines on Gibber
Walpole bases his reference to the Lord Cham-
berlain, are all laid under contribution in this
performance. It ' succeeded to flatter me,' he
tells Mann a few days later, — a Gallicism from
which we must infer an enthusiastic reception.
Walpole's personal and domestic history does
not present much interest at this period. His
1 Walpole's Works, 179S, i. 25-7.
100 Horace Walpole :
sister Mary (Catherine Shorter's daughter), who
had married the third Earl of Cholmondeley,
had died long before her mother. In February,
1746, his half-sister, Lady Mary, his playmate
at comet in the Houghton days, married Mr.
Churchill, — ' a foolish match,' in Horace's
opinion, to which he will have nothing to say.
With his second brother, Sir Edward Walpole,
he seems to have had but little intercourse, and
that scarcely of a fraternal character. In 18^7,
Cunningham published for the first time a very
angry letter from Edward to his junior, in which
the latter was bitterly reproached for his inter-
ference in disposing of the family borough of
Castle Rising, and (incidentally) for his assump-
tion of superiority, mental and otherwise. To
this communication Walpole prepared a most
caustic and categorical answer, which, how-
ever, he never sent. For his nieces, Edward
Walpole's natural daughters, of whom it will be
more convenient to speak later, Horace seems
always to have felt a sincere regard. But
although his brother had tastes which must have
been akin to his own, for Edward Walpole was
in his way an art patron (Roubillac the sculptor,
for instance, was much indebted to him) and a
respectable musician, no real cordiality ever
existed between them. ' There is nothing in
A Memoir. loi
the world' — he tells Montagu in May, 1745 —
' the Baron of Englefield has such an aversion
for as for his brother.'^
For his eldest brother's wife, the Lady
Walpole who had formed one of the learned
trio at Florence, he entertained no kind of
respect, and his letters are full of flouts at her
Ladyship's manners and morality. Indeed,
between priciosiU and ' Platonic love,' her
life does not appear to have been a particularly
worshipful one, and her long sojourn under
Italian skies had not improved her. At present
she was Lady Orford, her husband, who is sel-
dom mentioned, and from whom she had been
living apart, having succeeded to the title at his
father's death. From Walpole's letters to Mann,
it seems that in April, 1745, she was, much to
the dismay of her relatives, already preening
her wings for England. In September, she has
arrived, and Walpole is maliciously delighted at
the cold welcome she obtains from the Court
and from society in general, with the exception
of her old colleague, Lady Pomfret, and that
in one sense congenial spirit. Lady Townshend.
Later on, a definite separation from her hus-
1 Englefield, /. e. Englefield Green, in Berkshire, on the
summit of Cooper's Hill, near Windsor, where Edward
Walpole lived.
1 02 Horace Walpole :
band appears to have been agreed upon, which
Walpole fondly hopes may have the effect of
bringing about her departure for Italy. -The
Ladies 0[rford] and T[ovvnshend] ' — he says
— ' have exhausted scandal both in their per-
sons and conversations.' However much this
may be exaggerated (and Walpole never spares
his antipathies), the last we hear of Lady
Orford is certainly on his side, for she has
retired from town to a villa near Richmond with
a lover for whom she has postponed that
southward flight which her family so ardently
desired. This fortunate Endymion, the Hon.
Sewallis Shirley, son of Robert, first Earl
Ferrers, had already been one of the most
favoured lovers of the notorious ' lady of quality '
whose memoirs were afterwards foisted into
Peregrine Pickle. To Lady Vane now suc-
ceeded Lady Orford, as eminent for wealth —
says sarcastic Lady Mary Wortley Montagu — as
her predecessor had been for beauty, and equal
in her ' heroic contempt for shame.' This new
connection was destined to endure. It was in
September, 1746, that Walpole chronicled his
sister-in-law's latest frailty, and in May, 17^1,
only a few weeks after her husband's death, ^
1 Robert Walpole, second Earl of Orford, Horace
Walpole's eldest brother, died in March, 1751.
A Memoir. 103
she married Shirley at the Rev. Alexander
Keith's convenient * little chapel in May Fair.'
In 1744, died Alexander Pope, to be fol-
lowed a year later by the great Dean of St.
Patrick's. Neither of these events leaves any
lasting mark in Walpole's correspondence, —
indeed of Swift's death there is no mention at
all. A nearer bereavement was the premature
loss of West, which had taken place two years
before, closing sorrowfully with faint accom-
plishment a life of promise. YaU, et pipe paulis-
per cum vivis, — he had written a few days earlier
to Gray, — his friend to the last. With Gray,
Walpole's friendship, as will be seen presently,
had been resumed. His own literary essays
still lie chiefly in the domain of squib and jeii
d^ esprit. In April, 1746, over the appropriate
signature of ' Descartes,' he printed in No. 1 1, of
The Museum a ' Scheme for Raising a Large Sum
of Money for the Use of the Government,
by laying a tax on Message-Cards and Notes,'
and in No. V. a pretended Advertisement and
Table of Contents for a Hlslory of Good Breed-
ing, from the Creation of the World, by the
Author of the Whole Duty of Man. The wit
of this is a little laboured, and scarcely goes
beyond the announcement that ' The Eight last
Volumes, which relate to German/, may be had
104 Horace IValpole :
separate ; ' nor does that of the other exceed a
mild reflection of Fielding's manner in some of
his minor pieces. Among other things, we
gather that it was the custom of the fine ladies
of the day to send open messages on blank play-
ing-cards ; and it is stated as a fact or a fancy
that ' after the fatal day of Fontenoy,' persons
of quality ' all wrote their notes on Indian paper,
which, being red, when inscribed with Japan ink
made a melancholy military kind of elegy on the
brave youths who occasioned the fashion, and
were often the honourable subject of the epistle.'
The only remaining effort of any importance at
this time is the little poem of The Beauties,
somewhat recalling Gay's Prologue to the
Shepherd's Week, and written in July, 1746^ to
Eckardt the painter. Here is a specimen : —
In smiling Capel's bounteous look
Rich autumn's goddess is mistook.
With poppies and with spiky corn,
Eckardt, her nut-brown curls adorn ;
And by her side, in decent line,
Place charming Berkeley, Proserpine.
Mild as a summer sea, serene,
In dimpled beauty next be seen
Aylesb'ry, like hoary Neptune's queen.
With her the light-dispensing fair,
Whose beauty gilds the morning air,
A Memoir. 105
And bright as her attendant sun,
The new Aurora, Lyttelton.
Such Guide's pencil, beauty-tip'd,
And in ethereal colours dip'd,
In measur'd dance to tuneful song
Drew the sweet goddess, as along
Heaven's azure ' neath their light feet spread,
The buxom hours the fairest led.' ^
' Charming Berkeley,' here mentioned, after-
wards became the third wife of Goldsmith's
friend, Earl Nugent, and the mother of the little
girl who played tricks upon the author of She
Sloops to Conquer at her father's country seat
of Gosfield ; ' AylesbVy, like hoary Neptune's
queen,' married Walpole's friend, Conway, and
' the new Aurora, Lyttelton,' was that engaging
Lucy Fortescue upon whose death in 1747 her
husband wrote the monody so pitilessly parodied
by Smollett.^ Lady Almeria Carpenter, Lady
Emily Lenox, Miss Chudleigh (afterwards the
notorious Duchess of Kingston), and many
other well-known names, quos nunc perscribere
longum est, are also celebrated.
1 Walpole's IVorks, 1798, i. 21-2.
2 Writing to Wal})ole in March, 1751, Gray says: ' Tn
the last volume [of Peregrine Fickle] is a character of Mr.
Lyttleton [sic], under the name of " Gosling Scrag," and a
parody of part of his Monody, under the notion of a Pas-
toral on the death of his grandmother ' ( Works by Gosse,
1884, ii- 214).
io6 Horace JValpole :
In August, 1746, Walpole announces to Mann
that he has taken a pretty house within the pre-
cincts of the castle at Windsor, to which he is
going for the remainder of the summer. In
September he has entered upon residence, for
Gray tells Wharton that he sees him ' usually
once a week/ ' All is mighty free, and even
friendly more than one could expect,' — and
one of the first things posted off to Conway, is
Gray's Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton Col-
lege, which the sender desires he ' will please
to like excessively.' He is drawn from his
retreat by the arrival of a young Florentine
friend, the Marquis Rinuncini, to whom he has
to do the London honours. ' I stayed literally
an entire week with him, carried him to see
palaces and Richmond gardens and park, and
Chenevix's shop, and talked a great deal to him
alle conuersa^ioni^ ' Chenevix's shop ' suggests
the main subject of the next chapter, — the pur-
chase and occupation of Strawberry Hill.
^ lValJ>ole to Mann, 1 5 Sept., 1 746.
A Memoir, 107
CHAPTER V.
The New House at Twickenham. — Its First Tenants. — Chris-
tened ' Strawberry Hill.' — Planting and Embellishing. —
Fresh Additions. — Walpole's Description of it in 1753. —
Visitors and Admirers. — Lord Bath's Verses. — Some Rival
Mansions. — Minor Literature. — Robbed by James Maclean.
— Sequel from The World. — The Maclean Mania. — High
Life at Vauxhall. — Contributions to The World. —
Theodore of Corsica. — Reconciliation with Gray. — Stimu-
lates his Works. — The Po'eviata-Grayo-Bentleiana. —
Richard Bentley. — Miintz the Artist. — Dwellers at Twick-
enham. — Lady Suffolk and Mrs. Clive.
r\^ the )th of June, 1747, Walpole announces
^-^ to Mann that he has taken a little new
farm, just out of Twickenham. ' The house is
so small that I can send it to you in a letter to
look at : the prospect is as delightful as possible,
commanding the river, the town [Twickenham],
and Richmond Park ; and, being situated on a
hill, descends to the Thames through two or
three little meadows, where I have some Turkish
sheep and two cows, all studied in their colours
for becoming the view. This little rural h\]Oii
was Mrs. Chenevix's, the toy woman d la mode,^
1 She was the sister of Pope's Mrs. Bertrand, an equally
fashionable toy-woman at Bath. Her shop, according to
io8 Horace Walpole :
who in every dry season is to furnish me with
the best rain water from Paris, and now and
then with some Dresden-china cows, who are
to figure like wooden classics in a library ; so I
shall grow as much a shepherd as any swain in
the Astraea.' Three days later, further details
are added in a letter to Conway, then in
Flanders with the Duke of Cumberland :
' You perceive by my date [Twickenham, 8
June] that I am got into a new camp, and have
left my tub at Windsor. It is a little play-thing-
house, that I got out of Mrs. Chenevix's shop,
and is the prettiest bauble you ever saw. It is
set in enamelled meadows, with filagree hedges :
*" A small Euphrates through the piece is roll'd,
And little finches wave their wings in gold." '^
an advertisement in the Daily Journal for May 24, 1733,
was then 'against Suffolk Street, Charing Cross' It is
mentioned in Fielding's Amelia. When, in Bk. viii , ch. i.,
Mr. Bondum the bailiff contrives to capture Captain
Booth, it is by a false report that his Lady has been ' taken
violently ill, and carried into Mrs. C/ieiu"i<ix's Toy-shop.'
It is also mentioned in the Hon. Mrs. Osborne's Litters,
1891, p. 73; and again by Walpole himself in the World
for 19 Dec, 1754.
1 This is slightly varied from 11. 29, 30, of Pope's fifth
Moral Essay ('To Mr. Addison : Occasioned by his Dia-
logues on Medals ').
A Memoir. 109
'Two delightful roads, that you would call
dusty, supply me continually with coaches and
chaises ; barges as solemn as Barons of the
Exchequer move under my window ; Richmond
Hill and Ham Walks bound my prospect ; . . .
Dowagers as plenty as flounders inhabit all
around, and Pope's ghost is just now skimming
under my w^indow by a most poetical moon-
light. ! have about land enough to keep such
a farm as Noah's, when he set up in the ark
with a pair of each kind ; but my cottage is
rather cleaner than I believe his was after they
had been cooped up together forty days. The
Chenevixes had tricked it out for themselves :
up two pair of stairs is what they call Mr.
Chenevix's library, furnished with three maps,
one shelf, a bust of Sir Isaac Newton, and a
lame telescope without any glasses. Lord John
Sackville prcdcccssed me here, and instituted
certain games called crickctalia, which have
been celebrated this very evening in honour of
him in a neighbouring meadow.' ^
The house thus whimsically described, which
grew into the Gothic structure afterwards so
closely associated with its owner's name, was
not, even at this date, without its history. It
stood on the left bank of the Thames, at the
1 WaIf>ole to Conway, 8 June, 1747.
no Horace JValpole :
corner of the Upper Road to Teddington, not
very far from Twickenham itself. It had been
built about 1698 as a 'country box' by a
retired coachman of the Earl of Bradford, and,
from the fact that he was supposed to have
acquired his means by starving his master's
horses, was known popularly as Chopped-Straw
Hall. Its earliest possessor not long after-
wards let it out as a lodging-house, and finally,
after several improvements, sub-let it altogether.
One of its first tenants was Colley Gibber, who
found it convenient when he was in attendance
for acting at Hampton Court ; and he is said
to have written in it the comedy called The
Refusal; or, the Ladies' Philosophy, produced
at Drury Lane in 1721. Then, for eight years,
it was rented by the Bishop of Durham, Dr.
Talbot, who was reported to have kept in it a
better table than the extent of its kitchen
seemed, in Walpole's judgment, to justify. After
the Bishop came a Marquis, Henry Bridges,
son of the Duke of Chandos ; after the Mar-
quis, Mrs. Chenevix, the toy-woman, who, upon
her husband's death, let it for two years to the
nobleman who predecessed Walpole, Lord John
Philip Sackville. Before this, Mrs. Chenevix
had taken lodgers, one of whom was the cele-
brated theologian, Pcre Le Courrayer. At the
A Memoir. 1 1 1
expiration of Lord John Sackville's tenancy,
Walpole took the remainder of Mrs. Chenevix's
lease ; and in 1748 had grown to like the situa-
tion so much that he obtained a special act to
purchase the fee simple from the existing pos-
sessors, three m.inors of the name of Mortimer.
The price he paid was £\}S^ 105. Nothing
was then wanting but the name, and in looking
over some old deeds this was supplied. He
found that the ground on which it stood had
been known originally as * Strawberry-Hill-Shot.'
' You shall hear from me,' he tells Mann in
June, 1748, 'from Strawberry Hill, which I
have found out in my lease is the old name of
my house ; so pray, never call it Twickenham
again.'
The transformation of the toy-woman's ' villa-
kin' into a Gothic residence was not, however,
the operation of a day. Indeed, at tirst, the
idea of rebuilding does not seem to have
entered its new owner's mind. But he speedily
set about extending his boundaries, for before
26 December, 1748, he has added nine acres to
his original five, making fourteen in all, — a ' ter-
ritory prodigious in a situation where land is so
scarce.' Among the tenants of some of the
buildings which he acquired in making these
additions was Richard Francklin, the printer
112 Horace Walpole :
of the Craftsman, who^ during Sir Robert
Walpole's administration, had been taken up
for printing that paper. He occupied a small
house in what was afterwards known as the
Flower Garden, and Walpole permitted him to
retain it during his lifetime. Walpole's letters
towards the close of 1748 contain numerous
references to his assiduity in planting. * My
present and sole occupation,' he says in August,
'is planting, in which I have made great
progress, and talk very learnedly with the
nurserymen, except that now and then a lettuce
run to seed overturns all my botany, as I have
more than once taken it for a curious West
Indian flowering shrub. Then the deliberation
with which trees grow is extremely inconve-
nient to my natural impatience.' Two months
later he is ' all plantation, and sprouts away like
any chaste nymph in the Metamorphosis.' In
December, we begin to hear of that famous
lawn so well known in the later history of the
house. He is ' making a terrace the whole
breadth of his garden on the brow of a natural
hill, with meadows at the foot, and commanding
the river, the village [Twickenham], Richmond-
hill, and the park, and part of Kingston.' A
year after this (September, 1749), while he is
still ' digging and planting till it is dark,' come
A Memoir. 113
the first dreams of building. At Cheney's, in
Buckinghamshire, he has seen some old stained
glass, in the windows of an ancient house which
had been degraded into a farm, and he thinks
he will beg it of the Duke of Bedford (to
whom the farm belongs), as it would be ' mag-
nificent for Strawberry-castle/ Evidently he
has discussed this (as yet) chateau en Espagne
with Montagu. ' Did I tell you [he says] that
I have found a text in Deuteronomy to authorise
my future battlements ? " When thou buildest
a new house, then shalt thou make a battlement
for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thy
house, if any man fall from thence." ' In Jan-
uary, the new building is an established fact, as
far as purpose is concerned. In a postscript to
Mann he writes : ' I must trouble you with a
commission, which I don't know whether you
can execute. / am going to build a little gothic
castle at Straivberry Hill. If you can pick me
up any fragments of old painted glass, arms, or
anything, I shall be excessively obliged to you.
I can't say I remember any such things in Italy ;
but out of old chateaus, I imagine, one might
get it cheap, if there is any.'
From a subsequent letter it would seem that
Mann, as a resident in Italy, had rather expos-
tulated against the style of architecture which
114 Horace IValpole :
his friend was about to adopt, and had sug-
gested the Grecian. But Walpole, rightly
or wrongly, knew what he intended. ' The
Grecian,' he said, was ' only proper for magni-
ficent and public buildings. Columns and all
their beautiful ornaments look ridiculous when
crowded into a closet or a cheesecake-house.
The variety is little, and admits no charming
irregularities. I am almost as fond of the
Sharawaggi, or Chinese want of symmetry, in
buildings, as in grounds or gardens. I am sure,
whenever you come to England, you will be
pleased with the liberty of taste into which we
are struck, and of which you can have no idea.'
The passage shows that he himself anticipated
some of the ridicule which was levelled by un-
sympathetic people at the ' oyster-grotto-like
profanation ' which he gradually erected by the
Thames. In the mean time it went on pro-
gressing slowly, as its progress was entirely
dependent on his savings out of income ; and the
references to it in his letters, perhaps because
Mann was doubtful, are not abundant. ' The
library and refectory, or great parlour,' he says
in his description, ' were entirely new built in
17^3 ; the gallery, round tower, great cloyster.
and cabinet, in 1760 and 1761 ; and the great
north bedchamber in 1770.' To speak of these
A Memoir, 115
later alterations would be to anticipate too
much, and the further description of Strawberry
Hill will be best deferred until his own account
of the house and contents was printed in 1774,
four years after the last addition above recorded.
But even before he made the earliest of them,
he must have done much to alter and improve
the aspect of the place, for Gray, more admir-
ing than Mann, praises what has been done.
' I am glad,' he tells Wharton, ' that you enter
into the spirit of Strawberry-castle. It has a
purity and propriety of Gothicism in it (with
very few exceptions) that I have not seen else-
where ; ' and in an earlier letter he implies that
its * extreme littleness' is its chief defect. But
here, before for the moment leaving the subject,
it is only fair to give the proprietor's own
description of Strawberry Hill at this date, i. c,
in June, 17)3- After telling Mann that it is
'so monastic' that he has 'a little hall decked
with long saints in lean arched windows and
with taper columns, which we call the Para-
clete, in memory of Eloisa's cloister," ^ he sends
1 In the Tribune (see chap, viii.) was a drawing by
Mr. Bentley, representing two lovers in a church looking
at the tombs of Abelard and Eloisa, and illustrating Pope's
lines : —
' If ever chance two wand' ring lovers brings
To Paraclete's white walls and silver springs,' etc.
ii6 Horace Walpole :
him a sketch of it, and goes on : ' The enclosed
enchanted little landscape, then, is Strawberry
Hill. . . . This view of the castle is what I
have just finished [it was a view of the south
side, towards the north-east], and is the only
side that will be at all regular. Directly before
it is an open grove, through which you see a
field, which is bounded by a serpentine wood
of all kind of trees, and flowering shrubs, and
flowers. The lawn before the house is sit-
uated on the top of a small hill, from whence to
the left you see the town and church of Twick-
enham encircling a turn of the river, that looks
exactly like a sea-port in miniature. The oppo-
site shore is a most delicious meadow, bounded
by Richmond Hill, which loses itself in the
noble woods of the park to the end of the pros-
pect on the right, where is another turn of the
river, and the suburbs of Kingston as luckily
placed as Twickenham is on the left : and a
natural terrace on the brow of my hill, with
meadows of my own down to the river, com-
mands both extremities. Is not this a tolerable
prospect } You must figure that all this is per-
petually enlivened by a navigation of boats and
barges, and by a road below my terrace, with
coaches, post-chaises, waggons, and horsemen
constantly in motion, and the fields speckled
A Memoir. 1 1 7
with cows, horses, and sheep. Now you shall
walk into the house. The bow window below
leads into a little parlour hung with a stone-
colour Gothic paper and Jackson's Venetian
prints/ which I could never endure while they
pretended, infamous as they are, to be after
Titian, etc., but when I gave them this air of
barbarous bas-reliefs^ they succeeded to a mira-
cle : it is impossible at first sight not to conclude
that they contain the history of Attila or Tottila
done about the very sera. From hence, under
two gloomy arches, you come to the hall and
staircase, which it is impossible to describe to
you, as it is the most particular and chief beauty
of the castle. Imagine the walls covered with
(I call it paper, but it is really paper painted in
perspective to represent) Gothic fretwork : the
lightest Gothic balustrade to the staircase,
adorned with antelopes (our supporters) bearing
shields ; lean windows fattened with rich saints
in painted glass, and a vestibule open with three
arches on the landing place, and niches full of
trophies of old coats of mail, Indian shields made
of rhinoceros's hides, broadswords, quivers, long-
1 The chiaroscuros of John Baptist Jackson, published
at Venice in 1742. At this date he had returned to Eng-
land, and was working in a paper-hanging manufactory
at Battersea.
1 1 8 Horace IValpole :
bows, arrows, and spears, — all supposed to be
taken by Sir Terry Robsart [an ancestor of Sir
Robert Walpole] in the holy wars. But as none
of this regards the enclosed drawing, I will pass
to that. The room on the ground floor nearest
to you is a bedchamber, hung with yellow paper
and prints, framed in a new manner, invented by
Lord Cardigan ; that is, with black and white
borders printed. Over this is Mr. Chute's bed-
chamber, hung with red in the same manner.
The bow-window room one pair of stairs is not
yet finished ; but in the tower beyond it is the
charming closet where I am now writing to you.
It is hung with green paper and water-colour
pictures ; has two windows : the one in the
drawing looks to the garden, the other to the
beautiful prospect ; and the top of each glutted
with the richest painted glass of the arms of
England, crimson roses, and twenty other pieces
of green, purple, and historic bits. I must tell
you, by the way, that the castle, when finished,
will have two-and-thirty windows enriched with
painted glass. In this closet, which is Mr.
Chute's College of Arms, are two presses
of books of heraldry and antiquities, Madame
S^vignd's Letters, and any French books that
relate to her and her acquaintance. Out of this
closet is the room where we always live, hung
A Memoir. 119
with a blue and white paper in stripes adorned
with festoons, and a thousand plump chairs,
couches, and luxurious settees covered with
linen of the same pattern, and with a bow
window commanding the prospect, and gloomed
with limes that shade half each window, already
darkened with painted glass in chiaroscuro, set
in deep blue glass. Under this room is a cool
little hall, where we generally dine, hung with
paper to imitate Dutch tiles.
' I have described so much that you will begin
to think that all the accounts I used to give
you of the diminutiveness of our habitation
were fabulous ; but it is really incredible how
small most of the rooms are. The only two
good chambers I shall have are not yet built :
they will be an eating-room and a library, each
twenty by thirty, and the latter fifteen feet
high. For the rest of the house, I could send
it to you in this letter as easily as the drawing,
only that I should have nowhere to live until
the return of the post. The Chinese summer-
house, which you may distinguish in the distant
landscape, belongs to my Lord Radnor.^ We
1 Lord Radnor's fantastic house on the river, which
Walpole nicknamed Mabland, came between Strawberry
Hill and Pope's Villa, and is a conspicuous object in old
views of Twickenham, notably in that, dated 1757, by
1 20 Horace Walpole :
pique ourselves upon nothing but simplicity,
and have no carvings, gildings, paintings, inlay-
ings, or tawdry businesses/^
From this it will appear that in June, 17^3,
the library and refectory were not yet built, so
that when he says, in the printed description,
that they were new built in 17) 3, he must mean
no more than that they had been begun. In
a later letter, of May, 1754, they were still
unfinished. Meanwhile the house is gradually
attracting more and more attention. George
Montagu comes, and is ' in raptures and screams,
and hoops, and hollas, and dances, and crosses
himself a thousand times over.' The next visi-
tor is ' Nolkejumskoi,' — otherwise the Duke
of Cumberland, — who inspects it much after the
fashion of a gracious Gulliver surveying a castle
in Lilliput. Afterwards, attracted by the reports
of Lady Hervey and Mr. Bristow (brother of
the Countess of Buckingham), arrives my Lord
Bath, who is stirred into celebrating it to the
tune of a song of Bubb Dodington on Mrs.
Strawbridge. His Lordship does not seem to
have got further than two stanzas ; but Walpole,
MUntz, a Jersey artist for some time domiciled at Straw-
berry Hill (see p. 138). It was in the garden of Radnor
House that Pope first met Warburton.
1 IValfole to Mann, 12 June, 1753.
A Memoir. 121
not to leave so complimentary a tribute in the
depressed condition of a fragment, discreetly
revised and completed it himself. The lines
may fairly find a place here as an example of
his lighter muse. The first and third verses are
Lord Bath's, the rest being obviously written
in order to bring in ' Nolkejumskoi ' and some
personal friends : —
* Some cry up Gunnersbury,
P'or Sion some declare ;
And some say that with Chiswick-house
No villa can compare :
But ask the beaux of Middlesex,
Who know the county well,
If Strawb'ry-hill, if Strawb'ry-hill
Don't bear away the bell ?
'Some love to roll down Greenwich-hill
For this thing and for that ;
And some prefer sweet Marble-hill,
Tho' sure 't is somewhat flat :
Yet Marble-hill and Greenwich hill,
If Kitty Clive can tell.
From Strawb'ry-hill, from Strawb'ry-hill
Will never bear the bell.
'Tho' Surrey boasts its Oatlands,
And Clermont kept so jim.
And some prefer sweet Southcote's,
'T is but a dainty whim ;
For ask the gallant Bristow,
Who does in taste excell,
122 Horace Walpole :
If Strawb'ry-hill, if Strawb'ry-hill
Don't bear away the bell
* Since Denham sung of Cooper's,
There 's scarce a hill around,
But what in song or ditty
Is turn'd to fairy-ground, —
Ah, peace be with their memories I
I wish them wond'rous well ;
But Strawb'ry-hill, but Strawb'ry-hill
Must bear away the bell.
'Great William dwells at Windsor,
As Edward did of old ;
And many a Gaul and many a Scot
Have found him full as bold.
On lofty hills like Windsor
Such heroes ought to dwell ;
Yet little folks like Strawb'ry-hill,
Like Strawb'ry-hill as well.'^
Cumberland Lodge, where, say the old guide-
books, the hero of Culloden ' reposed after
victory,' still stands on the hill at the end of
the Long Walk at Windsor ; and at ^Gunners-
bury' lived the Princess Amelia. All the other
houses referred to are in existence. ' Sweet
Marble-hill,' which, like Strawberry, was but
recently put up for sale, had at this date for
mistress the Countess Dowager of Suffolk (Mrs.
1 The version here followed is that given in A Descrip-
tion of the Villa, etc., 1774, pp. 117-19-
Mrs. Howard, Countess of Suffolk.
UKIVEBBlTt )
A Memoir. 123
Howard), for whom it had been built by her
royal lover, George II. ; and Chiswick House,
(now the Marquis of Bute's), that famous
structure of Kent which Lord Hervey said was
' too small to inhabit, and too large to hang to
one's watch,' was the residence of Richard,
Earl of Burlington. Claremont ' kept so jim '
[neat], was the seat of the Duke of Newcastle
at Esher ; Oatlands, near Weybridge, belonged
to the Duke of York, and Sion House, on the
Thames, to the Duke of Northumberland.
Walpole and his friends, it will be perceived,
did not shrink from comparing small things with
great. But perhaps the most notable circum-
stance about this glorification of Strawberry is
that It should have originated with its reputed
author. ^ Can there be,' says Walpole, 'an odder
revolution of things, than that the printer of
the Craftsman should live in a house of mine,
and that the author of the Craftsman should
write a panegyric on a house of mine ? ' The
printer was Richard Francklin, already men-
tioned as his tenant ; and Lord Bath, if not the
actual, was at least the putative, writer of most
of the Crafismans attacks upon Sir Robert
Walpole. It is possible, however, that, as
with the poem, part only of this honour really
belonged to him.
124 Horace IValpole:
Strawberry Hill and its improvements have,
however, carried us far from the date at which
this chapter begins, and we must return to
1747. Happily the life of Walpole, though
voluminously chronicled in his correspondence,
is not so crowded with personal incident as to
make a space of six years a serious matter to
recover, especially when tested by the brief
but still very detailed record in the Shorl Notes
of what he held to be its conspicuous occur-
rences. In 1747-49 his zeal for his father's
memory involved him in a good deal of party
pamphleteering, and in 1749, he had what he
styles ' a remarkable quarrel ' with the Speaker,
of which one may say that, in these days, it
would scarcely deserve its qualifying epithet,
although it produced more paper war. ' These
things [he says himself] were only excusable by
the lengths to which party had been carried
against my father ; or rather, were not excus-
able even then.' For this reason it is needless
to dwell upon them here, as well as upon cer-
tain other papers in The Remembrancer for
1749, and a tract called Delenda est Oxonia,
prompted by a heinous scheme, which was med-
itated by the Ministry, of attacking the liberties
of that University by vesting in the Crown the
nomination of the Chancellor. This piece [he
A Memoir, 125
says], which I think one of my best, was seized
at the printer's and suppressed/ Then in No-
vember, 1749, comes something like a really
' moving incident,' — he is robbed in Hyde
Park. He was returning by moonlight to
Arlington Street from Lord Holland's, when his
coach was stopped by two of the most notorious
of 'Diana's foresters,* — Plunket and James
Maclean ; and the adventure had all but a tragic
termination. Maclean's pistol went off by ac-
cident, sending a bullet so nearly through
Walpole's head that it grazed the skin under
his eye, stunned him, and passed through the
roof of the chariot. His correspondence con-
tains no more than a passing reference to this
narrow escape, — probably because it was amply
reported (and expanded) in the public prints.
But in a paper which he contributed to the
Worli a year or two later, under guise of
relating what had happened to one of his
acquaintance, he reverts to this experience.
' The whole affair [he says] was conducted with
the greatest good-breeding on both sides. The
robber, w^ho had only taken a purse ihh ivay,
because he had that morning been disappointed
of marrying a great fortune, no sooner returned
to his lodgings, than he sent the gentleman
[i. e., Walpole himself] two letters of excuses,
126 Horace Walpole :
which, with less wit than the epistles of Voiture,
had ten times more natural and easy politeness in
the turn of their expression. In the postscript,
he appointed a meeting at Tyburn at twelve
at night, where the gentleman might purchase
again any trifles he had lost ; and my friend has
been blamed for not accepting the rendezvous,
as it seemed liable to be construed by ill-natured
people into a doubt of the honour of a man
who had given him all the satisfaction in his
power for having unluckilf been near shooting
him through the head.'^
The 'fashionable highwayman' (as Mr.
Maclean was called) was taken soon after-
wards, and hanged. ' I am honourably men-
tioned in a Grub-street ballad [says Walpole]
for not having contributed to his sentence ; ' and
he goes on to say that there are as many prints
and pamphlets about him as about that other
sensation of 17^0, the earthquake. Maclean
seems nevertheless to have been rather a pinch-
beck Macheath ; but for the moment, in default
of larger lions, he was the rage. After his con-
demnation, several thousand people visited him
in his cell at Newgate where he is stated to
have fainted twice from the heat and pressure
of the crowd. And his visitors were not all
1 World, 19 Dec, 1754 {Works, 1798, i. 177-8).
A Memoir. 127
men. In a note to Thz Modern Fine Lady,
Soame Jenyns says that some of the brightest
eyes were in tears for him ; and Walpole him-
self tells us that he excited the warmest com-
miseration in two distinguished beauties of the
day, Lady Caroline Petersham and Miss Ashe.^
Miss Ashe, of whom we are told mysteriously
by the commentators that she ' was said to
hare been of very high parentage/ and Lady
Caroline Petersham, a daughter of the Duke
of Grafton, figure more pleasantly in another
letter of Walpole, which gives a glimpse of some
of those diversions with which he was wont to
relieve the gothicising of his villa by the Thames.
In a sentence that proves how well he under-
stood his own qualities, he says he tells the
story ' to show the manners of the age, which
are always as entertaining to a person fifty miles
off as to one born an hundred and fifty years
after the time.' We have not yet reached the
1 Another instance of Maclean's momentary vogue is
given by Cunningham. He is hitched into Gray's Lon^-
Story, which was written at the very time he was taken:
* A sudden fit of ague shook him,
He stood as mute as poor Macleane.^
This couplet has been recently explained by Gray's latest
editor, Dr. Bradshaw, to be a reference to Maclean's only
observation when called to receive sentence. ' My Lord
[he said], I cannot speak.'
1 28 Horace IValpoIe :
later limit ; but there is little doubt as to the
interest of Walpole's account of his visit in
the month of June, 1750, to the famous gardens
of Mr. Jonathan Tyers. He got a card, he says,
from Lady Caroline to go with her to Vauxhall,
He repairs accordingly to her house, and finds
her ' and the little Ashe, or the Pollard Ashe,
as they call her,' having ' just finished their last
layer of red, and looking as handsome as crim-
son could make them.' Others of the party
are the Duke of Kingston ; Lord March, of
Thackeray's Virginians; Harry Vane, soon to
be Earl of Darlington ; Mr. Whitehead ; a
'pretty Miss Beauclerc,' and a 'very foolish
Miss Sparre.' As they sail up the Mall, they
encounter cross-grained Lord Petersham (my
lady's husband) shambling along after his wont,^
and * as sulky as a ghost that nobody will speak
to first.' He declines to accompany his wife
and her friends, who, getting into the best order
they can, march to their barge, which has a boat
of French horns attending, and ' little Ashe '
sings. After parading up the river, they ' debark '
at Vauxhall, where at the outset they narrowly
escape the excitement of a quarrel. For a cer-
tain Mrs. Lloyd, of Spring Gardens, afterwards
1 He \Yas popularly known as ' Peter Shamble.' lie
afterwards became Earl of Harrington.
A Memoir. 129
married to Lord Haddington, observing Miss
Beauclerc and her companion following Lady
Caroline, says audibly, • Poor girls, I am sorry
to see them in such bad company,' — a remark
which the 'foolish Miss Sparre ' (she is but
fifteen), for the fun of witnessing a duel,
endeavours to make Lord March resent. But
my Lord, who is not only ' very lively and agree-
able,' but also of a nice discretion, laughs her
out of ^this charming frolic, with a great deal of
humour.' Next they pick up Lord Granby,
arriving very drunk from ^Jenny's Whim,' at
Chelsea, where he has left a mixed gathering
of thirteen persons of quality playing at Brag.
He is in the sentimental stage of his malady,
and makes love to Miss Beauclerc and Miss
Sparre alternately, until the tide of champagne
turns, and he remembers that he is married.
' At last,' says Walpole, — and at this point the
story may be surrendered to him entirely, — ' we
assembled in our booth, Lady Caroline in the
front, with the visor of her hat erect, and look-
ing gloriously jolly and handsome. She had
fetched my brother Orford from the next box,
where he was enjoying himself with his pci'iiQ
partie, to help us to mince chickens. We
minced seven chickens into a china dish, which
Lady Caroline stewed over a lamp with three
9
130 Horace Walpole :
pats of butter and a flagon of water, stirring
and rattling and laughing, and we every minute
expecting to have the dish fly about our ears.
She had brought Betty, the fruit girl,^ with
hampers of strawberries and cherries from
Rogers's, and made her wait upon us, and then
made her sup by us at a little table. The con-
versation was no less lively than the whole
transaction. There was a Mr. O'Brien arrived
from Ireland, who would get the Duchess of
Manchester from Mr. Hussey, if she were still
at liberty. I took up the biggest hautboy in
the dish, and said to Lady Caroline, " Madam,
Miss Ashe desires you would eat this O'Brien
strawberry ; " she replied immediately, " I won't,
you hussey." You may imagine the laugh this
reply occasioned. After the tempest was a
little calmed, the Pollard said, " Now, how
anybody would spoil this story that \\as to
1 Elizabeth Neale, here referred to, was a well-known
personage in St. James's Street, where, for many years,
she kept a fruit shop. From Lady Mary Coke's Letters
and Journals, 1889, vol. ii., p. 427, Betty appears to have
assiduously attended the debates in the House of Com-
mons, being characterized as a ' violent Politician, &
always in the opposition.' In Mason's Heroic Epistle to Sir
William Chambers, Knight, she is spoken of as ' Patriot
Betty.' She survived until 1797, when her death, at the
age of 67, is recorded in the Gentleman's Magazine.
A Memoir. 131
repeat it, and say, " I won't, you jade." In short,
the whole air of our party was sufficient, as you
will easily imagine, to take up the whole atten-
tion of the garden ; so much so that from eleven
o'clock till half an hour after one we had the
whole concourse round our booth : at last, they
came into the little gardens of each booth on the
sides of our's, till Harry Vane took up a bumper,
and drank their healths, and was proceeding to
treat them with still greater freedom. It was
three o'clock before we got home.' He adds a
characteristic touch to explain Lord Granby's
eccentricities. He had lost eight hundred
pounds to the Prince of Wales at Kew the night
before, and this had a ' little ruffled ' his lordship's
temper.^
Early in 17^3, Edward Moore, the author of
some Fables for the Female Sex, once popular
enough to figure, between Thomson and Prior,
in Goldsmith's Beauties of English Poesy, estab-
lished the periodical paper called The World,
which, to quote a latter-day definition, might
fairly claim to be ' written by gentlemen for
gentlemen.' Soame Jenyns, Cambridge of the
Seribleriad (Walpole's Twickenham neighbour),
Hamilton Boyle, Sir Charles Hanbury Williams,
and Lord Chesterfield were all contributors.
1 Walpole to Montagu, 23 June, 1750.
1 3 2 Horace Walpole :
That Walpole should also attempt this ' bow of
Ulysses, in which it was the fashion for men
of rank and genius to try their strength,' goes
without saying. His gifts were exactly suited
to the work, and his productions in the new
journal are by no means its worst. His first
essay was a bright little piece of persiflage upon
what he calls the return of nature, and proceeds
to illustrate by the introduction of ' real water '
on the stage, by Kent's landscape gardening,
and by the fauna and flora of the dessert table.
A second effort was devoted to that extraor-
dinary adventurer, Baron Neuhoff", otherwise
Theodore, King of Corsica, who, with his realm
for his only assets, was at this time a tenant of
the King's Bench prison. Walpole, with gen-
uine kindness, proposed a subscription for this
bankrupt Belisarius. and a sum of fifty pounds
was collected. This, however, proved so much
below the expectations of His Corsican Majesty
that he actually had the effrontery to threaten
Dodsley, the printer of the paper, with a pro-
secution for using his name unjustifiably. * I
have done with countenancing kings,' wrote
Walpole to Mann.i Others of his World
essays are on the Glastonbury Thorn ; on
1 Nevertheless, when this ' Roi en Exil' shortly after-
wards died, Walpole erected a tablet in St. Anne's
Lady Mary Worthy Montagu.
^n,Vr^>^x
A Memoir, 133
Letter-Writing, — a subject of which he might
claim to speak with authority ; on old women
as objects of passion ; and on politeness, where-
in occurs the already quoted anecdote of
Maclean the highwayman. His light hand and
lighter humour made him an almost ideal con-
tributor to Moore's pages, and it is not sur-
prising to find that such judges as Lady Mary
approved his performances, or that he himself
regarded them with a complacency which peeps
out now and again in his letters. ' I met Mrs.
Clive two nights ago,' he says, ' and told her I
Churchyard, Soho, to his memory, with the following
inscription : —
' Near this place is interred
Theodore, King of Corsica ;
Who died in this parish, Dec. ii, 1756,
Immediately after leaving the King's-Bench-Prison,
By the benefit of the Act of Insolvency ;
In consequence of which he registered
His Kingdom of Corsica
For the use of his Creditors.
' The Grave, great teacher, to a level brings
Heroes and beggars, galley-slaves and Kings.
But Theodore this moral learn'd, ere dead ;
Fate pour'd its lessons on his livi7ig head,
Bestow'd a kingdom, and denied him bread.'
Theodore's Great Seal, and ' that very curious piece by
which he took the benefit of the Act of Insolvency,'
and in which he was only styled Theodore Stephen,
Baron de Neuhoff, were among the treasures of the
Tribune. (See Chapter VIII.)
134 Horace Walpole :
had been in the meadows^ but would walk no
more there, for there was all the world. '^ Well,"
says she, " and don't you like The World I I
hear it was very clever last Thursday." ' ' Last
Thursday ^ had appeared Walpole's paper on
elderly ' flames.'
During the period covered by this chapter
the redinlcgralio amoris with Gray, to which
reference has been made, became confirmed.
Whether the attachment was ever quite on the
old basis, may be doubted. Gray always poses
a little as the aggrieved person who could not
speak first, and to whom unmistakable over-
tures must be made by the other side. He as
yet ' neither repents, nor rejoices over much,
but is pleased,' — he tells Chute in 17^0. On
the other hand, Walpole, though he appears
to have proffered his palm-branch with very
genuine geniality, and desire to let by-gones
be by-gones, was not above very candid criti-
cism of his recovered friend. ' I agree with
you most absolutely in your opinion about
Gray,' he writes to Montagu in September,
1748 : 'he is the worst company in the world.
From a melancholy turn, from living reclusely,
and from a little too much dignity, he never
converses easily ; all his words are measured
and chosen, and formed into sentences; his
A Memoir. 135
writings are admirable ; he himself is not agree-
able.' Meantime, however, the revived con-
nection went on pleasantly. Gray made flying
visits to Strawberry and Arlington Street, and
prattled to Walpole from Pembroke between
whiles. And certainly, in a measure, it is to
Walpole that we owe Gray. It was Walpole
who induced Gray to allow Dodsley to print in
1747, as an attenuated folio pamphlet, the Odz
on a Distant Prospect of Eton College ; and it
was the tragic end of one of Walpole's favourite
cats in a china tub of gold-fish (of which, by
the way^ there was a large pond called Po-yang
at Strawberry) which prompted the delightful
occasional verses by Gray beginning : —
' 'Twas on a lofty vase's side,
Where china's gayest art had dy'd
The azure flow'rs that blow ;
Demurest of the tabby kind,
The pensive Selima reclin'd,
Gaz'd on the lake below,' —
a Stanza which, with trifling verbal alterations,
long served as a label for the ' lofty vase ' in
the Strawberry Hill collection. To Walpole's
officious circulation in manuscript of the famous
Elegy ivritten in a Country Church-Yard must
indirectly be attributed its publication byDodsley
in February, 175 1 ; to Walpole also is due that
136 Horace IValpole :
typical piece of vers dc socUld, the Long Story,
which originated in the interest in the recluse
poet of Stoke Poges with which Walpole's well-
meaning (if unwelcome) advocacy had inspired
Lady Cobham and some other lion-hunters of
the neighbourhood. But his chief enterprise
in connection with his friend's productions was
the edition of them put forth in March, \j^},
with illustrations by Richard Bentley, the young-
est child of the famous Master of Trinity.
Bentley possessed considerable attainments as
an amateur artist, and as a scholar and connois-
seur had just that virtuoso finesse of manner
which was most attractive to Walpole, whose
guest and counsellor he frequently became
during the progress of the Strawberry improve-
ments. Out of this connection, which, in its
hot fits, was of the most confidential character,
grew the suggestion that Bentley should' make,
at Walpole's expense, a series of designs for
Gray's poems. These, which are still in exist-
ence,^ were engraved with great delicacy by two
of the best engravers of that time, M Ciller and
1 A copy of the poems, ' illustrated with the original
designs of Mr. Richard Bentley, . . . and also with Mr.
Gray's original sketch of Stoke House, from which Mr.
Bentley made his finished pen drawing,' was sold at the
Strawberry Hill sale of 1S42 to H. G. Bohn for ^S Ss.
A Memoir. 137
Charles Grignion ; and the Poemata-Gra/-
Bentleiana, as Walpole christened them, became
and remains one of the most remarkable of the
illustrated books of the last century. Gray, as
may be imagined, could scarcely oppose the
compliment ; and he seems to have grown
minutely interested in the enterprise, rewarding
the artist by some commendatory verses, in
which he certainly does not deny himself — to
use a phrase of Mr. Swinburne — 'the noble
pleasure of praising.' ^ But even over this book
the sensitive ligament that linked him to Walpole
was perilously strained. Without consulting him,
W^alpole had his likeness engraved as a frontis-
piece, — a step which instantly drew from Gray
a wail of nervous expostulation so unmistakably
heartfelt that it was impossible to proceed with
the plate. Thus it came about that Designs by
Mr. R. Bentley for Six Poems hy Mr. T. Gray
made its appearance without the portrait of
the poet.
Bentley's ingenious son was not the only per-
son whom the decoration of Strawberry pressed
1 The verses include this magnificent stanza : —
' But not to one in this benighted age
Is that diviner inspiration giv'n,
That burns in Shakespeare's or in Milton's page,
The pomp and prodigahty of heav'n.'
138 Horace Walpole :
into the service of its owner. Selwyn, the wit,
George James (or ^Gilly') Williams, a connois-
seur of considerable ability, and Richard, second
Lord Edgecumbe, occasionally sat as a com-
mittee of taste, — a function commemorated by
Reynolds in a conversation-piece which after-
wards formed one of the chief ornaments of the
Refectory ; ^ and upon Bentley's recommenda-
tion Walpole invited from Jersey a humbler guest
in the person of a German artist named Miintz,
— ' an inoffensive, good creature,' who would
' rather ponder over a foreign gazette than a
palette,' but whose services kept him domiciled
for some time at the Gothic castle. Miintz
executed many views of the neighbourhood,
which are still, like that of Twickenham already
referred to,^ preserved in contemporary engrav-
ings. And besides the persons whom Walpole
drew into his immediate circle, the ' village,'
as he called it, was growing steadily in public
favour. 'Mr. Miintz' — writes Walpole in
July, 175^ — ' says we have more coaches than
there are in half France. Mrs. Pritchard has
bought Ragman's Castle, for which my Lord
1 It is copied in Cunningham, vol iii. p. 475. It was
sold for £\S7 ^O-^- ^^ the Strawberry Hill sale, and passed
into the collection of the late Lord Taunton.
2 See p. 192 n.
A Memoir. 139
Litchfield could not agree. We shall be as cele-
brated as Baise or Tivoli ; and if we have not
as sonorous names as they boast, we have very
famous people : Clive and Pritchard, actresses ;
Scott and Hudson, painters; my Lady Suffolk,
famous in her time ; Mr. H[ickey]. the impu-
dent Lawyer, that Tom Hervey wrote against ;
Whitehead, the poet ; and Cambridge, the every-
thing.' Cambridge has already been referred
to as a contributor to The V^orld^ and the
Whitehead was the one mentioned in Churchill's
stinging couplet : —
'May I (can worse disgrace on manhood fall ?)
Be born a Whitehead, and baptiz'd a Paul,'
who then lived on Twickenham Common.
Hickey, a jovial Irish attorney, was the legal
adviser of Burke and Reynolds, and the 'blunt,
pleasant creature ' of Goldsmith's ' Retaliation.'
Scott was Samuel Scott, the ' English Cana-
letto ; ' Hudson, Sir Joshua's master, who had
a house on the river near Lord Radnor's. But
Walpole's best allies were two of the other sex.
One was Lady Suffolk, the whilom friend (as
Mrs. Howard) of Pope and Swift and Gay,
whose home at Marble Hill is celebrated in the
Walpole-cum - Pulteney poem; the other was
red-faced Mrs. Clive, who occupied a house
140 Horace Walpole :
known familiarly as ' Clive-den," and officially
as Little Strawberry. She had not yet retired
from the stage. Lady Suffolk's stories of the
Georgian Court and its scandals, and Mrs.
Clive's anecdotes of the green-room, and of their
common neighbour at Hampton, the great
' Roscius ' himself (with whom she was always
at war), must have furnished Walpole with an
inexhaustible supply of just the particular descrip-
tion of gossip which he most appreciated.
A Memoir. 14]
CHAPTER VI.
Gleanings from the Short Notes. — Letter from Xo Ho. — The
Strawberry Hill Press. — Robinson the Printer. — Gray's
Odes. — Other Works. — Catalogue of Royal and Noble
Authors. — Anecdotes of Painting. — Humours of the Press.
— The Parish Register of Twicketiham. — Lady Fanny
Shirley. — Fieldmg. — The Castle of Otranto.
TN order to take up the little-variegated thread
■*■ of Walpole's life, we must again resort to
the Short Notes, m which, as already stated, he
has recorded what he considered to be its most
important occurrences. In 1734, he had been
chosen member, in the new Parliament of that
year, for Castle Rising, in Norfolk. In March,
17 y^, he says, he was very ill-used by his
nephew. Lord Orford [i. e., the son of his eldest
brother, Robert], upon a contested election in
the House of Commons, ' on which I wrote
him a long letter, with an account of my own
conduct in politics.' This letter does not seem
to have been preserved, and it is difficult to
conceive that its theme could have involved
very lengthy explanations. In February, 1757,
142 Horace JValpole :
he vacated his Castle Rising seat for that of
Lynn, and about the same time, he tells us,
used his best endeavours, although in vain, to
save the unfortunate Admiral Byng, who was
executed, pour encourager Ics autres, in the
following March. But with the exception of
his erection of a tablet to Theodore of Corsica,
and the dismissal, in 17^9, of Mr. Miintz, with
whom his connection seems to have been excep-
tionally prolonged, his record for the next
decade, or until the publication of the Caslle
of Olranlo, is almost exclusively literary, and
deals with the establishment of his private print-
ing press at Strawberry Hill, his publication
thereat of Gray's Odes and other works, his
Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors, his
Anecdotes of Painting, and his above-mentioned
romance. This accidental absorption of his
chronicle by literary production will serve as
a sufficient reason for devoting this chapter to
those efforts of his pen which, from the out-
set, were destined to the permanence of
type.
Already, as far back as March, 1751, he had
begun the work afterwards known as the
Mcmoires of the last Ten Years of the Reign of
George II., to the progress of which there are
scattered references in the Short Notes. He
A Memoir. 143
had intended at first to confine them to the
history of one year, but they grew under his
hand. His first definite literary effort in 17^7,
however, was the clever little squib, after the
model of Montesquieu's Leitres Persanes, en-
titled A Letter from Xo Ho, a Chinese Philo-
sopher at London, to his Friend Lien Chi, at
Peking, in which he ingeniously satirizes the
' late political revolutions ' and the inconstant
disposition of the English nation, not forgetting
to fire off a few sarcasms a propos of the Byng
tragedy. The piece, he tells Mann, was written
' in an hour and a half (there is always a little
of Oronte's Je nai demeurd quiin quart dlieiire
a le faire about Walpole's literary efforts), was
sent to press next day, and ran through five
editions in a fortnight.^ Mrs. Clive was of
opinion that the rash satirist would be sent to
the Tower ; but he himself regarded it as ' per-
haps the only political paper ever written, in
which no man of any party could dislike or
1 It may be observed that wlien Walpole's letter was
published, it was briefly noticed in the Monthly Review,
where at this very date Oliver Goldsmith was working as
the hind of Griffiths and his wife. It is also notable that
the name of Xo Ho's correspondent, Lien Chi, seems
almost a foreshadowing of Goldsmith's Lien Chi Altangi.
Can it be possible that Walpole supplied Goldsmith with
his first idea of the Citizen of the World?
144 Horace Walpole :
deny a single fact;' and Henry Fox, to whom
he sent a copy, may be held to confirm this
view, since his only objection seems to have
been that it did not hit some of the other side
a little harder. It would be difficult now with-
out long notes to make it intelligible to modern
readers ; but the following outburst of the
Chinese philosopher respecting the variations
of the English climate has the merit of enduring
applicability. ' The English have no sun, no
summer, as we have, at least their sun does not
scorch like ours. They content themselves
with names : at a certain time of the year they
leave their capital, and that makes summer ;
they go out of the city, and that makes the
country. Their monarch, when he goes into
the country, passes in his calash ^ by a row of
high trees, goes along a gravel walk, crosses
one of the chief streets, is driven by the side
of a canal between two rows of lamps, at the
end of which he has a small house [Kensington
Palace], and then he is supposed to be in the
country. I saw this ceremony yesterday : as
soon as he was gone the men put on under vest-
1 A four-wheeled carriage with a movable hood. Cf.
Prior's Dmun Hall : 'Then answcr'd Squire Morley :
Pray get a calash, That in summer may burn, and in
winter may splash,' etc.
A Memoir, 145
ments of white linen, and the women left off
those vast draperies, which they call hoops, and
which I have described to thee ; and then all the
men and all the women said it ivas hot. If thou
wilt believe me, I am now [in May] writing to
thee before a fire.' -^
In the following June Walpole had betaken
himself to the place he ' loved best of all,' and
was amusing himself at Strawberry with his pen.
The next wovk which he records is the publi-
cation of a Catalogue of the Collection of
Pictures, etc., of [i. e., belonging to] Charles
the First, for which he prepared ' a little intro-
duction.' This, and the subsequent ' prefaces
or advertisements ' to the Catalogues of the
Collections of James the Second, and the Duke
of Buckingham, are to be found in vol. i., pp.
234-41, of his works. But the great event of
17^7 is the establishment of the Officina Arbu-
teana, or private printing press, of Strawberry
Hill. ' Elzevir, Aldus, and Stephens,' he tells
Chute in July, 'are the freshest personages in
his memory,' and he jestingly threatens to assume
as his motto (with a slight variation) Pope's
couplet : —
' Some have at first for wits, then poets pass'd ;
Turn'd printers next, and proved plain fools at last.'
1 Works, 1798, i. 208.
10
146 Horace IValpole :
' I am turned printer,' he writes somewhat
later, ' and have converted a httle cottage into
a printing-office. My abbey is a perfect college
or academy. I keep a painter [Miintz] in the
house, and a printer, — not to mention Mr.
Bentley, who is an academy himself.' William
Robinson, the printer, an Irishman with notice-
able eyes which Garrick envied (* they are more
Richard the Third's than Garrick's own,' says
Walpole), must have been a rather original per-
sonage, to judge by a copy of one of his letters
which his patron incloses to Mann. He says
he found it in a drawer where it had evidently
been placed to attract his attention. After
telling his correspondent in bad blank verse
that he dates from the ' shady bowers, nodding
groves, and amaranthine shades (?) ' of Twicken-
ham, — ' Richmond's near neighbour, where great
George the King resides,' — Robinson proceeds
to describe his employer as ' the Hon. Horatio
Walpole, son to the late great Sir Robert Wal-
pole, who is very studious, and an admirer of
all the liberal arts and sciences; amongst the
rest he admires printing. He has fitted out a
complete printing-house at this his country seat,
and has done me the favour to make me sole
manager and operator (there being no one but
myself). All men of genius resorts his house.
A Memoir. 147
courts his company, and admires his understand-
ing : what with his own and their writings, I
believe I shall be pretty well employed. I have
pleased him, and I hope to continue so to do.'
Then, after reference to the extreme heat, — a
heat by which fowls and quarters of lamb have
been roasted in the London Artillery grounds
' by the help of glasses,' so capricious was
the climate over which Walpole had made merry
in May, — he proceeds to describe Strawberry.
' The place I am now in is all my comfort from
the heat ; the situation of it is close to the
Thames, and is Richmond Gardens (if you were
ever in them) in miniature, surrounded by
bowers, groves, cascades, and ponds, and on
a rising ground not very common in this part
of the country ; the building elegant, and the
furniture of a peculiar taste, magnificent and
superb.' At this date poor Robinson seems to
have been delighted with the place and the
fastidious master whom he hoped ' to continue
to please.' But Walpole was nothing if not
mutable, and two years later he had found out
that Robinson of the remarkable eyes was ' a
foolish Irishman who took himself for a genius,'
and they parted, with the result that the Officina
Arbuteana was temporarily at a standstill.
For the moment, however, things went
148 Horace IValpoIe :
smoothly enough. It had been intended that
the maiden effort of the Strawberry types
should have been a translation by Bentley of
Paul Hentzner's curious account of England in
1^9^. But Walpole suddenly became aware
that Gray had put the penultimate, if not the
final, touches to his painfully elaborated Pin-
daric Odes, the Bard and the Progress of Poesy,
and he pounced upon them forthwith ; Gray, as
usual, half expostulating, half overborne. 'You
will dislike this as much as I do,' — he writes to
Mason, — ' but there is no help.' ' You under-
stand," he adds, with the air of one resigning
himself to the inevitable, ' it is he that prints
them, not for me, but for Dodsley.' However,
he persisted in refusing Walpole's not entirely
unreasonable request for notes. ' If a thing
cannot be understood without them,' he said
characteristically. ' it had better not be under-
stood at all.' Consequently, while describing
them as ' Greek, Pindaric, sublime,' Walpole
confesses under his breath that they are a little
obscure. Dodsley paid Gray forty guineas for
the book, which was a large, thin quarto, entitled
Odes by Mr. Gray; Printed, at Strawberry
Hill, for R. and J. Dodsley in Pall- Mall. It
was published in August, and the price was a
shilling. On the title-page was a vignette of
i
A Memoir. 149
the Gothic castle at Twickenham. From a letter
of Walpole to Lyttelton it would seem that his
apprehensions as to the poems being *under-
standed of the people' proved well founded.
• They [the age] have cast their eyes over them,
found them obscure, and looked no further ; yet
perhaps no compositions ever had more sublime
beauties than are in each/ — and he goes on to
criticise them minutely in a fashion which shows
that his own appreciation of them was by no
means unqualified. But Warburton and Gar-
rick and the ^word-picker' Hurd were enthu-
siastic. Lyttelton and Shenstone followed more
moderately. Upon the whole, the success of
the first venture was encouraging, and the share
in it of ' Elzevir Horace,' as Conway called his
friend, was not forgotten.
Gray's Odes, were succeeded by Hentzner's
Travels, or, to speak more accurately, by that
portion of Hentzner's Travels which refers
to England. In England Hentzner was little
known, and the 220 copies which Walpole printed
in October, ijSl, were prefaced by an Adver-
tisement from his pen, and a dedication to the
Society of Antiquaries, of which he was a
member. After this came, in 17)8, his Cata-
logue of Royal and Noble Authors; a collection
of Fugitive Pieces (which included his essays in
150 Horace IValpole:
the World) ^ dedicated to Conway;^ and seven
hundred copies of Lord Whitworth's Account
of Russia. Then followed a book by Joseph
Spence, the Parallel of Magliabecchi and Mr.
[Robert] Mill, a learned tailor of Buckingham,
the object of which was to benefit Hill, — an end
which must have been attained, as six out of
seven hundred copies were sold in a fortnight,
and the book was reprinted in London. Bent-
ley's Lucan, a quarto of five hundred copies,
succeeded Spence, and then came three other
quartos of Anecdotes of Painting, by Walpole
himself. The only other notable products of
the press during this period are the Autobi-
ography of Lord Herbert of Cherbury, quarto,
1764, and one hundred copies of the Poems of
Lady Temple. This, however, is a very fair
record for seven years' work, when it is remem-
bered that the Strawberry Hill staff never
exceeded a man and a boy. As already stated,
the first printer, Robinson, was dismissed in
17^9. His place, after a short interval of ' oc-
casional hands,' was taken by Thomas Kirgate,
whose name thenceforth appears on all the
^ These, though printed in 175S, were not circulated
until 1759. See, at end, ' Appendix of l?ooks printed
at the Strawberry Hill Press,' which contains ample
details of all these publications.
A Memoir. 151
Twickenham issues, with which it is indis-
solubly connected. Kirgate continued, with
greater good fortune than his predecessors, to
perform his duties until Walpole's death.
In the above list there are two volumes
which, in these pages, deserve a more extended
notice than the rest. Thz Catalague of Royal
and Noble Authors had at least the merit of
novelty, and certainly a better reason for exist-
ing than some of the works to which its author
refers in his preface. Even the performances
of Pulteney, Earl of Bath, and the English
rondeaus of Charles of Orleans are more
Vi^orthy of a chronicler than the lives of
physicians who had been poets, of men who
had died laughing, or of Frenchmen who had
studied Hebrew. Walpole took considerable
pains in obtaining information, and his book
was exceedingly well received, — indeed, far
more favourably than he had any reason to
expect. A second edition, which was not
printed at Strawberry Hill, speedily followed
the first, with no diminution of its prosperity.
For an effort which made no pretensions to
symmetry, which is often meagre where it
might have been expected to be full, and is
everywhere prejudiced by a sort of fine-gen-
tleman disdain of exactitude, this was cer-
1 5 2 Horace IValpole :
tainly as much as he could anticipate. But
he seems to have been more than usually
sensitive to criticism, and some of the amplest
of his Short Notes are devoted to the dis-
cussion of the adverse opinions which were
expressed. From these we learn that he was
abused by the Critical Reviciv for disliking
the Stuarts, and by the Monthly for liking
his father. Further, that he found an apolo-
gist in Dr. Hill (of the Inspector), whose gross
adulation was worse than abuse ; and lastly,
that he was seriously attacked in a Pamphlet
of Remarks on Mr. Walpole^s ' Catalogue of
Royal and Noble Authors^ by a certain Carter,
concerning whose antecedents his irritation
goes on to bring together all the scandals he
can collect. As the Short Notes were written
long after the events, it shows how his sore-
ness against his critics continued. What it was
when still fresh may be gathered from the fol-
lowing quotation from a letter to Rev. Henry
Zouch, to whom he was indebted for many
new facts and corrections, especially in the
second edition, and who afterwards helped
him in the Anecdotes of Painting: ' I am sick
of the character of author ; I am sick of the
consequences of it ; I am weary of seeing my
name in the newspapers ; I am tired with read-
Holbein.
CKIVEBSITI
A Memoir, 153
ing foolish criticisms on me, and as foolish
defences of me ; and I trust my friends will
be so good as to let the last abuse of me pass
unanswered. It is called '^ Remarks " on my
Catalogue, asperses the Revolution more than
it does my book, and, in one word; is written
by a non-juring preacher, who was a dog-doctor.
Of me, he knows so little that he thinks to
punish me by abusing King William ! ' ^
In a letter of a few months earlier to the
same correspondent, he refers to another task,
upon which, in despite of the sentence just
quoted, he continued to employ himself. ' Last
summer' — he says — 'I bought of Vertue's
widow forty volumes of his MS. collections
relating to English painters, sculptors, gravers,
and architects. He had actually begun their
lives : unluckily he had not gone far, and could
not write grammar. I propose to digest and
complete this work."-^ The purchases referred
to had been made subsequent to 17)6, when
Mrs, Vertue applied to Walpole, as a connois-
seur, to buy from her the voluminous notes and
memoranda which her husband had accumulated
with respect to art and artists in England.
Walpole also acquired at Vertue's sale in May,
1 Walpole to Zoiich, 14 May, 1759.
Walpole to Zouch, 12 January, 1759.
2
154 Horace JValpoIe :
17^7, a number of copies from Holbein and
two or three other pictures. He seems to have
almost immediately set about arranging and
digesting this unwieldy and chaotic heap of
material,^ much of which, besides being illite-
rate, was also illegible. More than once his
patience gave way under the drudgery ; but
he nevertheless persevered in a way that shows
a tenacity of purpose foreign, in this case at all
events, to his assumption of dilettante indif-
ference. His progress is thus chronicled. He
began in January, 1760, and finished the first
volume on 14 August. The second volume was
begun in September, and completed on the 23rd
October. On the 4th January in the following
year he set about the third volume, but laid it
aside after the first day, not resuming it until
the end of June. In August, however, he
finished it. Two volumes were published in
1762, and a third, which is dated 1763, in 1764.
As usual, he affected more or less to undervalue
1 'Mr. Vertue's Manuscripts, in 2S vols.,' were sold at
the Safe of Rare Prints and Illustrated Works from the
Strawberry Hill Collection on Tuesday, 21 June, 1S42,
for ;^26 los. Walpole says in the S/iorf AWes that he
paid ;i^ioo. The Vertue MSS. are now in the British
Museum, which acquired them from the Dawson Turner
collection.
A Memoir. 155
his own share in the work ; but he very justly
laid stress in his ' Preface ' upon the fact that
he was little more than the arranger of data
not collected by his own exertions. ' I would
not,' he said to Zouch, ' have the materials of
forty years, which was Vertue's case, depreci-
ated in compliment to the work of four months,
which is almost my whole merit.' Here, again,
the tone is a little in the Oronte manner ; but,
upon the main point, the interest of the work,
his friends did not share his apprehensions, and
Gray especially was ' violent about it.' Nor
did the public show themselves less appreciative,
for there was so much that was new in the dead
engraver's memoranda, and so much which was
derived from private galleries or drawn from
obscure sources, that the work could scarcely
have failed of readers even if the style had been
hopelessly corrupt, which, under Walpole's
revision, it certainly was not. In 1762, he
began a Catalogue of Engravers, which he
finished in about six weeks as a supplemen-
tary volume, and in 176^, still from the Straw-
berry Press, he issued a second edition of the
whole. ■■•
1 T/ze Anecdotes of Famtms;- was enlarged by the Rev.
James Dallaway in 1826-8, and again revised, with addi-
tional notes, by Ralph N Wornum in 1839. This last,
in three volumes, 8vo, is the accepted edition.
156 Horace IValpole :
After the appearance of the second edition
of the Anecdotes of Painling, a silence fell upon
the Officina Arbiiteana for three years, during
the earlier part of which time Walpole was at
Paris, as will be narrated in the next chapter.
His press, as may be guessed, was one of the
sights of his Gothic castle, and there are several
anecdotes showing how his ingenious fancy
made it the vehicle of adroit compliment.
Once, not long after it had been established,
my Lady Rochford, Lady Townshend (the
witty Ethelreda, or Audrey, Harrison),^ and Sir
John Bland's sister were carried after dinner
into the printing-room to see Mr. Robinson at
work. He immediately struck off some verse
which was already in type, and presented it to
Lady Townshend : —
The Press speaks.
From me wits and poets their glory obtain ;
Without me their wit and their verses were vain
Stop, Townshend, and let me but paint- what you say,
Vou, the fame I on others bestow, will repay.
1 She was married to Charles, 3rd Viscount Towns-
hend, in 1723, and was the mother of Charles Townshend,
the statesman. She died in 178S. There was an enamel
of her by Zincke after Vanloo in the Tribune at Straw-
berry Hill, which is engraved at p 150 of Cunningham's
second volume.
'^ Sic. in orii^. ; but query ' print.'
A Memoir. 157
The visitors then asked, as had been antici-
pated, to see the actual process of setting up;
and Walpole ostensibly gave the printer four
lines out of Rowe's Fair Penitent. But, by
what would now be styled a clever feat of pres-
tidigitation, the forewarned Robinson struck off
the following, this time to Lady Rochford : —
The Press speaks.
In vain from your properest name you have flown,
And exchanged lovely Cupid's for Hymen's dull throne ;
By my art shall your beauties be constantly sung,
And in spite of yourself, you shall ever h^ yoimg.
Lady Rochford's maiden name, it should be
explained, was ' Young.' Such were what their
inventor call les amusements des eaiix de Slra-
berrl in the month of August and the year of
grace 17^7.
Beyond the major efforts already mentioned,
the Short Notes contain references to various
fugitive pieces which Walpole composed, some
of which he printed, and some others of which
have been published since his death. One ot
these, The Magpie and her Brood, was a plea-
sant little fable from the French of Bonaventure
des Periers, rhymed for Miss Hotham, the
youthful niece of his neighbour Lady Suffolk ;
another, a Dialogue betiveen two Great Ladies.
158 Horace IValpole :
In 1761, he wrote a poem on the King, entitled
The Garland, which first saw the light in the
Quarterly for 1852 [No. clxxx.]. Besides
these were several epigrams, mock sermons,
and occasional verses. But perhaps the most
interesting of his productions in this kind are
the octosyllabics which he wrote in August,
1759, and called The Parish Register of
Twickenham. This is a metrical list of all
the remarkable persons who ever lived there,
for which reason a portion of it may find a place
in these pages : —
* Where silver Thames round Twit'nam meads
His winding current sweetly leads ;
Twit'nam, the Muses' fav'rite seat,
Twit'nam, the Graces' lov'd retreat;
There polish'd Essex wont to sport,
The pride and victim of a court !
There Bacon tun'd the grateful lyre
To soothe Eliza's haughty ire ;
— Ah ! happy had no meaner stram
Than friendship's dash'd his mighty vein 1
Twit'nam, where Hyde, majestic sage,
Retir'd from folly's frantic stage,
While his vast soul was hung on tenters
To mend the world, and vex dissenters •
Twit'nam, where frolic Wharton revel'd,
Where Montagu, with locks dishevei'd
(Conflict of dirt and warmth divine),
Invok'd — and scandaliz'd the Nine;
A Memoir ^ 159
Where Pope in moral music spoke
To th' anguisli'd soul of Bolingbroke,
And whisper'd, how true genius errs,
Preferring joys that pow'r confers ;
Bliss, never to great minds arising
From ruling worlds, but from despising :
Where Fielding met his hunter Muse,
And, as they quaff 'd the fiery juice,
Droll Nature stamp'd each lucky hit
With inimaginable wit :
Where Suffolk sought the peaceful scene,
Resigning Richmond to the queen,
And all the glory, all the teasing,
Of pleasmg one not worth the pleasing :
Where Fanny, "ever-blooming fair,"
Ejaculates the graceful pray'r.
And 'scap'd from sense, with nonsense smit.
For Whitefield's cant leaves Stanhope's wit :
Amid this choir of sounding names
Of statesmen, bards, and beauteous dames,
Shall the last trifler of the throng
Enroll his own such names among ?
— Oh ! no — Enough if I consign
To lasting types their notes divine :
Enough, if Strawberry's humble hill
The title-page of fame shall fill." ^
In 1784, Walpole added a few lines to cele-
brate a new resident and a new favourite, Lady
Di. Beauclerk, the widow of Johnson's famous
friend.^ Most of the other names which occur
1 Works, 1798, vol. iv., pp. 382-3.
2 See chapter ix.
i6o Horace Walpole :
in the Twickenham Register are easily identi-
fied. ' Fanny, " ever-blooming fair," ' was the
beautiful Lady Fanny Shirley of Phillips' ballad
and Pope's epistle, aunt of that fourth Earl
Ferrers who in 1760 was hanged at Tyburn
for murdering his steward. Miss Hawkins
remembered her as residing at a house now-
called Heath Lane Lodge, with her mother,
' a very ancient Countess Ferrers,' widow of
the first Earl. Henry Fielding, to whom Wal-
pole gives a quatrain, the second couplet of
which must excuse the insolence of the first,
had for some time lodgings in Back Lane,
whence was baptised in February, 1748, the
elder of his sons by his second wife, the
William Fielding who, like his father, became
a Westminster magistrate. It is more likely
that Tom Jones was written at Twickenham
than at any of the dozen other places for which
that honour is claimed, since the author quitted
Twickenham late in 1748, and his great novel
was published early in the following year.
Walpole had only been resident for a short time
when Fielding left, but even had this been
otherwise, it is not likely that, between the
master of the Comic Epos (who was also Lady
Mary's cousin I) and the dilettante proprietor
of Strawberry, there could ever have been
A Memoir. i6i
much cordiality. Indeed, for some of the
robuster spirits of his age Walpole shows an
extraordinary distaste, which with him gener-
ally implies unsympathetic, if not absolutely
illiberal, comment. Almost the only important
anecdote of Fielding in his correspondence is
one of which the distorting bias is demonstra-
ble ; ^ and to Fielding's contemporary, Hogarth,
although as a connoisseur he was shrewd
enough to collect his works, he scarcely ever
refers but to place him in a ridiculous aspect,
— a course which contrasts curiously with the
extravagant praise he gives to Bentley, Bunbury,
Lady Di. Beauclerk, and some other of the
very minor artistic lights in his own circle.
It is, however, possible to write too long an
excursus upon the Twickenham Parish Register,
and the last paragraphs of this chapter belong
of right to another and more important work,
— The Castle of Otranto. According to the
Short Notes, this ' Gothic romance ' was begun
in June, 1764, and finished on the 6th August
following. From another account we learn that
it occupied eight nights of this period from ten
o'clock at night until two in the morning, to the
accompaniment of coffee. In a letter to Cole,
1 Cf. chapter vi. of Fielding, by the present writer, in
the Me}i of Letters series, 2nd edition, 1SS9, pp. 145-7.
II
1 62 Horace Walpole :
the Cambridge antiquary, with whom Walpole
commenced to correspond in 1762, he gives some
further particulars, which, because they have
been so often quoted, can scarcely be omitted
here : ' Shall I even confess to you what was
the origin of this romance ? I waked one
morning, in the beginning of last June, from a
dream, of which all I could recover was, that I
had thought myself in an ancient castle (a very
natural dream for a head filled, like mine, with
Gothic story), and that on the uppermost ban-
nister of a great staircase I saw a gigantic hand
in armour. In the evening I sat down and
began to write, without knowing in the least
what I intended to say or relate. The work
grew on my hands, and I grew fond of it. — add
that I was very glad to think of anything, rather
than politics. In short, I was so engrossed
with my tale, which I completed in less than
two months, that one evening I wrote from the
time I had drunk my tea, about six o'clock, till
half an hour after one in the morning, when my
hand and fingers were so weary that I could not
hold the pen to finish the sentence, but left
Matilda and Isabella talking, in the middle of a
paragraph.' ^
The work of which the origin is thus de-
1 Letter to Cole, 9 March, 1765
A Memoir. 163
scribed was published in a limited edition on
the 24th December, 1764, with the title of The
Castle of Oiranto, a Story, translated by William
Marshal, Gent., from the original Italian of Onu-
phr'io Muralto, Canon of the Church of St.
Nicholas at Otranto. The name of the alleged
Italian author is sometimes described as an ana-
gram from Horace Walpole, — a misconception
which is easily demonstrated by counting the
letters. The book was printed, not for Wal-
pole, but for Lownds, of Fleet Street, and it was
prefaced by an introduction in which the author
described and criticised the supposed original,
which he declared to be a black-letter printed
at Naples in 1529. Its success was consider-
able. It seems at first to have excited no sus-
picion as to its authenticity, and it is not clear
that even Gray, to whom a copy was sent im-
mediately after publication, was in the secret.
' I have received the Castle of Otranto,' he
says, ' and return you my thanks for it. It en-
gages our attention here [at Cambridge], makes
some of us cry a little, and all in general afraid
to go to bed o' nights.' In the second edition,
which followed in April, 1765, Walpole dropped
the mask, disclosing his authorship in a second
preface of great ability, which, among other
things, contains a vindication of Shakespeare's
1 64 Horace Walpole :
mingling of comedy and tragedy against the
strictures of Voltaire, — a piece of temerity
which some of his French friends feared mi^^ht
o
prejudice him with that formidable critic. But
what is even more interesting is his own account
of what he had attempted. He had endeavoured
to blend ancient and modern romance, — to em-
ploy the old supernatural agencies of Scudery
and La Calprenede as the background to the
adventures of personages modelled as closely
upon ordinary life as the personages of Tom
Jones. These are not his actual illustrations,
but they express his meaning. ' The actions,
sentiments, conversations, of the heroes and
heroines of ancient days were as unnatural as
the machines employed to put them in motion.'
He would make his heroes and heroines natural
in all these things, only borrowing from the
older school some of that imagination, invention,
and fancy which, in the literal reproduction of
life, he thought too much neglected.
His idea was novel, and the moment a favour-
able one for its development. Fluently and
lucidly written, the Castle of Otranlo set a
fashion in literature. But, like many other
works produced under similar conditions, it had
its day. To the pioneer of a movement which
has exhausted itself, there comes often what is
A Memoir: 165
almost worse than oblivion, — discredit and
neglect. A generation like the present, for
whom fiction has unravelled so many intricate
combinations^ and whose Gothicism and Mediae-
valism are better instructed than Walpole's, no
longer feels its soul harrowed up in the same
way as did his hushed and awe-struck readers
of the days of the third George. To the critic
the book is interesting as the first of a school of
romances which had the honour of influencing
even the mighty ' Wizard of the North,' who,
no doubt in gratitude, wrote for Ballant/ne's
Novelisfs Library a most appreciative study of
the story. But we doubt if that many-plumed
and monstrous helmet, which crashes through
stone walls and cellars, could now^ give a single
shiver to the most timorous Cambridge don,
while we suspect that the majority of modern
students would, like the author, leave Matilda
and Isabella talking, in the middle of a para-
graph, but from a different kind of weariness.
Autres temps, autres mceurs, — especially in the
matter of Gothic romance.
.66 Hoi ace IValpole :
CHAPTER VII.
State of French Society in 1765. — Walpole at Paris. —The
Royal Family and the Bete du Gevaudan. — French Ladies
of Quality. — Madame du Deffand — A Letter from Madame
de Sevigne. — Rousseau and the King of Prussia. — The
Hume-Rousseau Quarrel. — Returns to England, and hears
Wesley at Bath. — Paris again. — Madame du Deftand's
Vitality. — Her Character. — Minor Literary Efforts. — The
Historic Doubts. — The Mysterious Mother. — Tragedy in
England. — Doings of the Strawberry Press. — Walpole
and Chatterton.
TXJHEN, towards the close of 176),
* ^ Walpole made the first of several
visits to Paris, the society of the French capi-
tal, and indeed French society as a whole, was
showing signs of that coming culbule gdntiralc
which was not to be long deferred. The upper
classes were shamelessly immoral, and, from the
King downwards, liaisons of the most open
character excited neither censure nor comment.
It was the era of Voltaire and the Encyclopae-
dists ; it was the era of Rousseau and the Sen-
timentalists ; it was also the era of confirmed
Anglomania. While we, on our side, were be-
ginning to copy the conUdics larmo/antcs of
i
A Memoir, 167
La Chauss^e and Diderot, the French in their
turn were acting Romeo and Juliet, and raving
over Richardson. Richardson's chief rival in
their eyes was Hume, then a chargd (T affaires,
and, in spite of his plain face and bad French,
the idol of the freethinkers. He ' is treated
here,' writes Walpole, ' with perfect venera-
tion ; ' and we learn from other sources that no
lady's toilette was complete without his attend-
ance. 'At the Opera,' — says Lord Charlemont,
— ' his broad, unmeaning face was usually seen
entre deux jolis mlnois ; the ladies in France
gave the ion, and the ton was Deism.' Apart
from literature, irreligion, and philosophy, the
chief occupation was cards. ' Whisk and
Richardson ' is Walpole's later definition of
French society ; ' Whisk and disputes/ that of
Hume. According to Walpole, a kind of pedan-
try and solemnity was the characteristic of
conversation, and ' laughing was as much out
of fashion as pantins or bilboquets. Good folks,
they have no time to laugh. There is God and
the King to be pulled down first ; and men and
women, one and all, are devoutly employed in
the demolition.' How that enterprise even-
tuated, history has recorded.
It is needless, however, to rehearse the origins
of the French Revolution, in order to make a
1 68 Horace IValpole :
background for the visit of an English gentle-
man to Paris in 1765. Walpole had been medi-
tating this journey for two or three years ; but
the state of his health, among other things (he
suffered much from gout), had from time to time
postponed it. In 1763, he had been going
next spring ; ^ but when next spring came he
talked of the beginning of 176). Nevertheless,
in March of that year, Gilly Williams writes to
Selwyn : ' Horry Walpole has now postponed
his journey till May,' and then he goes on to
speak of the Castle of Otranlo in a way which
shows that all the author's friends were not
equally enthusiastic respecting that ingenious
romance. ' How do you think he has employed
that leisure which his political frenzy has al-
lowed of? In writing a novel, . . . and such
a novel that no boarding-school miss of thirteen
could get through without yawning. It consists
of ghosts and enchantments ; pictures walk out
of their frames, and are good company for half
an hour together ; helmets drop from the moon,
^ It is curious to note in one of his letters at this date
a mot which may be compared with the famous ' Good
Americans, when they die, go to Paris.' Walpole is more
sardonic. 'Paris,' he says, *. . . like the description
of the grave, is the way of all flesh ' ( Wal/^ole to Mann,
30 June, 1763).
A Memoir, 169
and cover half a family. He says it was a
dream, and I fancy one when he had some
feverish disposition in him.'^ May, however,
had arrived and passed, and the Castle of
Otranto was in its second edition, before
Walpole at last set out, on Monday, the 9th
September, 176). After a seven hours' passage,
he reached Calais from Dover. Near Amiens
he was refreshed by a sight of one of his favour-
ites. Lady Mary Coke,^ ' in pea-green and
silver ; ' at Chantilly he was robbed of his port-
1 Gil/y Williams to Sekvyn, 19 March, 1765.
2 Lady Mary Coke, to whom the second edition of the
Gothic romance was dedicated, was the youngest daugh-
ter of John, Duke of Argyll and Greenwich. At this date,
she was a widow, — Lord Coke having died in 1753. Two
volumes of her Letters and Journals, with an excellent
introduction by Lady Louisa Stuart, were printed privately
at Edinburgh in 1889 from MSS. in the possession of the
Earl of Home. A third volume, which includes a num-
ber of epistles addressed to her by Walpole, found among
the papers of the late Mr. Drummond Moray of Aber-
cairny, was issued in 1892. Walpole's tone in these
documents is one of fantastic adoration ; but the pair
ultimately (and inevitably) quarrelled. There is a well-
known mezzotint of Lady Mary by McArdell after Allan
Ramsay, in which she appears in white satin, holding a
tall theorbo. The original painting is at Mount Stuart,
and belongs to Lord Bute.
1 70 Horace Walpole :
manteau. By the time he reached Paris, on the
1 3th, he had already ' fallen in love with twenty
things, and in hate with forty.' The dirt of
Paris, the narrowness of the streets, the ' trees
clipped to resemble brooms, and planted on
pedestals of chalk,' disgust him. But he is
enraptured with the treillage and fountains,
'and will prove it at Strawberry.' He detests
the French opera, though he loves the French
opdra-comique, with its Italian comedy and his
passion, — ' his dear favourite harlequin.' Upon
the whole, in these first impressions he is dis-
appointed. Society is duller than he expected,
and with the staple topics of its conversation, —
philosophy, literature, and freethinking, — he is
(or says he is) out of sympathy. ' Freethinking
is for one's self, surely not for society. ... I
dined to-day with half-a-dozen savans, and though
all the servants were waiting, the conversa-
tion was much more unrestrained, even on the
Old Testament, than 1 would suffer at my own
table in England if a single footman was pre-
sent. For literature, it is very amusing when
one has nothing else to do. I think it rather
pedantic in society ; tiresome when displayed
professedly ; and, besides, in this country one is
sure it is only the fashion of the day.' And
A Memoir, 171
then he goes on to say that the reigning fashion
is Richardson and Hume.^
One of his earliest experiences was his pre-
sentation at Versailles to the royal family, — a
ceremony which luckily involved but one opera-
tion instead of several, as in England, where the
Princess Dowager of Wales, the Duke of Cum-
berland, and the Princess Amelia had all their
different levees. He gives an account of this
to Lady Hervey ; but repeats it on the same
day with much greater detail in a letter to
Chute. ' You perceive [he says] that I have
been presented. The Queen took great notice
of me [for which reason, in imitation of Madame
de Sevigne, he tells Lady Hervey that she is le
plus grand roi du mondc] ; none of the rest said
a syllable. You are let into the King's bed-
chamber just as he has put on his shirt ; he
dresses, and talks good-humouredly to a few,
glares at strangers, goes to mass, to dinner, and
a-hunting. The good old Queen, who is like
Lady Primrose in the face, and Queen Caroline
in the immensity of her cap, is at her dressing-
table, attended by two or three old ladies. . . .
Thence you go to the Dauphin, for all is done in
an hour. He scarce stays a minute ; indeed,
poor creature, he is a ghost, and cannot possibly
1 Walpole to Montagu, 22 September, 1765.
1 72 Horace JValpoIe :
last three months. [He died, in fact, within
this time, on the 20th December.] The
Dauphiness is in her bed-chamber, but dressed
and standing; looks cross, is not civil, and has
the true Westphalian grace and accents. The
four Mesdames [these were the Graille, Chiffe,
Coche, and Loqiie of history], w^ho are clumsy,
plump old wenches, with a bad likeness to their
father, stand in a bedchamber in a row, with
black cloaks and knotting-bags, looking good-
humoured, [and] not knowing what to say. . . .
This ceremony is very short ; then you are carried
to the Dauphin's three boys, who, you may be
sure, only bow and stare. The Duke of Berry
[afterwards Louis XVI.] looks weak and weak-
eyed ; the Count de Provence [Louis XVI I L]
is a fine boy ; the Count d'Artois [Charles X.]
well enough. The whole concludes with seeing
the Dauphin's little girl dine, who is as round and
as fat as a pudding.' ^ Such is Walpole's account
of the royal family of France on exhibition. In
the Queen's ante-chamber he was treated to a
sight of the famous bete du Gdvaudan, a hugeous
wolf, of which a highly sensational representa-
tion had been given in the St. James's Chronicle
for June 6-8. It had just been shot, after a
prosperous but nefarious career, and was ex-
1 IValJ^oU to Chute, 3 October, 1765.
A Memoir. 173
hibited by two chasseurs ' with as much parade
as if it was Mr. Pitt.'^
When he had been at Paris little less than a
month, he was laid up with the gout in both
feet. He was visited during his illness by
Wilkes, for whom he expresses no admiration.
From another letter it appears that Sterne and
Foote were also staying in the French capital
at this time. In November he is still limping
about, and it is evident that confinement in ' a
bedchamber in a hdtel garni, . . . when the
court is at Fontainebleau,' has not been with-
out its effect upon his views of things in general.
In writing to Gray (who replies with all sorts
of kindly remedies), he says, 'The charms of
Paris have not the least attraction for me, nor
1 Madame de Genlis mentions this fearsome monster
in her Mhnoires : ' Tout le monde a entendu parler de
la hyene de Gevaudan, qui a fait tant de ravages.' The
point of Walpole's allusion to Pitt is explained in one
of his hitherto unpublished letters to Lady Mary Coke
at this date : ' I had the fortune to be treated with the
sight of what, next to Mr. Pitt, has occasioned most alarm
in France, the Beast of the Gevaudan' [Letters and Jour-
nals, iii. [1892], xvii). In another letter, to Pitt's sister
Ann, maid of honour to Queen Caroline, he says : * It is
a very large wolf, to be sure, and they say has twelve teeth
more than any of the species, and six less than the
(Zz2ccm2i' [Forte saie Corr., Hist. MSS. Com7nissio7t, iT^th
Kept., App. iii., 1S92, i. 147).
1 74 Horace IValpole :
would keep me an hour on their own account.
For the city itself, I cannot conceive where my
eyes were : it is the ugliest, beastliest town in
the universe. I have not seen a mouthful of
verdure out of it, nor have they anything green
but their treillage and window shutters. . . .
Their boasted knowledge of society is reduced
to talking of their suppers, and every malady
they have about them, or know of.' A day or
two later his gout and his stick have left him,
and his good humour is coming back. Before
the month ends, he is growing reconciled to his
environment ; and by January ' France is so
agreeable, and England so much the reverse," —
he tells Lady Hervey, — ' that he does not know
when he shall return.' The great ladies, too,
Madame de Brionne, Madame d'Aiguillon,
Marshal Richelieu's daughter, Madame d'Eg-
mont (with whom he could fall in love if it
would break anybody's heart in England), begin
to flatter and caress him. His ' last new pas-
sion ' is the Duchess de Choiseul, who is so
charming that ' you would take her for the
queen of an allegory.' ' One dreads its finish-
ing, as much as a lover, if she would admit one,
would wish it should finish.' There is also a
beautiful Countess de Forcalquier, the ' broken
music ' of whose imperfect English stirs him
A Memoir. 175
into heroics too Arcadian for the matter-of-fact
meridian of London, where Lady Hervey is
cautioned not to exhibit them to the profane.^
In a letter of later date to Gray, he describes
some more of these graceful and witty leaders
of fashion, whose ^douceur' he seems to have
greatly preferred to the pompous and arrogant
fatuity of the men. ' They have taken up
gravity,' — he says of these latter, — 'thinking
it was philosophy and English, and so have
acquired nothing in the room of their natural
levity and cheerfulness.' But with the women
the case is different. He knows six or seven
' with very superior understandings ; some of
them with wit, or with softness, or very good
sense.' His first portrait is of the famous
Madame Geoffrin, to whom he had been
recommended by Lady Hervey, and who had
visited him when imprisoned in his chambre
garni. He lays stress upon her knowledge of
character, her tact and good sense, and the
happy mingling of freedom and severity by
1 Of Mad. de Forcalquier it is related that, entering a
theatre during the performance of Cresset's Le Mechajit,
just as the line was uttered, ^ La faute est mix dieux,
gut lafirent si belief the applause was so great as to inter-
rupt the play. The point of this, in a recent repetition of
the anecdote, was a little blunted by the printer's substi-
tution of ' bete ' for '■belle.''
1/6 Horace IValpole:
which she preserved her position as ' an epi-
tome of empire, subsisting by rewards and
punishments.' Then there is the Marechale
de Mirepoix, a courtier and an intrigante of the
first order. ' She is false, artful, and insinu-
ating beyond measure when it is her interest,
but indolent and a coward,' says Walpole,
who does not measure his words even when
speaking of a beauty and a Princess of Lorraine.
Others are the savante, Madame de Boufilers,
who visited England and Johnson, and whom
the writer hits off neatly by saying that you
would think she was always sitting for her
picture to her biographer ; a second sarante,
Madame de Rochfort, 'the decent friend' of
Walpole's former guest at Strawberry, the Due
de Nivernois; ^ the already mentioned Duchess
1 Louis-Jules-Barbon-Mancini-Mazarini, DucdeNiver-
nois (1716-98), who had visited Twickenham three years
earlier, when he was Ambassador to England. He was
a man of fine manners, and tastes so literary that his
works fill eight volumes. They include a translation of
Walpole's Essay on Modern Gardening (see appendix at
end). In his letters to Miss Ann Pitt at this date,
Walpole speaks of the Duke's clever fables, by which he
is now best remembered. Lord Chesterfield told his son
in 1749 that Nivernois was 'one of the prettiest men he
had ever known,' and in 1762 his opinion was unaltered.
* M. de Nivernois est aim^, respect^, et adtnir^ par tout ce qii'
Madame du Deffand,
/
'^/^i
A Memoir. 177
de Choiseul, and Madame la Marechale de
Luxembourg, whose youth had been stormy,
but who was now softening down into a kind
of twilight melancholy which made her rather
attractive. This last, with one exception, com-
pletes his list.
The one exception is a figure \\hich hence-
forth played no inconsiderable part in Wal-
pole's correspondence^ — that of the brilliant
and witty Madame du Deffand. As Marie de
Vichy-Chamrond, she had been married at
one-and-twenty to the nobleman whose name
she bore, and had followed the custom of her
day by speedily choosing a lover, who had
many successors. For a brief space she had
captivated the Regent himself, and at this date,
being nearly seventy and hopelessly blind, was
continuing, from mere force of habit, a • decent
friendship ' with the deaf President Henault.
At first Walpole was not impressed with her,
and speaks of her, disrespectfully, as ' an old
blind debauchee of wit." A little later, although
he still refers to her as the ' old lady of the
il y a d'hon7ietes gens h la cour et a la ville,^ he writes to
Madame de Monconseil. The Duke's end was worthy of
Chesterfield himself, for he spent some of his last hours
in composing valedictory verses to his doctor, which are
said to have been ^ pleins de sentifnefits affectueiix.^
12
178 Horace Walpole :
house,' he says she is very agreeable. Later
still, she has completed her conquest by telling
him he has le fou mocqiier ; and in the letter to
Gray above quoted, it is plain that she has
become an object of absorbing interest to him,
not unmi'ngled with a nervous apprehension of
her undisguised partiality for his society. In
spite of her affliction (he says) she ' retains all
her vivacity, wit, memory, judgment, passions,
and agreeableness. She goes to Operas, Plays,
suppers, and Versailles ; gives suppers twice
a week ; has every thing new read to her ;
makes new songs and epigrams, ay, admirably,^
and remembers every one that has been made
these fourscore years. She corresponds with
Voltaire, dictates charming letters to him, con-
tradicts him, is no bigot to him or anybody,
and laughs both at the clergy and the philoso-
phers. In a dispute, into which she easily falls,
she is very warm, and yet scarce ever in the
wrong; her judgment on every subject is as
just as possible; on every point of conduct as
1 One of her logogriphes, or enigmas, is as follows : —
' Quotqueje forme nn corps, jene suis qtiUtne tdee ;
Phis ma beaute vieillit, plus elle est decidee :
///aui, pour me irouver, iguorer d^oii jc viens :
Je tiens tout de lui, qui rcduit tout h ricn.^
The answer is noblesse. Lord Chesterfield thought it so
good that he sent it to his godson (Letter 166).
A Memoir. 179
wrong as possible : for she is all love and
hatred, passionate for her friends to enthu-
siasm, still anxious to be loved, I don't mean
by lovers, and a vehement enemy, but openly.
As she can have no amusement but conver-
sation, the least solitude and ennui are insup-
portable to her, and put her into the power
of several worthless people, who eat her suppers
when they can eat nobody's of higher rank. ;
wink to one another and laugh at her ; hate
her because she has forty times more parts,
and venture to hate her because she is not
rich.' ^ In another letter, to Mr. James Craw-
ford of Auchinames (Hume's Fhh Crawford),
who was also one of Madame du Deffand's
admirers, he says, in repeating some of the
above details, that he is not ' ashamed of in-
teresting himself exceedingly about her. To
say nothing of her extraordinary parts, she is
certainly the most generous, friendly being upon
earth.' Upon her side, Madame du Deffand
seems to have been equally attracted by the
strange mixture of independence and effeminacy
which went to make up Walpole's character.
Her attachment to him rapidly grew into a
kind of infatuation. He had no sooner quitted
Paris, which he did on the 17th April, than she
1 Walpolc to Gray, 25 January, 1766.
i8o Horace IValpoIe :
began to correspond with him ; and thencefor-
ward, until her death in 1780, her letters,
dictated to her faithful secretary. Wiart, con-
tinued, except when Walpole was actually visit-
ing her (and she sometimes wrote to him even
then), to reach him regularly. Not long after
his return to England, she made him the victim
of a charming hoax. He had, when in Paris,
admired a snuflf-box which bore a portrait of
Madame de Sevigne, for whom he professed an
extravagant admiration. Madame du Deffand
procured a similar box, had the portrait copied,
and sent it to him with a letter, purporting to
come from the dateless Elysian Fields and
' Notre Dame de Livry ' herself, in which he
was enjoined to use his present always, and
to bring it often to France and the Faubourg
St. Germain. Walpole was completely taken
in, and imagined that the box had come from
Madame de Choiseul ; but he should have
known at first that no one living but his blind
friend could have written 'that most charming
of all letters.' The box itself, the memento of
so much old-world ingenuity, was sold (with the
pseudo-Sevigne epistle) at the Strawberry Hill
sale for £28 7s. When witty Mrs. Clive heard
of the last addition to Walpole's list of favour-
ites, she delivered herself of a good-humoured
A Memoir. i8i
hon mot. There was a new resident at Twick-
enham, — the first Earl of Shelburne's widow.
' If the new Countess is but lame/ quoth Clive
(referring to the fact that Lady Suffolk was deaf,
and Madame du Deffand blind), ' I shall have
no chance of ever seeing you.' But there is
nothing to show that he ever relaxed in his
attentions to the delightful actress, whom he
somewhere styles dimidium animcu mecv. -^
One of the other illustrious visitors to Paris
during Walpole's stay there was Rousseau. Be-
ing no longer safe in his Swiss asylum, where
the curate of Motiers had excited the mob
against him, that extraordinary self-tormentor,
clad in his Armenian costume, had arrived in
December at the French capital, and shortly
afterwards left for England, under the safe-con-
duct of Hume, who had undertaken to procure
him a fresh resting-place. He reached London
on the 14th January, 1766. Walpole had, to
1 He was malicious enough to add, ' a pretty round
half.' In middle life Mrs. Clive, like her Twickenham
neighbour, Mrs. Pritchard, grew excessively stout; and
there is a pleasant anecdote that, on one occasion, when
the pair were acting together in Gibber's Careless Husband,
the audience were regaled by the spectacle of two leading
actresses, neither of whom could manage to pick up a
letter which, by ill-luck, had been dropped upon the
ground.
1 82 Horace Walpole :
use his own phrase, ' a hearty contempt ' for the
fugitive sentimentalist and his grievances ; and
not long before Rousseau's advent in Paris,
taking for his pretext an offer made by the King
of Prussia, he had woven some of the light
mockery at Madame Geoflfrin's into a sham letter
from Frederick to Jean-Jacques, couched in the
true Walpolean spirit of persiflage. It is difficult
to summarize, and may be reproduced here as its
author transcribed it on the 12th January, for
the benetit of Conway : —
Le Roi de Prusse a Monsieur Rousseau.
MoN CHER Jean-Jacques, — Vous avez re-
nonc^ k Geneve votre patrie ; vous vous 6tes
fait chasser de la Suisse, pays tant vante dans
vos Merits ; la France vous a decrete. Venez
done chez moi ; j'admire vos talens ; je m'amuse
de vos reveries, qui (soit dit en passant) vous
occupent trop, et trop longtems. II faut k la
fin etre sage et heureux. Vous avez fait assez
parler de vous par des singularit^s peu conve-
nables k un veritable grand homme. Demontrez
k vos ennemis que vous pouvez avoir quelque-
fois le sens commun : cela les fachera, sans vous
faire tort. Mes etats vous offrent une retraite
paisible ; je vous veux du bien, et je vous en
ferai, si vous le trouvez bon. Mais si vous vous
A Memoir, 183
obstiniez ^ rejetter mon secours, attendez-vous
que je ne le dirai k personne. Si vous persistez
k vous creuser Tesprit pour trouver de nou-
veaux malheurs, choisissez les tels que vous
voudrez. Je suis roi, je puis vous en procurer
au gre de vos souhaits : et ce qui sOrement ne
vous arrivera pas vis ^ vis de vos ennemis, je
cesserai de vous persecuter quand vous cesserez
de mettre votre gloire k Tetre.
Votre bon ami,
Frederic.
This composition, the French of which was
touched up by Helvetius, Henault, and the Due
de Nivernois, gave extreme satisfaction to all
the anti-Rousseau party. ^ While Hume and
his poUgi were still in Paris, Walpole, out of
delicacy to Hume, managed to keep the matter
1 In a recently printed letter to Miss Ann Pitt, 19 Jan.,
1766, Walpole makes reference to the popularity which
this jeu d'esprit procured for him. ' Everybody wou'd
have a copy [of course he encloses one to his correspon-
dent] ; the next thing was, everybody wou'd see the
author. ... I thought at last I shou'd have a box quilted
for me, like Gulliver, be set upon the dressing-table of a
maid of honour, and fed with bonbons. ... If, contrary
to all precedent, I shou'd exist in vogue a week longer, I
will send you the first statue that is cast of me in berga-
motte or biscuite porcelaine' {Fortescue Corr., Hist. AISS.
Commision, lyh Rept., App. iii. [1892], i, 153),
1 84 Horace Walpole :
a secret ; and he also abstained from making any
overtures to Rousseau, whom, as he truly said,
he could scarcely have visited cordially, with a
letter in his pocket written to ridicule him.
But Hume had no sooner departed than Frede-
rick's sham invitation went the round, ultimately
finding its way across the Channel, where it was
printed in the St. James's Chronicle. Rousseau,
always on the alert to pose as the victim of
plots and conspiracies, was naturally furious, and
wrote angrily from his retreat at Mr. Daven-
port's in Derbyshire to denounce the fabrication.
The worst of it was, that his morbid nature im-
mediately suspected the innocent Hume of par-
ticipating in the trick. ' What rends and afflicts
my heart [is],' he told the Chronicle, ' that the
impostor hath his accomplices in England ; ' and
this delusion became one of the main elements
in that ' twice-told tale,' — the quarrel of Hume
and Rousseau. Walpole was called upon to
clear Hume from having any hand in the letter,
and several communications, all of which are
printed at length in the fourth volume of his
works, followed upon the same subject. Their
discussion would occupy too large a space in
this limited memoir.^ It is, however, worth
1 Hume's narrative of the affair may be read in .-1 Con-
cise and Genuine Account of the Dispute behveen Mr. Ilume
Hume.
tJNIVEBSIXT j
A Memoir. 185
noticing that Walpole's instinct appears to have
foreseen the trouble that fell upon Hume.
* I wish/ he wrote to Lady Hervey, in a letter
which Hume carried to England when he ac-
companied his untunable protigi thither, ' I
wish he may not repent having engaged with
Rousseau, who contradicts and quarrels with all
mankind, in order to obtain their admiration.'^
He certainly, upon the present occasion, did not
belie this uncomplimentary character.
Before the last stages of the Hume-Rousseau
controversy had been reached, Hume was back
again in Paris, and Walpole had returned to
London. Upon the whole, he told Mann, he
liked France so well that he should certainly go
there again. In September, 1766, he was once
and Mr. Rousseau : with the Letters that passed between
them during their Controversy. As also, the Letters of the
Hon. Mr. Walpole, and Mr. D'Alenibert, relative to this
extraordinary Affair. Translated from the French.
Londoti. Printed for T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt, Jiear
Snrry-street, in the Strand, MDCCLXVI.
1 Walpole to Lady Hervey, 2 January, 1766. In a letter
to Lady Mary Coke, dated two days later, he says : ' Rous-
seau set out this morning for England. As He loves to
contradict a whole Nation, I suppose he will write for the
present opposition. ... As he is to live at Fulham, I hope
his first quarrel will be with his neighbour the Bishop of
London, who is an excellent subject for his ridicule '
{Letters and Journals, iii. 1892, xx).
1 86 Horace Walpole :
more attacked with gout, and at the beginning
of October went to Bath, whose Avon (as com-
pared with his favourite Thames) he considers
' paltry enough to be the Seine or Tyber.'
Nothing pleases him much at Bath, although it
contained such notabilities as Lord Chatham,
Lord Northington, and Lord Camden ; but he
goes to hear Wesley, of whom he writes rather
flippantly to Chute. He describes him as ' a
lean, elderly man, fresh-coloured, his hair
smoothly combed, but with a soupgon of curl
at the ends.' ' Wondrous clean,' he adds, ' but
as evidently an actor as Garrick. He spoke
his sermon, but so fast, and with so little
accent, that I am sure he has often uttered it,
for it was like a lesson. There were parts and
eloquence in it ; but towards the end he exalted
his voice, and acted very ugly enthusiasm ; de-
cried learning, and told stories, like Latimer, of
the fool of his college, who said, ' I th.mks God
for everything.' ^ He returned to Strawberry
Hill in October. In August of the next year he
again went to Paris, going almost straight to
Madame du Deffand's, where he finds Made-
moiselle Clairon (who had quitted the stage)
invited to declaim Corneille in his honour, and
he sups in a distinguished company. His visit
1 JVci/J>oL- to Chute, lo October, 1766.
A Memoir. 187
lasted two months ; but his letters for this period
contain few interesting particulars, while those
of the lady cease altogether, to be resumed
again on the 9th October, a few hours after his
departure. Two years later he travels once
more to Paris and his blind friend, whom he
finds in better health than ever, and with spirits
so increased that he tells her she will go mad
with age. ' When they ask her how old she
is, she answers, "7'ai soixante et mille ans.'''
Her septuagenarian activity might well have
wearied a younger man. ' She and I,' he says,
• went to the Boulevard last night after supper,
and drove about there till two in the morning.
We are going to sup in the country this evening,
and are to go to-morrow night at eleven to the
puppet-show.' In a letter to George Montagu,
which adds some details to her portrait, he
writes : ' I have heard her dispute w^ith all sorts
of people, on all sorts of subjects, and never
knew her in the wrong. ^ She humbles the
learned, sets right their disciples, and finds
conversation for everybody. Affectionate as
1 Lady Mary Coke testifies to the charm of her con-
versation : ' In the evening I made a visit to Madame du
Deffan [szc]. She talks so well that I wish'd to write
down everything She said, as I thought I shou'd have
liked to have read it afterwards' [Letters and Journals,
iii. [1892], 233).
1 88 " Horace IValpole :
Madame de Sevign6, she has none of her pre-
judices, but a more universal taste ; and, with
the most delicate frame, her spirits hurry her
through a life of fatigue that would kill me, if I
was to continue here. ... I had great difficulty
last night to persuade her, though she was not
well, not to sit up till between two and three
for the comet ; for which purpose she had ap-
pointed an astronomer to bring his telescopes to
the President Henault's, as she thought it would
amuse me. In short, her goodness to me is so
excessive that I feel unashamed at producing
my withered person in a round of diversions,
which I have quitted at home.'^ One of the
other amusements which she procured for him
was the entrde of the famous convent of St. Cyr,
of which he gives an interesting account. He
inspects the pensioners, and the numerous por-
traits of the foundress, Madame de Maintenon.
In one class-room he hears the young ladies
sing the choruses in Athalic ; in another sees
them dance minuets to the violin of a nun who
is not precisely St. Cecilia. In the third room
they act proj'^jr/'fjs, or conversations. Finally, he
is enabled to enrich the archives of Strawberry
with a piece of paper containing a few sentences
of Madame de Maintenon's handwriting.
1 JV(i//>o/c' to Montagu, 7 September, 1769.
A Memoir. 189
Walpole's literary productions for this date (in
addition to the letter from the King of Prussia
to Rousseau) are scheduled in the Short Notes
with his usual minuteness. In June^ 17^6,
shortly after his return from Paris, he wrote a
squib upon Captain Byron's description of the
Patagonians, entitled, An Account of the Giants
lately discovered, which was published on the
2^th August. On 18 August he began his
Memoirs of the Reign of King George the
Third; and, in 1767, the detection of a work
published at Paris in two volumes under the
title of the Testament du Chevalier Robert
Walpole, and ' stamped in that mint of forge-
ries, Holland.' This, which is printed in the
second volume of his works, remained unpub-
lished during his lifetime, as no English transla-
tion of the Testament was ever made. His next
deliverance was a letter, subsequently printed
in the St. Jameses Chronicle for 28 May, in
which he announced to the Corporation of
Lynn, in the person of their Mayor, Mr. Langley,
that he did not intend to offer himself again as
the representative in Parliament of that town.
A wish to retire from all public business, and the
declining state of his health, are assigned as the
reasons for his thus breaking his Parliamentary
connection, which had now lasted for five-and-
1 90 Horace Walpole :
twenty years. Following upon this comes the
already mentioned account of his action in the
Hume and Rousseau quarrel, and a couple of
letters on Political Abuse in Newspapers. These
appeared in the Public Advertiser. But the
chief results of his leisure in 1766-8 are to be
found in two efforts more ambitious than any of
those above indicated, — the Historic Doubts
on Richard the Third, and the tragedy of The
Mysterious Mother. The Historic Doubts was
begun in the winter of 1767, and published in
February, 1768; the tragedy in December, 1766,
and published in March, 1768.
The Historic Doubts was an attempt to vindi-
cate Richard III. from his traditional character,
which Walpole considered had been intentionally
blackened in order to whiten that of Henry
VH. * Vous seriei un excellent attornei gindraU^
— wrote Voltaire to him, — ^ vous pese\ toutes
Ics probabilities.' He might have added that
they were all weighed on one side. Gray
admits the clearness with which the principal
part of the arguments was made out ; but he
remained unconvinced, especially as regards
the murder of Henry VI. Other objectors
speedily appeared, who were neither so friendly
nor so gentle. The Critical Rcvicir attacked
him for not having referred to Guthrie's His-
A Memoir. 191
tory of England, which had in some respects anti-
cipated him ; and he was also criticised adversely
by the London Chronicle. Of these attacks
Walpole spoke and wrote very contemptuously ;
but he seems to have been considerably nettled
by the conduct of a Swiss named Deyverdun,
who, giving an account of the book in a work
called Mdmoires LitUraires de la Grande Bre-
tagne for 1768, declared his preference for the
views which Hume had expressed in certain
notes to the said account. Deyverdun's action
appears to have stung Walpole into a supplemen-
tary defence of his theories, in which he dealt
with his critics generally. This he did not print,
but set aside to appear as a postscript in his
works. In 1770, however, his arguments were
contested by Dr. Milles, Dean of Exeter, to
whom he replied ; and later still, another anti-
quary, the Rev. Mr. Masters, came forward.
The last two assailants were members of the
Society of Antiquaries, from which body Walpole,
in consequence, withdrew. But he practically
abandoned his theories in a final postscript, writ-
ten in February, 1793, which is to be found in
the second volume of his works.
Concerning the second performance above
referred to, The Mysterious Mother, most of
Walpole's biographers are content to abide in
192 Horace Walpole :
generalities. That the proprietor of Gothic
Strawberry should have produced The Castle
of Otranto has a certain congruity ; but one
scarcely expects to find the same person indulg-
ing in a blank-verse tragedy sombre enough to
have taxed the powers of Ford or Webster. It
is a curious example of literary reaction, and
his own words respecting it are doubtful-voiced.
To Montagu and to Madame du Deffand he
writes apologetically. ' // ne vous plairoit pas
assurdment,' he informs the lady ; ' il n'v a
pas de beaux sentiments. II /iV a que dcs pas-
sions sans envelope, des crimes, des repentis, et dcs
horrcurs ; ' ^ and he lays his finger on one of its
gravest defects when he goes on to say that its
interest languishes from the first act to the last.
Yet he seems, too, to have thought of its being
played, for he tells Montagu a month later that
though he is not yet intoxicated enough with it
to think it would do for the stage, yet he wishes
to see it acted, — a wish which must have been
a real one, since he says further that he has
written an epilogue for Mrs. Clive to speak
in character. The postscript which is affixed to
the printed piece contradicts the above utter-
ances considerably, or, at all events, shows that
fuller consideration has materially revised them.
1 Letters of Mixdame du Deffand, i8io, i. 21 1 n.
A Memoir, 193
He admits that The Mysterious Mother would
not be proper to appear upon the boards. ' The
subject is so horrid that I thought it would
shock rather than give satisfaction to an au-
dience. Still, I found it so truly tragic in the
two essential springs of terror and pity that I
could not resist the impulse of adapting it to the
scene, though it should never be practicable to
produce it there." After his criticism to Madame
du Deffand upon the plot, it is curious to find
him later on claiming that ' every scene tends
to bring on the catastrophe, and [that] the story
is never interrupted or diverted from its course.'
Notwithstanding its imaginative power, it is
impossible to deny that the author's words as to
the repulsiveness of the subject are just. But
it is needless to linger longer upon a dramatic
work which had such grave defects as to render
its being acted impossible, and concerning the
literary merit of which there will always be differ-
ent opinions. Byron spoke of it as 'a tragedy
of the highest order,' — a judgment which has
been traversed by Macaulay and Scott; Miss
Burney shuddered at its very name ; while Lady
Di. Beauclerk illustrated it enthusiastically with
a series of seven designs in ' sut-water,' ^ for
1 /. ^. Soot-water. There were two landscapes in soot-
water by Mr. Bentley in tiie Green Closet at Strawberry.
13
194
Horace IValpole:
which the enraptured author erected a special
gallery.^ Meanwhile, we may quote, from the
close of the above postscript, a passage where
Walpole is at his best. It is a rapid and char-
acteristic apcrgu of tragedy in England :
' The excellence of our dramatic writers is
by no means equal in number to the great men
we have produced in other walks. Theatric
genius lay dormant after Shakespeare ; waked
with some bold and glorious, but irregular and
often ridiculous, flights in Dryden ; revived in
Otway ; maintained a placid, pleasing kind of
dignity in Rowe, and even shone in his Jane
Shore. It trod in sublime and classic fetters
in Calo, but void of nature, or the power of
affecting the passions. In Southerne it seemed
a genuine ray of nature and Shakespeare ; but,
falling on an age still more Hottentot, was stifled
in those gross and barbarous productions, tra-
gi-comedies. It turned to tuneful nonsense in
the Mourning Bride; grew stark mad in Lee,
whose cloak, a little the worse for wear, fell on
Young, yet in both was still a poet's cloak. It
recovered its senses in Hughes and Fenton, who
were afraid it should relapse, and accordingly
kept it down with a timid but amiable hand ;
I
1 See chapter ix.
A Memoir, 195
and then it languished. We have not mounted
acrain above the two last.' ^
o
The Castle of Otranto and the Historic
Doubts were not printed by Mr. Robinson's
latest successor, Mr. Kirgate. But the Straw-
berry Press had by this time resumed its func-
tions, for The Mysterious Mother, of which
^o copies were struck off in 1768, was issued
from it. Another book which it produced in
the same year was Conidie, a youthful tragedy
by Madame du Deffand's friend, President
Henault. Walpole's sole reason for giving it
the permanence of his type appears to have
been gratitude to the venerable author, then
fast hastening to the grave, for his kindness to
himself in Paris. To Paris three-fourths of the
impression went. More important reprints were
Grammont's Memoirs, a small quarto, and a
series of Letters of Edward VI.; both printed
in 1772. The list for this period is completed
by the loose sheets of Hoyland's Poems, 1769,
and the well-known, but now rare. Description
of the Villa of Horace Walpole at Strawberry
Hill, 1774, 100 copies of which were printed,
six being on large paper. To an account of
this patchwork edifice, the ensuing chapter will
be chiefly devoted. The present may fitly be
i Works, 1798, i. 129.
1 96 Horace IValpole :
concluded with a brief statement of that always-
debated passage in Walpole's life, his relations
with the ill-starred Chatterton.
Towards the close of 1768, and early in
1769, Chatterton, fretting in Mr. Lambert's
office at Bristol, and casting about eagerly
for possible clues to a literary life, had offered
some specimens of the pseudo-Rowley to
James Dodsley of Pail-Mall, but apparently
without success. His next appeal was made
to Walpole, and mainly as the author of the
Anecdotes of Painting in England. What
documents he actually submitted to him, is not
perfectly clear ; but they manifestly included
further fabrications of monkish verse, and hinted
at, or referred to, a sequence of native artists
in oil, hitherto wholly undreamed of by the
distinguished virtuoso he addressed. The
packet was handed to Walpole at Arlington
Street by Mr. Bathoe, his bookseller (also
notable as the keeper of the first circulat-
ing library in London) ; and. incredible to
say, Walpole was instantly ^ drawn.' He de-
spatched without delay to his unknown Bris-
tol correspondent such a courteous note as he
might have addressed to Zouch or Ducarel,
expressing interest, curiosity, and a desire for
further particulars. Chatterton as promptly
A Memoir, 197
rejoined, forwarding more extracts from the
Rowley poems. But he also, from Walpole's
recollection of his letter, in part unbosomed
himself, making revelation of his position as
a widow's son and lawyer's apprentice, who
had ' a taste and turn for more elegant studies/
which inclinations, he suggested, his illustrious
correspondent might enable him to gratify.
Upon this, perhaps not unnaturally, Walpole's
suspicions were aroused, the more so that
Mason and Gray, to whom he showed the
papers, declared them to be forgeries. He
made, nevertheless, some private inquiry from
an aristocratic relative at Bath as to Chatterton's
antecedents, and found that, although his de-
scription of himself was accurate, no account
of his character was forthcoming. He accord-
ingly — he tells us — wrote him a letter ' with
as much kindness and tenderness as if he had
been his guardian,' recommendmg him to stick
to his profession, and adding, by way of post-
script, that judges, to whom the manuscripts had
been submitted, were by no means thoroughly
convinced of their antiquity. Two letters from
Chatterton followed, — one (the first) dejected
and seemingly acquiescent ; the other, a week
later, curtly demanding the restoration of his
papers, the genuineness of which he re-affirmed.
198
Horace Walpole :
These communications Walpole, by his own
account, either neglected to notice, or over-
looked.^ After an interval of some weeks
arrived a final missive, the tone of which he
regarded as ' singularly impertinent.' Snap-
ping up both poems and letters in a pet, he
scribbled a hasty reply, but, upon reconsider-
ation, enclosed them to their writer without
comment, and thought no more of him or them.
It was not until about a year and a half after-
wards that Goldsmith told him, at the first
Royal Academy dinner, that Chatterton had
come to London and destroyed himself, — an
announcement which seems to have filled him
with unaffected pity. ' Several persons of
honour and veracity,' he says, ' were present
when I first heard of his death, and will attest
my surprise and concern. ' ^
1 He says he 'was going to Paris in a day or two.'
l^ut his memory must have deceived him, for Chatterton's
last letter is dated July 24th, 1769, and, according to Miss
Berry, Walpole's visit to Paris lasted from the iSth
August to the 5th October, 1769; and this is confirmed
by his correspondence.
•^ Works, 1798, iv. 219. In the above summary of the
story we have relied by preference on the fairly established
facts of the case, which is full of difficulties. The most
plausible version of it, as well as the most fair to Walpole,
is given in Prof. D. Wilson's Chatterton, 1S69.
A Memoir, 199
The apologists of the gifted and precocious
Bristol boy, reading the above occurrences by
the light of his deplorable end, have attri-
buted to Walpole a more material part in his
misfortunes than can justly be ascribed to
him ; and the first editor of Chatterton's Mis-
cellanies did not scruple to emphasize the
current gossip, which represented Walpole as
' the primary cause of his [Chatterton's] dis-
mal catastrophe,' ^ — an aspersion which drew
from the Abbot of Strawberry the lengthy
letter on the subject which was afterwards
reprinted in his Works.''^ So long a vindi-
cation, if needed then, is scarcely needed now.
Walpole, it is obvious, acted very much as he
might have been expected to act. He had
been imposed upon, and he was as much
annoyed with himself as with the impostor.
But he was not harsh enough to speak his
1 An example of this is furnished by Miss Seward's
Coyresponde7ice. ' Do not expect [she writes] that I can
learn to esteem that fastidious and unfeeling being, to
whose insensibility we owe the extinction of the greatest
poetic luminary [Chatterton], if we may judge from the
brightness of its dawn, that ever rose in our, or perhaps
in any other, hemisphere' {Seward to Hardinge, 21 Nov.,
1787).
- Works, 1798, iv. 205-45. See also Bibliographical
Appendix to this volume.
200 Horace IValpole :
mind frankly, nor benevolent enough to act the
part of that rather rare personage, the ideal
philanthropist. If he had behaved less like an
ordinary man of the world ; if he had obtained
Chatterton's confidence, instead of lecturing
him ; if he had aided and counselled and
protected him, — Walpole would have been
different, and things might have been other-
wise. As they were, upon the principle that
' two of a trade can ne'er agree,' it is difficult
to conceive of any abiding alliance between
the author of the fabricated Tragedy of jElla
and the author of the fabricated Castle of
Otranlo.
A Memoir, 201
CHAPTER VIII.
Old Friends and New. — Walpole's Nieces. — Mrs. Darner. —
Progress of Strawberry Hill, — Festivities and Later Improve-
ments. — A Description^ etc., 1774. — The House and Ap-
proaches. — Great Parlour, Waiting Room, China Room, and
Yellow Bedchamber. — Breakfast Room. — Green Closet and
Blue Bedchamber. — Armoury and Library. — Red Bed-
chamber, Holbein Chamber, and Star Chamber. — Gallery. —
Round Drawing Room and Tribune. — Great North Bed-
chamber. — Great Cloister and Chapel. — Walpole on Straw-
berry. — Its Dampness. — A Drive from Twickenham to
Piccadilly.
TN 1774, when, according to its title-page, the
^ Description of Strawberry Hill was printed,
Walpole was a man of fifty-seven. During the
period covered by the last chapter, many
changes had taken place in his circle of friends.
Mann and George Montagu (until, in October,
1770, his correspondence with the latter mys-
teriously ceased) were still the most frequent
recipients of his letters, and next to these, Con-
way, and Cole the antiquary. But three of his
former correspondents, his deaf neighbour at
Marble Hill, Lady Suffolk, ^ Lady Hervey
1 Henrietta Hobart, Countess Dowager of Suffolk,
died in July, 1767. Her portrait by Charles Jervas, with
202 Horace Walpole :
(Pope's and Chesterfield's Molly Lepel, to
whom he had written much from Paris), and
Gray, were dead. On the other hand, he had
opened what promised to be a lengthy series
of letters with Gray's friend and biographer,
the Rev. William Mason, Rector of Aston, in
Yorkshire ; with Madame du Deflfand ; and
with the divorced Duchess of Grafton, who in
1769 had married his Paris friend, John Fitz-
patrick, second Earl of Upper Ossory. There
were changes, too, among his own relatives.
By this time his eldest brother's widow. Lady
Orford, had lost her second husband, Sewallis
Shirley, and was again living, not very repu-
tably, on the Continent. Her son George, who
since 17^1 had been third Earl of Orford, and
was still unmarried, was eminently unsatisfac-
tory. He was shamelessly selfish, and by way
of complicating the family embarrassments, had
taken to the turf. Ultimately he had periodical
attacks of insanity, during which time it fell to
Walpole's fate to look after his affairs. With
Sir Edward Walpole, his second brother, he
Marble Hill in the background, hung in the Green Bed-
chamber in the Round Tower at Strawberry. It once
belonged to Pope, who left it to Martha Blount ; and it
is engraved as the frontispiece of vol. ii. of Cunningham's
edition ofthe Letters.
A Memoir. 203
seems never to have been on terms of real
cordiality ; but he made no secret of his pride
in his beautiful nieces, Edward Walpole's
natural daughters, whose charms and amiability
had victoriously triumphed over every prejudice
which could have been entertained against their
birth. Laura, the eldest, had married a brother
of Lord Albemarle, subsequently created Bishop
of Lichfield and Coventry ; Charlotte, the third,
became Lady Huntingtower, and afterwards
Countess of Dysart ; while Maria, the helle of
the trio, was more fortunate still. After bury-
ing her first husband. Lord Waldegrave, she
had succeeded in fascinating H. R. H. William
Henry, Duke of Gloucester, the King's own
brother, and so contributing to bring about the
Royal Marriage Act of 1772. They were
married in 1766 ; but the fact was not formally
announced to His Majesty until September,
1772.^ Another marriage which must have
given Walpole almost as much pleasure was
that of General Conway's daughter to Mr.
Damer, Lord Milton's eldest son, which took.
1 'The Duke of Gloucester' — wrote Gilly Williams
to Selwyn, as far back as December, 1764 — 'has pro-
fessed a passion for the Dowager Waldegrave. He is
never from her elbow. This flatters Horry Walpole not
a little, though he pretends to dislike it.'
204 Horace Walpole:
place in 1767. After the unhappy death of her
husband, who shot himself in a tavern ten years
later, Mrs. Darner developed considerable talents
as a sculptor, and during the last years of Wal-
pole's life was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal
Academy. Non mc Praxiteles finxiL at Anna
Darner, wrote her admiring relative under
one of her works, a wounded eagle in terra-
cotta ; ^ and in the fourth volume of the Anec-
dotes of Painting, he likens ' her shock dog,
large as life," to such masterpieces of antique
art as the Tuscan boar and the Barberini goat.
It is time, however, to return to the story of
Strawberry itself, as interrupted in Chapter V.
In the introduction to Walpole's Description of
1774, a considerable interval occurs between
the building of the Refectory and Library in
17)3-4, and the subsequent erection of the
Gallery, Round Tower, Great Cloister, and
Cabinet, or Tribune, which, already in contem-
plation in 17)9, w^ere, according to the same
authority, erected in 1760 and 1761. But here,
as before, the date must rather be that of the
commencement than the completion of these
additions. In May. I7<'m, he tells Cole that
^ The idea was borrowed from an inscription upon a
statue at Milan: ' Non me Praxiteles, sed Marcus finxit
Agrati ! '
A Memoir. 205
the Gallery is last advancing, and in July it is
almost ' in the critical minute of consummation.'
In August, ' all the earth is begging to come to
see it.' A month afterwards, he is ' keeping an
inn; the sign, "The Gothic Castle.''' His
whole time is passed in giving tickets of admis-
sion to the Gallery, and hiding himself when it
is on view. ' Take my advice,' he tells Mon-
tagu, ' never build a charming house for your-
self between London and Hampton-court ;
everybody will live in it but you.' A year later
he is giving a great fdte to the French and
Spanish Ambassadors, March, Selwyn, Lady
Waldegrave, and other distinguished guests,
which finishes in the new room. ' During
dinner there were French horns and clarionets
in the cloister,' and after coffee the guests
were treated ' with a syllabub milked under the
cows that were brought to the brow of the
terrace. Thence they went to the Printing-
house, and saw a new fashionable French song
printed. They drank tea in the Gallery, and at
eight went away to Vauxhall.'
This last entertainment, the munificence of
which, he says, the treasury of the Abbey will
feel, took place in June, 1764 ; and it is not
until four years later that we get tidings of any
fresh improvements. In September, 1768, he
206
Horace IValpoIe :
tells Cole that he is going on with the Round
Tower, or Chamber, at the end of the Gallery,
which, in another letter, he says ' has stood
still these five years,' and he is, besides, ' play-
ing with the little garden on the other side of
the road ' which had come into his hands by
Francklin's death. In May of the following
year he gives another magnificent feslino at
Strawberry, which will almost mortgage it, but
the Round Tower still progresses. In October,
1770, he is building again, in the intervals of
gout; this time it is the Great Bedchamber, —
a ' sort of room which he seems likely to in-
habit much time together.' Next year the
whole piecemeal structure is rapidly verging
to completion. ' The Round Tower is finished,
and magnificent ; and the State Bedchamber
proceeds fast.' In June he is writing to Mann
from the delicious bow window of the former,
with Vasari's Bianca Capello (Mann's present)
over against him, and the setting sun behind,
' throwing its golden rays all round.' Further
on, he is building a tiny brick chapel in the
garden, mainly for the purpose of receiving
' two valuable pieces of antiquity,' — one being
a painted window from Bexhill of Henry III.
and his Queen, given him by Lord Ashburnham ;
the other Cavalini's Tomb of Capoccio from
A Memoir. 207
the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore at Rome,
which had been sent to him by Sir William (then
Mr.) Hamilton, the English Minister at Naples.
In August, 1772, the Great Bedchamber is fin-
ished, the house is complete, and he has ' at
last exhausted all his hoards and collections/
Nothing remains but to compile the Descrip-
tion and Catalogue, concerning which he had
written to Cole as far back as 1768, and which,
as already stated, he ultimately printed in 1774.
As time went on, his fresh acquisitions
obliged him to add several Appendices to this
issue ; and the copy before us, although dated
1774, has supplements which bring the record
down to 1786. A fresh edition, in royal quarto,
with twenty-seven plates, was printed in 1784 ; ^
and this, or an expansion of it, reappears in
vol. ii. of his Works. With these later issues
we have little to do ; but with the aid of that
of 1774, may essay to give some brief account
1 From a passage in a letter of 15 Sept., 1787, to Lady
Ossory, it appears that this, though printed, was withheld,
on account of certain difificulties caused by the over-ween-
ing curiosity of Walpole's 'customers' (as he called them),
the visitors to Strawberry. According to the sheet of
regulations for visiting the house, it was to be seen
between the ist of May and the ist of October. Children
were not admitted ; and only one company of four on one
day.
2o8 Horace IValpole : A Memoir.
of the long, straggling, many-pinnacled build-
ing, with its round tower at the end, the east
and south fronts of which are figured in the
black-looking vignette upon the title-page. The
entrance was on the north side, from the Ted-
dington and Twickenham road, here shaded by
lofty trees ; and once within the embattled
boundary wall, covered by this time with ivy,
the first thing that struck the spectator was a
small oratory inclosed by iron rails, with saint,
altar, niches, and holy-water basins designed
en suite by Mr. Chute. On the right hand —
its gaily-coloured patches of flower-bed glimmer-
ing through a screen of iron work copied from
the tomb of Roger Niger, Bishop of London,
in old St. Paul's — was the diminutive Abbot's,
or Prior's, Garden, which extended in front of
the offices to the right of the principal entrance.^
This was along a little cloister to the left,
beyond the oratory. The chief decoration of
this cloister was a marble bas-rchcf, inscribed
' Dia Helionora,' being, in fact, a portrait of
that Leonora D'Este who turned the head of
Tasso. At the end was the door, which opened
into ^a small gloomy hall ' united with the stair-
case, the balustrades of which, designed by
1 ' It is not much larger than an old lady's flower-knot
in Bloomsbury,' said Lady Morgan in 1826.
A Great Parlour
or Refectory.
B Waiting Room-
C China Room,
D Little Parlour,
E Yellow Bed-
chamber.
F Hall.
G Pantry.
H Servants* Hall.
• Passage.
K Great Cloister.
U Wine Cellar.
M Beer Celbr.
N Kitchen.
O Oratory.
Strawberry Hill : Ground Plan— 1781.
2 1 o Horace Walpole :
Bentley, were decorated with antelopes, the
Walpole supporters. In the well of the stair-
case was a Gothic lantern of japanned tin, also
due to Bentley's fertile invention. If, instead
of climbing the stairs, you turned out of the
hall into a little passage on your left, you found
yourself in the Refectory, or Great Parlour,
where were accumulated the family portraits.
Here, over the chimney-piece, was the ' conver-
sation,' by Sir Joshua Reynolds, representing
the triumvirate of Selwyn, Williams, and Lord
Edgcumbe, already referred to at p. n8 ; here
also were Sir Robert Walpole and his two wives,
Catherine Shorter and Maria Skerret ; Robert
Walpole the second, and his wife in a white
riding-habit ; Horace himself by Richardson ;
Dorothy Walpole, his aunt, who became Lady
Townshend ; ^ his sister, Lady Maria Churchill ;
and a number of others. In the Waiting Room,
into which the Refectory opened, was a stone
head of John Dryden, whom Catherine Shorter
claimed as great-uncle ; next to this again was
the China Closet, neatly lined with blue and
white Dutch tiles, and having its ceiling painted
by Miintz, after a villa at Frascati, with con-
volvuluses on poles. In the China Room,
among great stores of Sevres and Chelsea, and
1 See p. 6.
A Memoir. 211
oriental china, perhaps the greatest curiosity
was a couple of Saxon tankards, exactly alike
in form and size, which had been presented to
Sir Robert Walpole at different times by the
mistresses of the first two Georges, the Duchess
of Kendal and the Countess of Yarmouth. To
the left of the China Closet, with a bow window
looking to the south, was the Little Parlour,
which was hung with stone-coloured ' gothic
paper ' in imitation of mosaic, and decorated
with the 'wooden prints' already referred to,
the chiaroscuros of Jackson ; ^ and at the side
of this came the Yellow Bedchamber, known
later, from its numerous feminine portraits, as
the Beauty Room. The other spaces on the
ground floor were occupied, towards the Prior's
Garden, by the kitchen, cellars, and servants'
hall, and, at the back, by the Great Cloister,
which went under the Gallery.
Returning to the staircase, where, in later
years, hung Bunbury's original drawing^ for his
1 See p. 117 n.
2 It was exhibited in the Royal Academy of 1781, and
was Bunbury's acknowledgment of the praise given him
by Walpole in the 'Advertisement' to the fourth volume
of the Anecdotes of Painting, I Oct., 1780. A copy of it
was shown at the Exhibition of English Humourists in
Art, June, 1889.
2 1 2 Horace Walpole :
well-known caricature of ' Richmond Hill,' you
entered the Breakfast Room on the first floor,
the window of which looked towards the
Thames. It was pleasantly furnished with blue
paper, and blue and white linen, and contained
many miniatures and portraits, notable among
which were CarmonteFs picture of Madame du
Deffand and the Duchess de Choiseul ; ^ a print
of Madame du Deffand's room and cats, given
by the President Henault ; and a view painted
by Raguenet for Walpole in 1766 of the H6tel
de Carnavalet, the whilom residence of Madame
de Se'vign^.^
1 In a note to Madame du Deffand's Letters, 1810, i. 201,
the editor, Miss Berry, thus describes this picture: It
was 'a washed drawing of Mad. la Duchesse de Choiseul
and Mad. du Deffand, under their assumed characters
of grandmother and granddaughter; Mad. de Choiseul
giving Mad. du Deffand a doll. The scene the interior
of Mad. du Deffand's sitting-room. It was done by M. de
Carmontel, an amateur in the art of painting. He was
reader to the Prince of Conde, and author of several little
Theatrical pieces.' It is engraved as the frontispiece of
vol. vii. of Walpole's Letters, by Cunningham, 1S57-59.
Mad. du Deffand's portrait was said to be extremely like;
that of the Duchess was not good.
•^ ' It is now the Musee Carnavalet, and contains
numberless souvenirs of the Revolution, notably a collec-
tion of china plates, bearing various dates, designs, and
inscriptions applicable to the Reign of Terror' [Century
A Memoir, 213
The Breakfast Room opened into the Green
Closet, over the door of which was a picture
by Samuel Scott of Pope's house at Twicken-
ham, showing the wings added after the poet's
death by Sir William Stanhope. On the same
side of the room hung Hogarth's portrait of
Sarah Malcolm the murderess, painted at New-
gate on the day preceding her execution in
Fleet Street.^ Here also was ' Mr. Thomas
Gray ; etched from his shade [silhouette] ; by
Mr. W. Mason.' There were many other
portraits in this room, besides some water
colours on ivory by Horace himself. In a line
with the Green Closet, and looking east, was
the Library ; and at the back of it, the Blue
Bedchamber, the toilette of which was worked
by Mrs. Clive, who, since her retirement from
the stage in 1769, had lived wholly at Twicken-
ham. The chief pictures in this room were
Eckardt's portraits of Gray in a Vandyke dress
Magazine, Feb., 1S90, p. 600). A washed drawing of
Madame de Sevigne's country house at Les Rochers,
' done on the spot by Mr. Hinchcliffe, son of the Bishop
of Peterborough, in 1786,' was afterwards added to this
room.
^ Both these pictures are in existence. The Scott
belongs to Lady Freake, and was exhibited in the Pope
Loan Museum of 1888.
214 Horace Walpole : A Memoir,
and of Walpole himself in similar attire.^ There
were also by the same artist pictures of Walpole's
father and mother, and of General Conway and
his wife, Lady Ailesbury.
Facing the Blue Bedchamber was the
Armoury, a vestibule of three Gothic arches,
in the left-hand corner of which was the door
opening into the Library, a room twenty-eight
feet by nineteen feet six, lighted by a large
window looking to the east, and by two smaller
rose-windows at the sides. The books, arranged
in Gothic arches of pierced work, went all
round it. The chimney-piece was imitated from
the tomb of John of Eltham in Westminster
Abbey, and the stone work from another tomb
at Canterbury. Over the chimney piece was a
picture (which is engraved in the Ancc.ioic^ of
Painting) representing the marriage of Henry
VL Walpole and Bentley had designed the
ceiling, — a gorgeous heraldic medley surround-
ing a central Walpole shield. Above the book-
cases were pictures. One of the greatest
treasures of the room was a clock given by
Henry VHL to Anne Boleyn. Of the books
it is impossible to speak in detail. Noticeable
^ Both these are engraved in Cunningham's edition of
the Letters, the former in vol. iv., p. 465, the latter in vol.
ix., p. 529.
A Round Drawing
Roonii
B Cabinet or Tribune.
C Great North Bed-
chamber.
D Gallery.
E Holbein Chaml)er.
F Library.
G Beauclerk Closet or
Cabinet.
H Armoury,
I China Closets,
K Back Stairs.
L Passage.
M Star Chamber.^
N Red Bedchamber.
O Blue Bedchamber.
P Breakfast Room.
Q Green Closet.
Str-wv-berry Hill: Principal Floor— 1781.
2i6 Horace JValpole :
among them, however, was a Thuanus in
fourteen volumes, a very extensive set of
Hogarth's prints, and all the original draw-
ings for the ^^^5 Walpoliance. Vertue, Hollar,
and Faithorne were also largely represented.
Among special copies, were the identical Iliad
and Odyssey from which Pope made his transla-
tions of Homer,^ a volume containing Bentley's
original designs for Gray's Poems, and a black
morocco pocket-book of sketches by Jacques
Callot. In a rosewood case in this room was
also a fine collection of coins, which included
the rare silver medal struck by Gregory XI II.
on the Massacre of St. Bartholomew.
Concerning the Red Bedchamber, the Star
Chamber, and the Holbein Chamber, which
intervened between the rest of the first floor
and the latest additions, there is little to say.
In the Red Bedchamber, the most memorable
things (after the chintz bed on which Lord
Orford died) were some pencil sketches of
Pope and his parents by Cooper and the elder
Richardson. In the Holbein Chamber, so
1 This was the Amsterdam edition of 1707, in 2 vols.
i?mo., inscribed 'E libris, A. Pope, 1714;' and lower
down, * Finished ye translation in Feb. 1719-20, A. Pope.'
It also contained a pencil sketch by the poet of Twicken-
ham Church.
Mrs. Give.
A Memoir. 217
called from a number of copies on oil-paper by
Vertue from the drawings of Holbein in Queen
Catherine's Closet at Kensington, were two of
those ' curiosities ' which represent the Don
Saltero, or Madame Tussaud, side of Straw-
berry, viz., a tortoise-shell comb studded with
silver hearts and roses which was said to have
belonged to Mary, Queen of Scots, and (later)
the red hat of Cardinal Wolsey. The pedigree
of the hat, it must, however, be admitted, was
unimpeachable. It had been found in the
great wardrobe by Bishop Burnet when Clerk
of the Closet. From him it passed to his son
the Judge (author of that curious squib on
Harley known as the Hislorr of Robert Poivel
the Pappet-Shoiv-Man), and thence to the
Countess Dowager of Albemarle, who gave it
to Walpole. A carpet in this room was worked
by Mrs. Clive, who seems to have been a most
industrious decorator of her friend's mansion
museum.^ The Star Chamber was but an
1 Walpole wrote an epilogue — not a very good one —
for Mrs. Clive when she quitted the stage; and in the
same year, 1769, the To7c>i and Country Magazine linked
their names in its ' Tete-a-Tetes'' as 'Mrs. Heildelberg '
(Clive's part in the Clandestine Marriage) and 'Baron
Otranto ' (a name under which Chatterton subsequently
satirized Walpole in this identical periodical). See
Memoirs of a Sad Dog, Ft. 2, July, 1770.
2 1 8 Horace Walpole :
ante-room powdered with gold stars in mosaic,
the chief glory of which was a stone bust of
Henry VII. by Torregiano.
With these three rooms, the first floor of
Strawberry, as it existed previous to the erec-
tion of the addititions mentioned in the begin-
ning of this chapter, — namely, the Gallery, the
Round Tower, the Tribune, and the Great
North Bedchamber, — came to an end. But it
was in these newer parts of the house that
some of its rarest objects of art were assembled.
The Gallery, which was entered from a gloomy
little passage in front of the Holbein Chamber,
was a really spacious room, fifty-six feet by
thirteen, and lighted from the south by five high
windows. Between these were tables laden
with busts, bronzes, and urns ; on the oppo-
site side, fronting the windows, were recesses,
finished with gold network over looking-glass,
between which stood couch-seats, covered, like
the rest of the room, with crimson Norwich
damask. The ceiling was copied from one of
the side aisles of Henry VI I. 's Chapel ; the
great door at the western end, which led into
the Round Tower, was taken from the north
door of St. Albans. A long carpet, made at
Moorficlds, traversed the room from end to
end. In one of the recesses — that to the left of
A Memoir. 219
the chimney-piece, which was designed by
Mr. Chute and Mr. Thomas Pitt of Boconnoc,
— stood one of the finest surviving pieces of
Greek sculpture, the Boccapadugli eagle, found
in the precinct of the Baths of Caracalla, — a
chef-if ceiiure from which Gray is said to have
borrowed the ' ruffled plumes, and flagging
wing' of the Progress of Poesy ; to the right
was a noble bust in basalt of Vespasian, which
had been purchased from the Ottoboni collec-
tion. Of the pictures it is impossible to speak
at large ; but two of the most notable were
Sir George Villiers, the father of the Duke of
Buckingham^ and Mahuses Marriage of Henry
VII. and Elizabeth of York. Of Walpole's
own relatives, there were portraits by Ramsay
of his nieces, Mrs. Keppel (the Bishop's wife)
and Lady Dysart, and of the Duchess of
Gloucester (then Lady Waldegrave) by Rey-
nolds. There were also portraits of Henry
Fox, Lord Holland, of George Montagu, of
Lord Waldegrave, and of Horace's uncle. Lord
Walpole of Wolterton.^
Issuing through the great door of the Gallery,
and passing on the left a glazed closet con-
1 Horatio, brother of Sir Robert Walpole, created
Baron Walpole of Wolterton in 1756. He died in 1757.
His Memoirs were published by Coxe in 1802.
220 Horace Walpole :
taining a quantity of china which had once be-
longed to Walpole's mother, a couple of steps
brought you into the pleasant Drawing Room in
the Round Tower, the bow window of which,
already mentioned, looked to the south-west.
Like the Gallery, this room was hung with
Norwich damask. Its chief glory was the pic-
ture of Bianca Capello, of which Walpole had
written to Mann. To the left of this room, at
the back of the Gallery, and consequently in the
front of the house, was the Cabinet, or Tribune,
a curious square chamber with semicircular re-
cesses, in two of which, to the north and west,
were stained windows. In the roof, which was
modelled on the chapter house at York, was a
star of yellow glass throwing a soft golden glow
over all the room. Here Walpole had amassed
his choicest treasures, miniatures by Oliver and
Cooper, enamels by Petitot and Zincke,^ bronzes
from Italy, ivory bas-reliefs, seal-rings and reli-
1 ' The chief boast of my collection,' he told Pinkerton,
' is the portraits of eminent and remarkable persons, par-
ticularly the miniatures and enamels; which, so far as I
can discover, are superior to any other collection what-
ever. The works I possess of Isaac and Peter Oliver are
the best extant; and those I bought in Wales for 300
guineas [i.e., the Digby Family, in the Breakfast Room]
are as well preserved as when they came from the pencil '
( IValpoIiana, ii. 157).
A Memoir. 221
quaries, caskets and cameos and filigree work.
Here, with Madame du Deffand's letter inside
it,^ was the 'round white snuff-box' with
Madame de Sevigne's portrait ; here, carven
with masks and flies and grasshoppers, was
Cellini's silver bell from the Leonati Collection,
at Parma, a masterpiece against which he had
exchanged all his collection of Roman coins
with the Marquis of Rockingham. A bronze
bust of Caligula with silver eyes ; a missal with
miniatures by Raphael ; a dagger of Henry VIII.,''
and a mourning ring given at the burial of
Charles I., — were among the other show objects
of the Tribune, the riches of which occupy more
space in their owner's Catalogue than any other
part of his collections.
With the Great North Bedchamber, which
adjoined the Tribune, and filled the remaining
space at the back of the Gallery, the account of
Strawberry Hill, as it existed in 1774, comes to
an end ; for the Green Chamber in the Round
Tower over the Drawing Room, and ' Mr. Wal-
pole's Bedchamber, two pair of stairs ' (which
i It is printed in both the Catalogues.
2 At the sale in 1842, King Henry's dagger was pur-
chased for ;^54 12s. by Charles Kean the actor, who also
became the fortunate possessor, for ;^2i, of Cardinal
Wolsey's hat.
222 Horace IValpole :
contained the Warrant for beheading: Kingr
Charles I., inscribed ' Major Charta,' so often
referred to by Walpole's biographers'/ may be
dismissed without further notice. The Beau-
clerk Closet, a later addition, will be described
in its proper place. Over the chimney-piece in
the Great North Bedchamber was a large picture
of Henry VIII. and his children, a recent pur-
chase, afterwards remanded to the staircase to
make room for a portrait of Catherine of Bra-
ganza, sent from Portugal previous to her mar-
riage with Charles II. Fronting the bed was
a head of Niobe, by Guido, which in its turn
subsequently made way for la belle Jennings.^
Among the pictures on the north or window side
of the room was the original sketch by Hogarth
of the Beggar's Opera, which Walpole had pur-
chased at the sale of Rich, the fortunate manager
who produced Gay's masterpiece at Lincoln's
Inn Fields. It was exhibited at Manchester in
1 Here is his own reference to this, in a letter to Mon-
tagu of 14 Oct., 1756: 'The only thing I have done that
can compose a paragraph, and which I think you are
Whig enough to forgive me, is, that on each side of my
bed I have hung Magna Charta, and the Warrant for
King Charles's execution, on which I have written Major
Charta; as I believe, without the latter, the former by
this time would be of very little importance.*
2 See p. 7 n.
A Memoir. 223
1857, being then the property of Mr. Willett,
who had bought it at the Strawberry Hill sale of
1842. Another curious oil painting in this room
was the Rehearsal of an Opera by the Riccis,
which included caricature portraits of Nicolini
(of Spectator celebrity), of the famous Mrs.
Catherine Tofts, and of Margherita de TEpine.
In a nook by the window there was a glazed
china closet, with a number of minor curiosities,
among which were conspicuous the speculum of
cannel coal with which Dr. Dee was in the
habit of gulling his votaries,^ and an agate pun-
cheon with Gray's arms which his executors had
presented to Walpole.
A few external objects claim a word. In the
Great Cloister under the Gallery was the blue
and white china tub in which had taken place
that tragedy of the ' pensive Selima ' referred to
at p. 135 as having prompted the muse of Gray.^
The Chapel in the Garden has already been
1 ' Dr Dee's black stone was named in the catalogue of
the collection of the Earls of Peterborough, whence it
went to Lady Betty Germaine, She gave it to the last
Duke of Argyle, and his son, Lord Frederic, to me '
{Walpole to Lady Ossory, 12 Jan , 1782)
2 This was afterwards moved to the Little Cloister at
the entrance, where it appears in the later Catalogue. At
the sale of 1842 the bowl, with its Gothic pedestal, was
purchased by the Earl of Derby for £^,2.
224 Horace IValpole :
sufficiently described.^ In the Flower Garden
across the road was a cottage which Walpole
had erected upon the site of the building once
occupied by Francklin the printer, and which he
used as a place of refuge when the tide of sight-
seers became overpowering. It included a Tea
Room, containing a fair collection of china, and
hung with green paper and engravings, and a little
white and green Library, of which the principal
ornament was a half-length portrait of Milton.^
A portrait of Lady Hervey, by Allan Ramsay,
was afterwards added to its decorations.^
Many objects of interest, as must be obvious,
have remained undescribed in the foregoing
account, and those who seek for further infor-
1 Not far from the Chapel was ' a large seat in the
form of a shell, carved in oak from a design by Mr. Bent-
ley.' It must have been roomy, for in 1759 the Duchesses
of Hamilton and Richmond, and Lady Ailesbury (the last
two, daughter and mother), occupied it together. 'There
never was so pretty a sight as to see them all three sitting
in the shell,' says the delighted Abbot of Strawberry.
( IValpole to A/ontagit, 2 June.)
'^ In a note to the obituary notice of Walpole in the
Ge)itleman''s Magazine for March, 1797, p. 260, it is stated
that this library was 'formed of all the publications during
the reigns of the three Georges, or Mr. W.'s own time.*
* This was exhibited at South Kensington in 1867 by
Viscount Lifford, and is now (1S92) at Austin House,
Broadway, Worcester.
A Memoir. 225
mation concerning what its owner called his
' paper fabric and assemblage of curious trifles '
must consult either the Catalogue of 1774 itself,
or that later and definitive version of it which is
reprinted in Volume II. of the Works (pp. 393-
=ii6). The intention in the main has here been
to lay stress upon those articles which bear most
directly upon Walpole's biography. It will also
be observed that, during the prolonged progress
of the house towards completion^ his experience
and his views considerably enlarged, and the
pettiness and artificiality of his first improve-
ments disappeared. The house never lost, and
never could lose, its invertebrate character ; but
the Gallery, the Round Tower, and the North
Bedchamber were certainly conceived in a more
serious and even spacious spirit of Gothlcism
than any of the early additions. That it must,
still, have been confined and needlessly gloomy,
may be allowed ; but as a set-off to some of
those accounts which insist so pertinaciously
upon its ' paltriness,' its ' architectural solecisms,'
and its lack of beauty and sublimity, it is only
fair to recall a few sentences from the preface
which its owner prefixed to the Description of
1784. It was designed, he says of the Catalogue,
to exhibit ' specimens of Gothic architecture, as
collected from standards in cathedrals and chapel-
15
^
226 Horace Walpole :
tombs,' and to show ' how they may be applied
to chimney-pieces, ceilings, windows, balu-
strades, loggias, etc' Elsewhere he charac-
terizes the building itself as candidly as any of
its critics. He admits its diminutive scale and
its unsubstantial character (he calls it himself,
as we have seen, a ' paper fabric '), and he con-
fesses to the incongruities arising from an antique
design and modern decorations. ' In truth," he
concludes, ' I did not mean to make mv house so
Gothic as to exclude convenience, and modern
refinements in luxury. ... It was built to please
my own taste, and in some degree to realize mv
own visions. I have specified what it contains ;
could I describe the gay but tranquil scene
where it stands, and add the beauty of the land-
scape to the romantic cast of the mans-ion, it
would raise more pleasing sensations than a dry
list of curiosities can excite, — at least the pros-
pect would recall the good humour of those who
might bedisposed to condemn the fantastic fabric,
and to think it a very proper habitation of, as it
was the scene that inspired, the author of t"he
Castle of Olranlo.''^ As one of his censors has
remarked, this tone disarms criticism ; and it
is needless to accumulate proofs of peculiari-
ties which are not denied by the person most
concerned.
1 IVo/ks, 179S, ii. 395-98.
A Memoir, 227
In spite of its charming situation, Straw-
berry Hill was emphatically a summer resi-
dence ; and there is more than one account in
Walpole's letters of the sudden floods which,
when Thames flowed with a fuller tide than
now, occasionally surprised the inhabitants of
the pleasant-looking villas along its banks. It
was decidedly damp, and its gouty owner had
sometimes to quit it precipitately for Arlington
Street, where, he says, ' after an hour,' he
revives, ' like a member of parliament's wife.'
His best editor, Mr. Peter Cunningham, whose
knowledge as an antiquary was unrivalled, —
for was he not the author of the Handbook
of London} — has amused himself, in an odd
corner of one of his prefaces, by retracing the
route taken in these townward flights. The
extract is so packed with suggestive memories
that no excuse is needed for reproducing it
(with a few now necessary notes) as the tail-
piece of the present chapter.
' At twelve his [Walpole's] light bodied
chariot was at the door, with his English coach-
man and his Swiss valet [Philip Colomb] . . .
In a few minutes he left Lord Radnor's villa
to the right, rolled over the grotto of Pope,
saw on his left Whitton, rich with recollections
of Kneller and Argyll, passed Gumley House,
228 Horace Walpole :
one of the country seats of his father's oppo-
nent and his own friend, Pulteney, Earl of
Bath, and Kendal House, ^ the retreat of the
mistress of George I., Ermengard de Schulen-
burg, Duchess of Kendal. At Sion, the princely
seat of the Percys, the Seymours, and the
Smithsons, he turned into the Hounslow
Road, left Sion on his right, and Osterly, not
unlike Houghton, on his left, and rolled through
Brentford, —
" Brentford, the Bishopric of Parson Home," ^
then, as now, infamous for Its dirty streets, and
famous for its white-legged chickens.^ Quit-
ting Brentford, he approached the woods that
concealed the stately mansion of Gunnersbury,
built by Inigo Jones and Webb, and then in-
habited by the Princess Amelia, the last sur-
viving child of King George H.'* Here he was
often a visitor, and seldom returned without
being a winner at silver loo. At the Pack
1 Kendal House now no longer exists.
2 An Heroic Epistle to Sir William Chambers, Knight,
3 * BraudforcVs tedious town,
For dirty streets, and white-leg'd chickens known.'
Gay's yoitriiey to Exeter.
4 Gunnersbury House (or Park), a new structure, now
belongs to Lord Rothschild.
A Memoir, 229
Horse ^ on Turnham Green he would, when the
roads were heavy, draw up for a brief bait.
Starting anew, he would pass a few red brick
houses on both sides, then the suburban villas
of men well to do in the Strand and Charing
Cross. At Hammersmith, he would leave the
church^ on his right, call on Mr. Fox at Hol-
land House, look at Campden House, with
recollections of Sir Baptist Hickes,^ and not
without an ill-suppressed wish to transfer some
little part of it to his beloved Strawberry. He
was now at Kensington Churchy then, as it still
is, an ungraceful structure,^ but rife with asso-
ciations which he would at times relate to the
1 The Old Pack Horse, somewhat modernized by red-
brick additions, still (1892) stands at the corner of Turn-
ham Green. It is mentioned in the London Gazette as far
back as 1697. The sign, a common one for posting inns
in former days, is on the opposite side of the road.
2 Hammersmith church was rebuilt in 1882-3.
3 Sir Baptist Hickes, once a mercer in Cheapside, and
afterwards Viscount Campden, erected it circa 161 2. At
the time to which Mr. Cunningham is supposed to refer,
it was a famous ladies' boarding-school, kept by a Mrs.
Terry, and patronized by Selwyn and Lady Di. Beauclerk.
* The (with all due deference to the writer) quaint and
picturesque old church of St. Mary the Virgin, in Ken-
sington High Street, at which Macaulay, in his later days,
was a regular attendant, gave way, in 1S69, to a larger and
more modern edifice by Sir Gilbert Scott, R.A.
230 Horace Walpole :
friend he had with him. On his left he would
leave the gates of Kensington Palace, rich with
reminiscences connected with his father and
the first Hanoverian kings of this country. On
his right he would quit the red brick house in
which the Duchess of Portsmouth lived, ^ and
after a drive of half a mile (skirting a heavy
brick w^all), reach Kingston House, ^ replete
with stories of Elizabeth Chudleigh, the biga-
mist maid of honour, and Duchess-Countess
of Kingston and Bristol. At Knightsbridge
(even then the haunt of highwaymen less
gallant than Maclean) he passed on his left
the little chapel ^ in which his father was
married. At Hyde Park Corner he saw the
Hercules Pillars ale-house of Fielding and
Tom J ones, ^ and at one door from Park Lane
1 Old Kensington House, as it was called, has also
been pulled down. One of its inmates, long after the
days of ' Madam Carwell,' was Elizabeth Inchbald, the
author of A Simple Story, who died there in 1821.
2 Now Lord Listowel's. It stands near the Prince's
Gate into Hyde Park.
'^ Restored and remodelled in 1S61, and now the Church
of the Holy Trinity.
4 The Hercules Pillars, where Squire Western put up
his horses when he came to town, stood just east of
Apslcy House, ' on the site of what is now the pavement
opposite Lord Willoughby's.'
A Memoir, 2^1
would occasionally call on old "Q" for the
sake of Selwyn, who was often there. -^ The
trees which now grace Piccadilly were in the
Green Park in Walpole's day ; they can recol-
lect Walpole, and that is something. On his
left, the sight of Coventry House ^ would remind
him of the Gunnings, and he would tell his
friend the story of the " beauties," with which
(short story-teller as he was) he had not com-
pleted when the chariot turned into Arlington
Street on the right, or down Berkeley Street
into Berkeley Square, on the left/ ^ In these
last lines Mr. Cunningham anticipates our story,
for in 1774, Walpole had not yet taken up his
residence in Berkeley Square.
1 The Duke of Queensberry's house afterwards became
138 and 139 Piccadilly.
2 This is No. io6, — the present St. James's Club. It
was built in 1764 by George, sixth Earl of Coventry, some
years after the death of his first wife, the elder Miss
Gunning.
^ Letters, by Cunningham, 1857-9, ix. xx.-xxi.
232 Horace fValpole
CHAPTER IX.
Occupations and Correspondence. — Literary Work. — Jephson
and the Stage. — Nature will Prevail. — Issues from the
Strawberry Press. — Fourth Volume of the Anecdotes of
Painting. — The Beauclerk Tower and Lady Di. — George,
third Earl of Orford. — Sale of the Houghton Pictures. —
Moves to Berkeley Square. — Last Visit to Madame du
Deffand. — Her Death. — Themes for Letters. — Death of
Sir Horace Mann. — Pinkerton, Madame de Genlis, Miss
Burney, Hannah More. — Mary and Agnes Berry. — Their
Residence at Twickenham. — Becomes fourth Earl of Orford.
— Efitaphiiim vivi Auctoris. — The Berrys again. — Death
of Marshal Conway. — Last Letter to Lady Ossory. — Dies
at Berkeley Square, 2 March. 1797. — His Fortune and Will.
— The Fate of Strawberry.
A FTER the completion of Strawberry Hill
"^^ and the printing of the Ca/a/cYw^,Walpole's
life grows comparatively barren of events.
There are still four volumes of his Correspon-
dence, but they take upon them imperceptibly
the nature of nouvclles l\ la main, and are less
fruitful in personal traits. Between his books
and his prints, his time passes agreeably, ' but
will not do to relate.' Indeed, from this period
until his death, in 1797, the most notable occur-
rences in his history are his friendship with the
A Memoir. 233
Miss Berrys in 1787-8, and his belated ac-
cession to the Earldom of Orford. Both at
Strawberry and Arlington Street, his increas-
ing years and his persistent malady condemn
him more and more to seclusion and retirement.
He is most at Strawberry, despite its dampness,
for in the country he holds ' old, useless people
ought to live.' ' If you were not to be in
London,' he tells Lady Ossory in April, 1774,
' the spring advances so charmingly, I think I
should scarce go thither. One is frightened
with the inundation of breakfasts and balls that
are coming on. Every one is engaged to every-
body for the next three weeks, and if one must
hunt for a needle, I had rather look for it in a
bottle of hay in the country than in a crowd.'
' By age and situation,' he writes from Straw-
berry in September, ' at this time of the year I
live with nothing but old women. They do very
well for me, who have little choice left, and who
rather prefer common nonsense to wise nonsense,
— the only difference I know between old
women and old men. I am out of all politics,
and never think of elections, which I think I
should hate even if I loved politics, — just as, if
I loved tapestry I do not think I could talk over
the manufacture of worsteds. Books I have
almost done with too, — at least, read only such
234 Horace JValpole:
as nobody else would read. In short, my way
of life is too insipid to entertain anybody but
myself; and though I am always employed, I
must own I think I have given up every thing
in the world, only to be busy about the most
arrant trifles.' His London life was not greatly
different. ' How should I see or know any-
thing ? ' he says a year later, apologizing for his
dearth of news. ' I seldom stir out of my
house [at Arlington Street] before seven in the
evening, see very few persons, and go to fewer
places, make no new acquaintance, and have
seen most of my old wear out. Loo at Prin-
cess Amelie's, loo at Lady Hertford's, are the
capital events of my history, and a Sunday alone,
at Strawberry, my chief entertainment. All this
is far from gay ; but as it neither gives me ennui,
nor lowers my spirits, it is not uncomfortable,
and I prefer it to being di'(?lacd in younger com-
pany.' Such is his account of his life in 1774-^,
when he is nearing sixty, and it probably repre-
sents it with sufficient accuracy. But a trifling
incident easily stirs him into unwonted vivacity.
While he is protesting that he has nothing to
say, his letters grow under his pen, and, almost
as a necessary consequence of his leisure, they
become more frequent and more copious. In
the edition of Cunningham, up to September,
A Memoir, 235
1774, they number fourteen hundred and fifty.
Speaking roughly, this represents a period of
nearly forty years. During the two-and-twenty
years that remained to him, he managed to
swell them by what was, proportionately, a
far greater number. The last letter given by
Cunningham is marked 266^ ; and this enumera-
tion does not include a good many letters and
fragments of letters belonging to this later
period, which were published in 186) in Miss
Berry's Journals and Correspondence. Never-
theless, as stated above, they more and more
assume what he somewhere calls * their proper
character of newspapers.'
During the remainder of his life, they were
his chief occupation, and his gout was seldom
so severe but that he could make shift to scrib-
ble a line to his favourite correspondents, calling
in his printer Kirgate as secretary in cases
of extremity.^ Of literature generally he pro-
1 Kirgate, who will not be again mentioned, fared but
ill at his master's decease, receiving no more than a legacy
of ;^ioo, — a circumstance which Pinkerton darkly at-
tributes to 'his modest merit ' having been ' supplanted by
intriguing impudence ' ( IValpoliana, i. xxiv). There is a por-
trait of him, engraved by William Collard, after Septimus
Harding, the Pall Mall miniature painter, who also wrote
in 1797 for Kirgate some verses in which he is made to
speak of himself as ' forlorn, neglected, and forgot.' He
236 Horace Walpole:
fessed to have taken final leave. ' I no longer
care about fame/ he tells Mason in 1774; ' I
have done being an author.' Nevertheless, the
Short Notes piously chronicle the production
of more than one trifle, which are reprinted in
his Works. When, in the above year, Lord
Chesterfield's letters to his son were published,
Walpole began a parody of that famous per-
formance in a Series of Letters from a Mother
to a Daughter, with the general title of the New
Whole Duty of Woman. He grew tired of the
idea too soon to enable us to judge what his
success might have been with a subject which,
in his hands, should have been diverting as a
satire ; for, although he was a warm admirer of
Chesterfield's parts, as he had shown in his char-
acter of him in the Royal and Noble Authors, he
was thoroughly alive to the assailable side of
what he styles his ' impertinent institutes of
education.'^ Another work of this year was a
had an unique collection of the Strawberry Press issues,
which was dispersed at his death, in iSio.
1 It was his good sense rather than his inclination that
made him condemn one with whom he had many points
of sympathy. Speaking of the quarrel of Johnson and
Chesterfield, he says, 'The friendly patronage [/. c-. of the
earl] was returned with ungrateful rudeness by the proud
pedant; and men smiled, without being surprisedj at see-
ing a bear worry his dancing master.'
A Memoir. 237
reply to some remarks by Mr. Masters in the
Archxologia upon the old subject of the Hh-
toric Doubts, which calls for no further notice.
But early in 177^ he was persuaded into writing
an epilogue for the Bragania of Captain Robert
Jephson, a maiden tragedy of the Venice Pre-
served order, which was produced at Drury Lane
in February of that year, with considerable suc-
cess. In a correspondence which ensued with
the author, Walpole delivered himself of his
views on tragedy for the benefit of Mr. Jephson,
who acted upon them^ but not (as his Mentor
thought) with conspicuous success, in his next
attempt, the Law of Lombard/. Jephson's third
play, however, the Count of Narbonne, which
was well received in 1781, had a natural claim
upon Walpole's good opinion, since it was based
upon the Caslle of Olranto} Besides the above
letters on tragedy, Walpole wrote, 'in 1775
and 1776,' a rather longer paper on comedy,
which is printed with them in the second volume
of his works (pp. 315-22). He held, as he
1 'Jephson's Count of Narbonne has been more ad-
mired than any play I remember to have appeared
these many years. It is still [Jan., 1782] acted with suc-
cess to very full houses ' {Malone to Charlemont, Hist.
MSS. Commission, \2th Kept., App., Pt. x., 1891, p. 395).
Malone wrote the epilogue.
238 Horace Walpole :
says, ' a good comedy the chcf-d'ceuvre of
human genius ; ' and it is manifest that his keen-
est sympathies were on the side of comic art.
His remarks upon Congreve are full of just
appreciation. Yet, although he mentions the
School for Scandal (which, by the way, shows
that he must have written rather later than the
dates given above), he makes no reference to
the most recent development, in She Sloops lo
Conquer, of the school of humour and charac-
ter, and he seems rather to pose as the advocate
of that genteel or sentimental comedy which
Foote and Goldsmith and Sheridan had striven
to drive from the English stage. When his pre-
judices are aroused, he is seldom a safe guide,
and in addition to his personal contempt for
Goldsmith,^ that writer had irritated him by his
reference to the Albemarle Street Club, to
which many of his friends belonged. It was
an additional offence that the ' Miss Biddy
[originally Miss Rachael] Buckskin ' of the
comedy was said to stand for Miss Rachael
Lloyd, long housekeeper at Kensington Palace,
1 'Silly Dr. Goldsmith,' he calls him to Cole in
April, 1773. 'Goldsmith was an idiot, with once or
twice a fit of parts,' he says again to Mason in October,
1776.
A Memoir, 239
and a member of the club well known both to
himself and to Madame du Deffand.-^
In the second of the letters to Mr. Jephson,
Walpole refers to his own efforts at comedy,
and implies that he had made attempts in this
direction even before the tragedy of T]u M/s-
terious Mother. He had certainly the wit, and
much of the gift of direct expression, which
comedy requires. But nothing of these earlier
essays appears to have survived, and the only
dramatic effort included among his Works (his
tragedy excepted) is the little piece entitled
Nature ivlll Prevail, which, with its fairy
machinery, has something of the character of
such earlier productions of Mr. W. S. Gilbert
as the Palace of Truth. This he wrote in
1773, and, according to the Short Notes, sent
it anonymously to the elder Colman, then
manager of Covent Garden. Colman (he says)
was much pleased with it, but regarding it
as too short for a farce, wished to have it
enlarged. This, however, its author thought
1 The rules of the so-called Female Coterie in Albe-
marle Street, together with the names of the members,
are given in the Gentleman s Magazine for 1770, pp. 414-5.
Besides Walpole and Miss Lloyd, Fox, Conway, Selwyn,
the Waldegraves, the Damers, and many other ' persons
of quality ' belonged to it.
240 Horace Walpole :
too much trouble ' for so slight and extempore
a performance.' Five years after, it was pro-
duced at the little theatre in the Haymarket, and,
being admirably acted, — says the Biographia
Dramalica, — met with considerable applause.
But it is obviously one of those works to which
the verdict of Goldsmith's critic, that it would
have been better if the author had taken more
pains, may judiciously be applied. It is more
like a sketch for a farce than a farce itself ; and
it is not finished enough for a proverbe. Yet
the dialogue is in parts so good that one almost
regrets the inability of the author to nerve him-
self for an enterprise de longuc lialcine.
Between 1774 and 1780 the Strawberry Hill
Press still now and then showed signs of vitality.
In 177), it printed as a loose sheet some verses
by Charles James Fox, — celebrating, as Amoret,
that lover of the Whigs, the beautiful Mrs.
Crewe, — and three hundred copies of an
Eclogue by Mr. Fitzpatrick,^ entitled Dorinda,
which contains the couplet, —
' And oh I what Bliss, when each alike is pleas'd,
The Hand that squeezes, and the Hand that 's squeez'd.'
These were followed, in 1778, by the Sleep
Walker, a comedy from the French of Madame
1 The Hon. Richard Fitzpatrick, Lord Ossory's
brother. He afterwards became a General, and Secretary
A Memoir. 241
du Deffand's friend Pont de Veyle, translated
by Lady Craven, afterwards Margravine of
Anspach, and played for a charitable purpose
at Newbury. A year later came the vindication
of his conduct to Chatterton, already mentioned
at pp. 196-200; and after this a sheet of verse
by Mr. Charles Miller to Lady Horatia Walde-
grave.^ a daughter of the Duchess of Gloucester
by her first husband. The last work of any
importance was the fourth volume of the Anec-
dotes of Painting, which had been printed as far
back as 1770, but was not issued until Oct.,
1780. This delay, the Advertisement informs
at War. At this time he was a captain in the Grenadier
Guards. As a litterateur he had written The Bath Pic-
ture ; or, a Slight Sketch of its Beauties; and he was later
one of the chief contributors to the Rolliad. Besides
being the life-long friend of Fox, he was a highly popular
wit and man-of-fashion. Lord Ossory put him above
Walpole and Selwyn ; and Lady Holland is said to have
thought him the most agreeable person she had ever
known. He died in 1813.
1 One of the three beautiful sisters painted by Rey-
nolds, — Elizabeth Laura, afterwards Viscountess Chew-
ton ; Charlotte Maria, afterwards Countess of Euston ;
and Anne Horatia, who married Captain Hugh Conway.
' Sir Joshua Reynolds gets avaricious in his old age. My
picture of the young ladies Waldegrave is doubtless very
fine and graceful, but it cost me 800 guineas ' ( Walpo-
liana, ii. 157).
16
242 Horace Walpole :
us, arose ' from motives of tenderness.' The
author was ' unwilling [he says] to utter even
gentle censures, which might wound the affec-
tions, or offend the prejudices, of those related
to the persons whom truth forbad him to com-
mend beyond their merits.' ^ But despite his
unwillingness to ' dispense universal panegyric,'
and the limitation of his theme to living pro-
fessors, he manages, in the same Advertisement,
to distribute a fair amount of praise to some of
his particular favourites. Of H. W. Bunbury,
the husband of Goldsmith's ' Little Comedy,' he
says that he is the ' second Hogarth,' and the
' first imitator who ever fully equalled his origi-
nal,' — which is sheer extravagance. He lauds
the miniature copying of Lady Lucan, as almost
depreciating the ' exquisite works ' of the artists
she follows, — to wit, Cooper and the Olivers ;
and he speaks of Lady Di. Beauclerk's draw-
ings as ' not only inspired by Shakespeare's
insight into nature, but by the graces and taste
of Grecian artists.' After this, the comparison
of Mrs. Darner with Bernini seems almost tame.
^ lie was not successful as regards Hogarth, whose
widow was sorely and justly wounded by his coarse
treatment of Sigismunda, which is said to have been a
portrait of herself. The picture is now in the National
Gallery.
A Memoir. 243
Yet her works ' from the life are not inferior to
the antique, and those . . . were not more
like.' One can scarcely blame Walpole severely
for this hearty backing of the friends who had
added so much to the attractions of his Gothic
castle ; but the value of his criticisms, in many
other instances sound enough, is certainly
impaired by his loyalty to the old-new practice
of ' log-rolling/
Lady Di. Beauclerk, whose illustrations to
Dryden's Fables are still a frequent item in
second-hand catalogues, has a personal con-
nection with Strawberry through the curious
little closet bearing her name, which^ with the
assistance of Mr. Essex, a Gothic architect
from Cambridge, Walpole in 1776-8 managed
to tuck in between the Cabinet and the Round
Tower. It was built on purpose to hold the
' seven incomparable drawings,' executed in
a fortnight, which her Ladyship prepared, to
illustrate The Mysterious Mother. These were
the designs to which he refers in the Anecdotes
of Painting, and, in a letter to Mann, says
could not be surpassed by Guido and Salvator
Rosa. They were hung on Indian blue
damask, in frames of black and gold ; and
Clive's friend, Miss Pope, the actress, when
she dined at Strawberry, was affected by them
244 Horace JValpole :
to such a degree that she shed tears, although
she did not know the story, — an anecdote
which may be regarded either as a genuine
compliment to Lady Di., or a merely histrionic
tribute to her entertainer. ' The drawings/
Walpole says, ' do not shock and disgust, like
their original, the tragedy ; ' but they were not
to be shown to the profane. They were, never-
theless, probably exhibited pretty freely, as a
copy of the play, carefully annotated in MS.
by the author, and bound in blue leather to
match the hangings, was always kept in a
drawer of one of the tables, for the purpose of
explaining them.^ Walpole afterwards added
one or two curiosities to this closet. It con-
tained, according to the last edition of the
Catalogue, a head in basalt of Jupiter Serapis,
and a book of Psalms illuminated by Giulio
Clovio, the latter purchased for £i()Q at the
Duchess of Portland's sale in May, 1786. There
was also a portrait by Powell, after Reynolds,
of Lady Di. herself, who lived for some time
1 Miss Hawkins [Anecdotes, etc., 1822, p. 103) did not
think highly of these performances : * Unless the pro-
portions of the human figure are of no importance in
drawing it, these ' Beauclerk drawings ' can be looked on
only with disgust and contempt.' lUit she praises the
gipsies hereafter mentioned (p. 260 n.) as having been
copied by Agnes Berry.
A Memoir, 245
at Twickenham in a house now known as
Little Marble Hill, many of the rooms of
which she decorated with her own perfor-
mances. These were apparently the efforts
which prompted the already mentioned post-
script to the Parish Register of Twickenham :
" Here Genius in a later hour
Selected its sequester'd bow'r,
And threw around the verdant room
The blushing lilac's chill perfume.
So loose is flung each bold festoon,
Each bough so breathes the touch of noon,
The happy pencil so deceives,
That Flora, doubly jealous, cries,
* The work 's not mine, — yet, trust these eyes,
'T is my own Zephyr waves the leaves.' " ^
Mention has been made of the intermittent
attacks of insanity to which Walpole's nephew,
the third Earl of Orford, was subject. At the
beginning of 1774, he had returned to his senses,
and his uncle, on whom fell the chief care
of his affairs during his illnesses, was, for a
brief period, freed from the irksome strain of an
uncongenial and a thankless duty. In April,
1777, however, Lord Orford's malady broke
out again, with redoubled severity. In August,
he was still fluctuating ' between violence and
1 See pp. 158, 159.
246 Horace Walpole :
stupidity;' but in March, 1778, a lucid inter-
val had once more been reached, and Walpole
was relieved of the care of his person. Of his
affairs he had declined to take care, as his
Lordship had employed a lawyer of whom
Walpole had a bad opinion. ' He has resumed
the entire dominion of himself,' says a letter
to Mann in April^ ' and is gone into the
country, and intends to command the militia.'
One of the earliest results of this ' entire do-
minion ' was a step which filled his relative with
the keenest distress. He offered the famous
Houghton collection of pictures to Catherine
of Russia, — ' the most signal mortification to
my idolatry for my father's memory that it
could receive,' says Walpole to Lady Ossory.
By August, 1779, the sale was completed.
' The sum stipulated,' he tells Mann, ' is forty
or forty-five thousand pounds,^ I neither know
nor care which ; nor whether the picture
merchant ever receives the whole sum, which
probably he will not do, as I hear it is to be
discharged at three payments, — a miserable
1 The exact sum was ;^40,555. Cipriani and West
were the valuers. Most of the family portraits were
reserved ; but so many of the pictures were presents that
it is not easy to estimate the actual profit over their first
cost to the original owner.
A Memoir, 247
bargain for a mighty empress I . . . Well 1
adieu to Houghton 1 about its mad master I
shall never trouble myself more. . . . Since
he has stript Houghton of its glory, I do not
care a straw what he does with the stone or
the acres ! ' -^
Not very long after' the date of the above
letter Walpole made what was, for him, an
important change of residence. The lease of
his house in Arlington Street running out, he
fixed upon a larger one in the then very
fashionable district of Berkeley Square. The
house he selected, now (1892) numbered 11,
was then 40,^ and he had commenced nego-
tiations for its purchase as early as November,
1777, when, he tells Lady Ossory, he had
come to town to take possession. But diffi-
culties arose over the sale, and he found him-
self involved in a Chancery suit. He was too
adroit, however, to allow this to degenerate
into an additional annoyance, and managed
(by his own account) to turn what promised
to be a tedious course of litigation into a com-
bat of courtesy. Ultimately, in July, 1779, he
1 Walpole to Mann, 4 Aug., 1779.
2 This, according to Harrison's Memorable Houses, 3rd
ed., 1890, p. 62, is Lord Orford's number as given in
Boyle's Court Guide for 1796.
248 Horace JValpole :
had won his cause, and was hurrying from
Strawberry to pay his purchase money and
close the bargain. Two months later, he is
moving in, and is delighted with his acquisi-
tion. He would not change his two pretty
mansions for any in England, he says. On
the 14th October, he took formal possession,
upon which day — his ' inauguration day ' — he
dates his first letter ' Berkeley Square.' ' It
is seeming to take a new lease of life,' he tells
Mason. ' I was born in Arlington Street,
lived there about fourteen years, returned
thither, and passed thirty-seven more ; but I
have sober monitors that warn me not to delude
myself.' He had still a decade and a half
before him.
Little more than twelve months after he had
settled down in his new abode, he lost the
faithful friend at Paris, to whom, for the space
of fifteen years, he had written nearly once a
week. By 1774, he had become somewhat
nervous about this accumulated correspondence
in a language not his own. For an Englishman,
his French was good, and, as might be expected
of anything he wrote, characteristic and viva-
cious. But, almost of necessity, it contained
many minor faults of phraseology and arrange-
ment, besides abounding in personal anecdote ;
A Memoir. 249
and he became apprehensive lest, after Madame
du Deffand's death, his utterances should fall
into alien hands. General Conway, who visited
Paris in October, 1774, had therefore been
charged to beg for their return, — a request
which seems at first to have been met by the
reply on the lady's part that sufficient precau-
tions had already been taken for ensuring their
restoration. Ultimately, however, they were
handed to Conway.^ It was in all probability
under a sense of this concession that Walpole
once more risked a tedious journey to visit his
blind friend. In the following year he went to
Paris, to find her, as usual, impatiently expect-
ing his arrival. She sat with him until half-past
two, and before his eyes were open again, he
had a letter from her. ' Her soul is immortal,
and forces her body to keep it company.' A
little later he complains that he never gets to bed
from her suppers before two or three o'clock.
' In short,' he says, ' I need have the activity
1 According to a note in the selection from Madame
du Deffand's Correspondence with Walpole, published
in iSio, iii. 44, these letters were at that date extant. But
all the subsequent letters were burnt by her at Walpole's
earnest desire, — those only excepted which she received
during the last year of her Hfe, and these, also, were sent
back when she died.
250 Horace Walpole :
of a squirrel, and the strength of a Hercules,
to go through my labours, — not to count how
many ddmeUs I have had to raccommode and
how many mdmoires to present against Tonton/
who grows the greater favourite the more peo-
ple he devours/ But Tonton's mistress is more
worth visiting than ever, he tells Selwyn,
and she is apparently as tireless as of yore.
' Madame du Deffand and I [says another let-
ter] set out last Sunday at seven in the evening,
to go fifteen miles to a ball, and came back after
supper ; and another night, because it was but
1 Tonton was a snappish little dog belonging to Madame
du Deffand, which, when in its mistress's company, must
have been extremely objectionable. In January, 177S, the
Marechale de Luxembourg presented her old friend with
Teuton's portrait in wax on a gold snuff-box, together
with the last six volumes of Madame du Deffand's favour-
ite, Voltaire, adding the following epigram by the Chevalier
dc lioufflers : —
* Vous les trouvez tons deux charmans,
Nous les trouvons tons deux mordans :
Voil^ la ressemblance ;
L'un ne mord que ses enneniis,
Et I'autre mord tous vos amis :
Voil^ la difference.'
At Madame du Deffand's death, both dog and box passed
to Walpole, the latter finding an honoured place among
the treasures of the Tribune. (See A Description of the
Villa, etc., 1774, p. 137, A/'/^eiidix of Additions.)
A Memoir. 251
one in the morning when she brought me home,
she ordered the coachman to make the tour of
the Quais, and drive gently because it was so
early.' At last, early in October, he tears him-
self away, to be followed almost immediately
by a letter of farewell. Here it is : —
' Adieu, ce mot est bien triste ; souvenez-vous
que vous laissez ici la personne dont vous §tes
le plus aime^ et dont le bonheur et le malheur
consistent dans ce que vous pensez pour elle.
Donnez-moi de vos nouvelles le plus tot qu'il
sera possible.
' Je me porte bien, j'ai un peu dormi, ma nuit
n'est pas finie , je serai tr^s-exacte au regime,
et j'aurai soin de moi puisque vous vous y
interessez.'
The correspondence thus resumed was con-
tinued for five years more. Walpole does not
seem to have visited Paris again, and the refer-
ences to Madame du Deffand in his general
correspondence are not very frequent. Towards
the middle of 1780, her life was plainly closing
in. In July and August, she complained of
being more than usually languid, and in a letter
of the 22nd of the latter month intimates that
it may be her last, as dictation growls painful to
her. ' Ne vous devant revoir de ma vie,' — she
says pathetically, — ' je n'ai rien k regretter.'
252 Horace Walpole :
From tl^.is time she kept her bed, and in Sep-
tember Walpole tells Lady Ossory that he is
trembling at every letter he gets from Paris.
^ My dear old friend, I fear, is going! . . .
To have struggled twenty days at eighty-four
shows such stamina that I have not totally lost
hopes.' On the 24th, however, after a lethargy
of several days, she died quietly, ' without effort
or struggle.' ' Elle a eu la mort la plus douce,'
— says her faithful and attached secretary,
Wiart, — ' quoique la maladie ait et^ longue.'
She was buried, at her own wish, in the parish
church of St. Sulpice. By her will she made
her nephew, the Marquis d'Aulan, her heir.
Long since, she had wished Walpole to accept
this character. Thereupon he had threatened
that he would never set foot in Paris again if
she carried out her intention ; and it was aban-
doned. But she left him the whole of her
manuscripts^ and books.
As his own letters to her have not been
printed, her death makes no difference in the
amount of his correspondence. The war with
the American Colonies, of which he foresaw
the disastrous results, and the course of
1 The MSS., which included eight hundred of ^^ada^le
du Deffand's letters, were sold in the Strawberry Hill
sale of 1842 for ^^157 ioj.
A Memoir. 253
which he follows to Mann with the greatest
keenness, fully absorbs as much of his time
as he can spare from the vagaries of the
Duchess of Kingston and the doings of the
Duchess of Gloucester. Not many months
before Madame du Deffand died had occurred
the famous Gordon Riots, which, as he was
in London most of the time, naturally occupy
his pen. It was General Conway who, as the
author of Barnaby Riidge has not forgotten,
so effectively remonstrated with Lord George
upon the occasion of the visit of the mob to
the House of Commons ; and four days later
Walpole chronicles from Berkeley Square the
events of the terrible ' Black Wednesday.'
From the roof of Gloucester House he sees
the blazing prisons, — a sight he shall not soon
forget. Other subjects for which one dips in
the lucky bag of his records are the defence
of Gibraltar, the trial of Warren Hastings, the
loss of the Royal George. But it is generally
in the minor chronicle that he is most divert-
ing. The last bon mot of George Selwyn or
Lady Townshend, the newest ' royal preg-
nancy,' the details of court ceremonial, the
most recent addition to Strawberr}^, the end-
less stream of anecdote and tittle-tattle which
runs dimpling all the way, — these are the
254 Horace Walpole :
themes he loves best ; this is the element in
which his easy persiflage delights to disport
itself. He is, above all, a rieur. About his
serious passages there is generally a false
ring, but never when he pours out the gossip
that he loves, and of which he has so inex-
haustible a supply. ' I can sit and amuse
myself with my own memory,' he says to
Mann in February, 1785, ^and yet find new
stores at every audience that I give to it. Then,
for private episodes [he has been speaking of
his knowledge of public events], varieties of
characters, political intrigues, literary anecdotes,
etc., the profusion that I remember is endless ;
in short, when I reflect on all I have seen,
heard, read, written, the many idle hours I have
passed, the nights I have wasted playing at
faro, the weeks, nay months, I have spent
in pain, you will not wonder that I almost
think I have, like Pythagoras, been Panthoides
Euphorbus, and have retained one memory in
at least two bodies.'
He was sixty-eight when he wrote the above
letter. Mann was eighty-four, and the long
correspondence — a correspondence 'not to be
paralleled in the annals of the Post Office ' —
was drawing to a close. * What Orestes and
Pylades ever wrote to each other for four-and-
A Memoir, 255
forty years without meeting r' Walpole asks.
In June, 1786, however, the last letter of the
eight hundred and nine specimens printed by
Cunningham was despatched to Florence.^ In
the following November, Mann died, after a
prolonged illness. He had never visited Eng-
land, nor had Walpole set eyes upon him since
he had left him at Florence in May, 1741.
His death followed hard upon that of another
faithful friend (whose gifts, perhaps, hardly
lay in the epistolary line), — bustling, kindly
Kitty Clive. Her cheerful, ruddy face, ' all
sun and vermilion,' set peacefully in Decem-
ber, 178), leaving Cliveden vacant, not, as we
shall see, for long.^ Earlier still had departed
1 Walpole, as in the case of Madame du Deffand, had
ta'cen the precaution of getting back his letters, and at
his friend's death not more than a dozen of them were
still in Mann's possession. According to Cunningham
{Corr., ix. xv), Mann's letters to Walpole are ' absolutely-
unreadable.' An attempt to skim the cream of them
(such as it is) was made by Dr. Doran in two volumes
entitled ' Maitn ' and Maimers at the Court of Florence,
1740-1786, Bentley, 1876.
2 Mrs. Clive is buried at Twickenham, where a mural
slab was erected to her in the parish church by her
protegee and successor, Miss Jane Pope, the clever actress
who shed tears over the Beauclerk drawings (see p. 244).
Her portrait by Davison, which is engraved as the front-
ispiece to Cunningham's fourth volume, hung in the
256 Horace IValpole :
another old ally, Cole, the antiquary, and the
lapse of time had in other ways contracted
Walpole's circle. In 1781, Lady Orford had
ended her erratic career at Pisa, leaving her
son a fortune so considerable as to make his
uncle regret vaguely that the sale of the
Houghton pictures had not been delayed for
a few months longer. Three years later, she
was followed by her brother-in-law, Sir Edward
Walpole, — an occurrence which had the effect
of leaving between Horace Walpole and his
father's title nothing but his lunatic and child-
less nephew.
If his relatives and friends were falling
away, however, their places — the places of the
friends, at least — were speedily filled again;
and, as a general rule, most of his male favour-
ites were replaced by women. Pinkerton,
the antiquary, who afterwards published the
Walpoliana, is one of the exceptions ; and
several of Walpole's letters to him are con-
tained in that book, and in the volumes of
Pinkerton's own correspondence published by
Dawson Turner in 1830. But Walpole's appe-
tite for correspondence of the purely literary
kind had somewhat slackened in his old age.
Round Bedchamber at Strawljerry. It was given to
Wall)oIc by her brother, James Raftor.
A Memoir. 257
and it was to the other sex that he turned for
sympathy and solace. He hked them best ;
his style suited them ; and he wrote to them
with most ease. In July, 178^, he was visited
at Strawberry by Madame de Genlis, who
arrived with her friend Miss Wilkes and the
famous Pamela,^ afterwards Lady Edward Fitz-
gerald. Madame de Genlis at this date was
nearing forty, and had lost much of her good
looks. But Walpole seems to have found her
less pricieuse and affected than he had anti-
cipated, and she was, on this occasion, unac-
companied by the inevitable harp. A later
visit was from Dr. Burney and his daughter
Fanny, — ' Evelina-Cecilia ' Walpole calls her,
— a young lady for whose good sense and
modesty he expresses a genuine admiration.
Miss Burney had not as yet entered upon that
court bondage which was to be so little to
her advantage. Another and more intimate
1 ' Whom she [Madame de Genlis] has educated to be
very like herself in the face,' says Walpole, referring
to a then current scandal. At this date, however, it is
but just to add that the recent investigations of Mr. J. G.
Alger, as embodied in vol. xix. of the Dictionary of
National Biography, tend to show that it is by no means
certain that Pamela was the daughter of the accomplished
lady whom Philippe ^^a//// entrusted with the education
of his sons.
17
258 Horace IVa/poIe :
acquaintanceship of this period was with Miss
Burney's friend^ Hannah More. Hannah
More ultimately became one of Walpole's
correspondents, although scarcely ' so corre-
sponding' as he wished; and they met fre-
quently in society when she visited London.
On her side, she seems to have been wholly
fascinated by his wit and conversational
powers ; he, on his, was attracted by her
mingled puritanism and vivacity. He writes to
her as ' St. Hannah ; ' and she, in return, sighs
plaintively over his lack of religion. Yet (she
adds) she ' must do him the justice to say.
that except the delight he has in teasing me
for what he calls over-strictness, I have never
heard a sentence from him which savoured of
infidelity.'^ He evidently took a great interest
in her works, and indeed in 1789 prmted at
his press one of her poems, Bonner's Ghost.''
^ He is not explicit as to his creed. 'Atheism I dis-
like,' he said to Pinkerton. ' It is gloomy, uncomfortable ;
and, in my eye, unnatural and irrational. It certainly
requires more credulity to believe that there is no God,
than to believe that there is ' ( Walpoliana, i. 75-6). But
Pinkerton must be taken with caution. (Cf. Quarterly
Rcviciu, 1843, l-^'xii- 551-)
- In 1786 she had dedicated to him her Florio, A Tale,
etc., with a highly complimentary Preface, in which she
says : ' I should be unjust to your very engaging and
Hannah More.
^-"^^^
/^
A Memoir. 259
His friendship for her endured for the remain-
der of his life ; and not long before his death he
presented her with a richly bound copy of
Bishop Wilson's Bible, with a complimentary
inscription which may be read in the second
volume of her Life and Correspondence.
It was, however, neither the author of Eve-
lina nor the author of The Manners of the
Great who was destined to fill the void created
by the death of Madame du Deffand. In the
winter of 1787-8, he had first seen, and a year
later he made the formal acquaintance of, ' two
young ladies of the name of Berry.' They had
a story. Their father, at this time a widower,
had married for love, and had afterwards been
supplanted in the good graces of a rich uncle
by a younger brother who had the generosity
to allow him an annuity of a thousand a year.
In 1783, Mr. Berry had taken his daughters
abroad to Holland, Switzerland, and Italy,
whence, in June, 178^, they had returned, being
then highly cultivated and attractive young
women of two-and-twenty and one-and-twenty
respectively. Three years later, Walpole met
well-bred turn of wit, if I did not declare that, among all
the lively and brilliant things I have heard from you, I
do not remember e\cr to have heard an unkind or an
ungenerous one.'
/Z.
•^s
A Memoir. 259
His friendship for her endured for the remain-
der of his life ; and not long before his death he
presented her with a richly bound copy of
Bishop Wilson's Bible, with a complimentary
inscription which may be read in the second
volume of her Life and Correspondence.
It was, however, neither the author of Eve-
lina nor the author of The Manners of the
Great who was destined to fill the void created
by the death of Madame du Deffand. In the
winter of 1787-8, he had first seen, and a year
later he made the formal acquaintance of, ' two
young ladies of the name of Berry.' They had
a story. Their father, at this time a widower,
had married for love, and had afterwards been
supplanted in the good graces of a rich uncle
by a younger brother who had the generosity
to allow him an annuity of a thousand a year.
In 1783, Mr. Berry had taken his daughters
abroad to Holland, Switzerland, and Italy,
whence, in June, 178^, they had returned, being
then highly cultivated and attractive young
women of two-and-twenty and one-and-twenty
respectively. Three years later, Walpole met
well-bred turn of wit, if I did not declare that, among all
the lively and brilliant things I have heard from you, I
do not remember e\cr to have heard an unkind or an
ungenerous one.'
26o Horace IValpole:
them for the second time at the house of a Lady
Merries, the wife of a banker in St. James's
Street. The first time he saw them he ' would
not be acquainted with them, having heard so
much in their praise that he concluded thev
would be all pretension.' But on the second
occasion, ' in a very small company,' he sat next
the elder, Mary, ' and found her an angel both
inside and out.' 'Her face' — he tells Lady
Ossory — 'is formed for a sentimental novel,
but it is ten times fitter for a fifty times better
thing, genteel comedy.' The other sister was
speedily discovered to be nearly as charming.
• They are exceedingly sensible, entirely natural
and unaffected, frank, and, being qualified to
talk on any subject, nothing is so easy and agree-
able as their conversation, nor more apposite
than their answers and observations. The eldest,
I discovered by chance, understands Latin, and
is a perfect Frenchwoman in her language. The
younger draws charmingly, and has copied
admirably Lady Di.'s gipsies,^ which I lent,
though for the first time of her attempting
colours. They are of pleasing figures : Mary,
1 This (we are told) was Lady Di.'s chcf-a'auvre. It
was a water-colour drawing representing ' Gipsies telling
a country-maiden her fortune at the entrance of a beech-
wood,' and hung in the Red Bedchamber at Strawberry.
A Memoir. 261
the eldest, sweet, with fine dark eyes that are
very lively when she speaks, with a symmetry
of face that is the more interesting from being
pale ; Agnes, the younger, has an agreeable, sen-
sible countenance, hardly to be called handsome,
but almost. She is less animated than Mary,
but seems, out of deference to her sister, to
speak seldomer ; for they dote on each other,
and Mary is always praising her sister's talents.
I must even tell you they dress within the bounds
of fashion, though fashionably ; but without the
excrescences and balconies with which modern
hoydens overwhelm and barricade their persons.
In short, good sense, information, simplicity,
and ease characterize the Berrys ; and this is
not particularly mine, who am apt to be pre-
judiced, but the universal voice of all who know
them.' ^
' This delightful family,' he goes on to say,
^ comes to me almost every Sunday evening.
[They were at the time living on Twickenham
Common.] Of the father not much is recorded
beyond the fact that he was ' a little merry man
with a round face,' and (as his eldest daughter
reports) ' an odd inherent easiness in his dis-
position,' who seems to have been perfectly
contented in his modest and unobtrusive char-
i Walpole to Lady Ossory, ii Oct., 1788.
262 Horace IValpole :
acter of paternal appendage to the favourites.
Walpole's attachment to his new friends grew
rapidly. Only a few days after the date of the
foregoing letter, Mr. Kirgate's press was versi-
fying in their honour, and they themselves were
already ' his two Straw Berries/ whose praises
he sang to all his friends. He delighted in devis-
ing new titles for them, — they were his ' twin
wives,' his ' dear Both,' his ' Amours.' For
them in this year he began writing the charming
little volume of Reminiscences of the Courts of
George the ist and 2nd, and in December, 1789,
he dedicated to them his Catalogue of Stran'-
berry Mill. It was not long before he had
secured them a home at Teddington and finallv,
when, in 1791, Cliveden became vacant, he pre-
vailed upon them to become his neighbours.
He afterwards bequeathed the house to them,
and for many years after his death, it was their
summer residence. On either side the acquaint-
ance was advantageous. His friendship at once
introduced them to the best and most accom-
plished fashionable society of their day, while
the charm of their ' company, conversation and
talents' must have inexpressibly sweetened and
softened what, on his part, had begun to grow
more and more a solitary, joyless, and painful
old age.
Miss Berry.
/3
-^
Of THE ^-, \
A Memoir. 26^
His establishment of his ' wives ' in his imme-
diate vicinity was not, however, accomplished
without difficulty. For a moment some ill-na-
tured newspaper gossip, which attributed the
attachment of the Berry family to interested
motives, so justly aroused the indignation of the
elder sister that the whole arrangement threat-
ened to collapse. But the slight estrangement
thus caused soon passed away ; and at the close
of 1791, they took up their abode in Mrs.
Clive's old house, now doubly honoured. On
the 5th of the December in the same year, after
a fresh fit of frenzy, Walpole's nephew died, and
he became fourth Earl of Orford. The new
dignity was by no means a welcome one, and
scarcely compensated for the cares which it
entailed. ' A small estate, loaded with debt,
and of which I do not understand the manage-
ment, and am too old to learn ; a source of law
suits amongst my near relations, though not
affecting me ; endless conversations with law-
yers, and packets of letters to read every day
and answer, — all this weight of new business
is too much for the rag of life that yet hangs
about me, and was preceded by three weeks of
anxiety about my unfortunate nephew, and a
daily correspondence with physicians and mad-
doctors, falling upon me when I had been out
264 Horace Walpole :
of order ever since July.'^ ' For the other
empty metamorphosis,' he writes to Hannah
More, ' that has happened to the outward man.
you do me justice in concluding that it can do
nothing but tease me ; it is being called names
in one's old age. I had rather be my Lord
Mayor, for then I should keep the nickname
but a year ; and mine I may retain a little
longer, — not that at seventy-five I reckon on
becoming my Lord Methusalem.' For some
time he could scarcely bring himself to use his
new signature, and occasionally varied it by
describing himself as ' The uncle of the late
Earl of Orford.' In 1792, he delivered himself,
after the fashion of Cowley, of the following
Epilaphium vivi Aiictoris : —
' An estate and an earldom at seventy-four !
Had I sought them or wished them, 't would add one
fear more, —
That of making a countess when almost four-score.
But Fortune, who scatters her gifts out of season,
Though unkind to my limbs, has still left me my reason ;
And whether she lowers or lifts me, I '11 try,
In the plain simple style I have lived in, to die :
For ambition too humble, for manners too high.'
The last line seems like another of the many
echoes of Goldsmith's Rclaliation. As for the
1 IVal/oU to Pinker tot, 26 Dec, 1791.
A Memoir. 265
fear indicated in the third, it is hinted that this
at one time bade fair to be something more
than a poetical apprehension. If we are to
credit a tradition handed down by Lord Lans-
downe, he had been willing to go through the
form of marriage with either of the Berrys,
merely to secure their society, and to enrich
them, as he had the power of charging the
Orford estate with a jointure of ;^20oo per
annum. But this can only have been a passing
thought at some moment when their absence,
in Italy or elsewhere, left him more sensitive
to the loss of their gracious and stimulating
presence. He himself was far too keenly alive
to ridicule, and too much in bondage to les
biens^ances, to take a step which could scarcely
escape ill-natured comment ; and Mary Berry,
who would certainly have been his preference,
was not only as fully alive as was he to the
shafts of the censorious, but, during the greater
part of her acquaintanceship with him, was,
apparently with his knowledge, warmly at-
tached to a certain good-looking General
O'Hara, who, a year before Walpole's death,
in November, 1796, definitely proposed. He
had just been appointed Governor of Gibraltar,
and he wished Miss Berry to marry him at
once, and go out with him. This, ' out of con-
266 Horace Walpole:
sideration for others,' she declined to do. A
few months later the engagement was broken
off, and she never again saw her soldier admirer.
Whether Lord Orford's comfort went for any-
thing in this adjournment of her happiness, does
not clearly appear ; but it is only reasonable to
suppose that his tenacious desire for her com-
panionship had its influence in a decision which,
however much it may have been for the best
(and there were those of her friends who re-
garded it as a providential escape), was never-
theless a lifelong source of regret to herself.
When, in 1802, she heard suddenly at the
Opera of O'Hara's death, she fell senseless to
the floor.
The Mate Horace Walpole' never took his
seat in the House of Lords. He continued,
as before, to divide his time between Berkeley
Square and Strawberry, to eulogize his ' wives'
to Lady Ossory, and to watch life from his
beloved Blue Room. Now and then he did
the rare honours of his home to a distinguished
guest, — in 1793, it was the Duchess of York ;
in 179), Queen Charlotte herself. In the
latter year died his old friend Conway, by
this time a Field-Marshal ; and it was evident
at the close of 1796 that his faithful corre-
spondent would not long survive him. His
A Memoir, 267
ailments had increased, and in the following
January, he wrote his last letter to Lady
Ossory : —
Jan. 15, 1797.
My dear Madam, —
You distress me infinitely by showing my idle
notes^ which I cannot conceive can amuse any-
body. My old-fashioned breeding impels me
every now and then to reply to the letters you
honour me with writing, but in truth very un-
willingly, for I seldom can have anything
particular to say ; I scarce go out of my own
house, and then only to two or three very
private places, where I see nobody that really
knows anything, and what I learn comes from
Newspapers, that collect intelligence from
coffee-houses, consequently what I neither
believe nor report. At home I see only a
few charitable elders, except about four-score
nephews and nieces of various ages, who are
each brought to me about once a-year, to stare
at me as the Methusalem of the family, and
they can only speak of their own contem-
poraries, which interest me no more than if
they talked of their dolls, or bats and balls.
Must not the result of all this, Madam, make
me a very entertaining correspondent ? And
can such letters be worth showing ? or can I
268 Horace IValpole :
have any spirit when so old, and reduced to
dictate ?
Oh ! my good Madam, dispense with me
from such a task, and think how it must add
to it to apprehend such letters being shown.
Pray send me no more such laurels, which I
desire no more than their leaves when decked
with a scrap of tinsel, and stuck on twelfth-
cakes that lie on the shop-boards of pastry-
cooks at Christmas. I shall be quite content
with a sprig of rosemary thrown after me, when
the parson of the parish commits my dust to
dust. Till then, pray, Madam, accept the
resignation of your
Ancient servant,
Orford.
Six weeks after the date of the above letter,
he died at his house in Berkeley Square, to
which he had been moved at the close of the
previous year. During the latter days of his
life, he suffered from a cruel lapse of memory,
which led him to suppose himself neglected
even by those who had but just quitted him.
He sank gradually, and expired without pain
on the 2nd of March, 1797, being then in his
eightieth year. He was buried at the family
seat of Houghton.
A Memoir. 269
His fortune, over and above his leases,
amounted to ninety-one thousand pounds.
To each of the Miss Berrys he left the sum
of ;^4000 for their lives, together v^ith the
house and garden of ' Little Strawberry '
(Cliveden), the long meadow in front of it,
and all the furniture. He also bequeathed to
them and to their father his printed works
and his manuscripts, with discretionary power
to publish. It was understood that the real
editorship was to fall on the elder sister, who
forthwith devoted herself to her task. The
result was the edition, in five quarto volumes,
of Lord Orford's Works, which has been so
often referred to during the progress of these
pages, and which appeared in 1798. It was
entirely due to Mary Berry's unremitting care,
her father's share being confined to a final para-
graph in the preface, in which she is eulogized. ^
1 Mary Berry died 20th Nov., 1852 ; Agnes Berry,
Jan., 1852. They were buried in one grave in Peters-
ham churchyard, ' amidst scenes ' — says Lord Carlisle's
inscription — ' which in life they had frequented & loved.'
H. F. Chorley {Autobiography, etc., 1873, vol. i., p. 276)
describes them as ' more like one's notion of ancient
Frenchwomen than anything I have ever seen ; rouged,
with the remains of some beauty, managing large fans like
the Flirtillas, etc., etc., of Ranelagh.' See also Extracts
from Miss Berry's Journals and Correspondence, 1783-
1852, edited by Lady Theresa Lewis, 1865.
2/0 Horace Walpole :
Strawberry Hill passed to Mrs. Darner for
life, together \vith;^20oo to keep it in repair.
After living in it for some years, she resigned
it, in 1811, to the Countess Dowager of Wal-
degrave, in whom the remainder in fee was
vested. It subsequently passed to George,
seventh Earl of Waldegrave, who sold its con-
tents in 1842. At his death, in 1846, he left
it to his widow, Frances, Countess of Walde-
grave, who subsequently married the Rt. Hon.
Chichester S. Parkinson-Fortescue, now Lord
Carlingford. Lady Waldegrave died in 1879 ;
but she had greatly added to and extended
the original building, besides restoring many
of the objects by which it had been decorated
in Walpole's day.
A Memoir, 271
CHAPTER X.
Macaulay on Walpole. — Effect of the Edbibtirgh Essay. —
Macaulay and Mary Berry. — Portraits of Walpole, — Miss
Hawkins's Description. — Pinkerton's Rainy Day at Straw-
berry. — Walpole's Character as a Man ; as a Virtuoso ; as a
Politician ; as an Author and Letter-writer.
'\T7'HEN, in October, 183 ^ Lord (then Mr.)
' * Macaulay completed for the Edinburgh
his review of Lord Dover's edition of Walpole's
letters to Sir Horace Mann, he had apparently
performed to his entire satisfaction the opera-
tion known, in the workmanlike vocabulary of
the time, as ' dusting the jacket ' of his unfor-
tunate reviewee. ' I was up at four this morn-
ing to put the last touch to it,' he tells his sister
Hannah. ' I often differ with the majority
about other people's writings, and still oftener
about my own ; and therefore I may very likely
be mistaken ; but I think that this article will
be a hit. . . . Nothing ever cost me more
pains than the first half; I never wrote anything
so flowingly as the latter half; and I like the
latter half the best. [The latter half, it should
272 Horace JValpole :
be stated, was a rapid and very brilliant sketch
of Sir Robert Walpole ; the earlier, which
involved so much labour, was the portrait of
Sir Robert's youngest son.] I have laid it on
Walpole \_i. e., Horace Walpole] so unspar-
ingly,' he goes on to say, ' that I shall not be
surprised if Miss Berry should cut me. . . .
Neither am I sure that Lord and Lady Holland
will be well pleased.' ^
His later letters show him to have been a
true prophet. Macvey Napier, then the editor
of the ' Blue and Yellow,' was enthusiastic,
praising the article ' in terms absolutely extra-
vagant.' ' He says that it is the best that I
ever wrote.' the critic tells his favourite corre-
spondent. — a statement which at this date must
be qualified by the fact that he penned some
of his most famous essays subsequent to its
appearance. On the other hand. Miss Berry
resented the review so much that Sir Stratford
Canning advised its author not to go near her.
But apparently her anger was soon dispelled,
for the same letter which makes this announce-
ment relates that she was already appeased.
Lady Holland, too, was ' in a rage,' though
with what part of the article does not transpire,
while her good-natured husband told Macaulay
1 Trevclyan's Li/c' aiU Letters of Lord Macaulay, ch. v.
A Memoir, 273
privately that he quite agreed with him, but that
they had better not discuss the subject. Lady
Holland's irritation was probably prompted by
her intimacy with the Waldegrave family, to
whom the letters edited by Lord Dover be-
longed, and for whose benefit they were pub-
lished. But, as Macaulay said justly, his
article was surely not calculated to injure the
sale of the book. Her imperious ladyship's
displeasure, however, like that of Miss Berry,
was of brief duration. Macaulay was too
necessary to her riumons, to be long exiled
from her little court.
Among those who occupy themselves in such
enquiries, it has been matter for speculation
what particular grudge Macaulay could have
cherished against Horace Walpole when, to
use his own expression, he laid it on him ' so
unsparingly.' To this his correspondence af-
fords no clue. Mr. Cunningham holds that
he did it ' to revenge the dislike w^hich Wal-
pole bore to the Bedford faction, the followers
of Fox and the Shelburne school.' It is pos-
sible, as another authority has suggested, that
' in the Whig circles of Macaulay's time, there
existed a traditional grudge against Horace
Walpole,' owing to obscure political causes
connected with his influence over his friend
18
274 Horace JValpoIe:
Conway. But these reasons do not seem
relevant enough to make Macaulay's famous
onslaught a mere vendetta. It is more reas-
onable to suppose that between his avowed
delight in Walpole as a letter-writer, and his
robust contempt for him as an individual, he
found a subject to his hand, which admitted
of all the brilliant antithesis and sparkle of
epigram which he lavished upon it. Wal-
pole's trivialities and eccentricities, his whims
and affectations, are seized with remorseless
skill, and presented with all the rhetorical
advantages with which the writer so well knew
how to invest them. As regards his literary
estimate, the truth of the picture can scarcely
be gainsaid ; but the personal character, as
Walpole's surviving friends felt, is certainly
too much en noir. Miss Berry, indeed, in her
' Advertisement ' to vol. vi. of Wright's edition
of the Letters, raised a gentle cry of expostu-
lation against the entire representation. She
laid stress upon the fact that Macaulay had
not known Walpole in the flesh (a disquali-
fication to which too much weight may easily
be assigned) ; she dwelt upon the warmth of
Walpole's attachments ; she contested the
charge of affectation ; and, in short, made such
a gallant attempt at a defence as her loyalty
Lord MaCiiitlay
tJSIVEBSlTl 1
A Memoir, 275
to her old friend enabled her to offer. Yet, if
Macaulay had never known Walpole at all,
she herself, it might be urged, had only known
him in his old age. Upon the whole, ' with
due allowance for a spice of critical pepper
on one hand, and a handful of friendly rose-
mary on the other,' as Croker says, both
characters are ' substantially true." Under
Macaulay's brush Walpole is depicted as he
appeared to that critic's masculine and (for the
nonce) unsympathetic spirit ; in Miss Berry's
picture, the likeness is touched with a pencil at
once grateful, affectionate, and indulgent. The
biographer of to-day who is neither endeavour-
ing to portray Walpole in his most favourable
aspect, nor preoccupied (as Cunningham sup-
posed the great Whig essayist to have been)
with what w^ould be thought of his work ' at
Woburn, at Kensington, and in Berkeley
Square,' may safely borrow details from the
delineation of either artist.
Of portraits of Walpole (not in words) there
is no lack. Besides that belonging to Mrs.
Bedford, described at p. 11, there is the enamel
by Zincke painted in 174^, which is repro-
duced at p. 71 of vol. i. of Cunningham's edition
of the letters. There is another portrait of him
by Nathaniel Hone, R.A., in the National
2/6 Horace Walpole :
Portrait Gallery. A more characteristic present-
ment than any of these is the little drawing by
Miintz which shows his patron sitting in the
Library at Strawberry, with the Thames and a
passing barge seen through the open window.
But his most interesting portraits are two which
exhibit him in manhood and old age. One is
the half-length by J. G. Eckardt which once
hung in its black-and-gold frame in the Blue
Bedchamber, near the companion pictures of
Gray and Bentley.^ Like these, it was ' from
Vandyck,' that is to say, it was in a costume
copied from that painter, and depicts the sitter
in a laced collar and ruffles, leaning upon a copy
of the jEdcs Walpolianci% with a view of part
of the Gothic castle in the distance. The
canvas bears at the back the date of 17^4, so
that it represents him at the age of seven-and-
thirty. The shaven face is rather lean than thin,
the forehead high, the brown hair brushed back
and slightly curled. The eyes are dark, bright,
and intelligent, and the small mouth wears a
slight smile. The other, a drawing made for
Samuel Lysons by Sir Thomas Lawrence, is that
of a much older man, having been executed in
1 This is engraved in vol. ix. of Cunningham, facing
the Index ; while the Miintz, above referred to, forms the
frontispiece to vol. viii.
A Memoir. 277
1796. The eyelids droop wearily, the thin lips
have a pinched, mechanical urbanity, and the
features are worn by years and ill-health. It
was reproduced by T. Evans as a frontispiece
for vol. i. of his works. There are other por-
traits by Reynolds, \j<sl (which McArdell and
Reading engraved), by Rosalba, Falconet, and
Dance ; ^ but it is sufficient to have indicated
those mentioned above.
Of the Walpole of later years there are more
descriptions than one, and among these, that
given by Miss Hawkins, the daughter of the
pompous author of the History of Music, is, if
the most familiar, also the most graphic. Sir
John Hawkins was Walpole's neighbour at
Twickenham House, and the History is said to
have been undertaken at Walpole's instance.
Miss Hawkins's description is of Walpole as
she recalled him before 1772. ' His figure,'
she says, ' . . . was not merely tall, but more
properly long and slender to excess ; his com-
plexion, and particularly his hands, of a most
1 The writer of the obituary notice in the Gentleman's
Magazine for March, 1797, says that Dance's portrait is
'the only faithful representation of him [Walpole].'
Against this must be set the fact that it was not selected
by the editor of his works ; and, besides being in profile,
it is certainly far less pleasing than the Lawrence.
2/8 Horace IValpole :
unhealthy paleness. . . . His eyes were remark-
ably bright and penetrating, very dark and
lively ; his voice was not strong, but his tones
were extremely pleasant, and, if I may so say,
highly gentlemanly. I do not remember his
common gait ; ^ he always entered a room in
that style of affected delicacy, which fashion
had then made almost natural, — chapeau bras
between his hands as if he wished to compress
it, or under his arm, knees bent, and feet on
tip-toe, as if afraid of a wet floor. His dress
in visiting was most usually, in summer when I
most saw him, a lavender suit, the waistcoat
embroidered with a little silver, or of white silk
worked in the tambour, partridge silk stockings,
and gold buckles, ruffles and frili generally lace.
I remember when a child, thinking him very
much under-dressed if at any time, except in
mourning, he wore hemmed cambric. In sum-
mer no powder, but his wig combed straight,
and showing his very smooth pale forehead, and
queued behind ; in winter powder.'^
1 It must, by his own account, have been peculiar.
' Walking is not one of my excellences,' he writes. ' In my
best days Mr. Winnington said I tripped like a peewit;
and if I do not flatter myself, my march at present is more
like a dabchick's' [IValpoie to Lady Ossory, iS August,
1775)-
- Anecdotes, etc., by L M. Hawkins, 1S22, pp. 105-6.
A Memoir, 279
Pinkerton, who knew Walpole from 1784
until his death, and whose disappointment of a
legacy is supposed, in places, to have mingled
a more than justifiable amount of gall with his
ink, has nevertheless left a number of interest-
ing particulars respecting his habits and personal
characteristics. They are too long to quote
entire, but are, at the same time, too pictu-
resque to be greatly compressed. He contradicts
Miss Hawkins in one respect, for he says
Walpole was ' short and slender,' but ' com-
pact and neatly formed,' — an account which
is confirmed by Miintz's full-length. ' When
viewed from behind, he had somewhat of a
boyish appearance, owing to the form of his
person, and the simplicity of his dress.' None
of his pictures, says Pinkerton, ^express the
placid goodness of his eyes,^ which would often
sparkle with sudden rays of wit, or dart forth
flashes of the most keen and intuitive intelli-
gence. His laugh was forced and uncouth, and
even his smile not the most pleasing.'
1 ' I have lately become acquainted with your friend
Mr. Walpole, and am quite charmed with him,' — writes
Malone to Lord Charlemont in 1782. ' There is an unaf-
fected benignity and good nature in his manner that is, I
think, irresistibly engaging ' [Hist. MSS. Commission,
I2tk Rep., App., Pt. X., 1891, p. 395).
28o Horace Walpole :
' His walk was enfeebled by the gout ;
which^ if the editor's memory do not deceive,
he mentioned that he had been tormented
with since the age of twenty-five ; adding,
at the same time, that it was no hereditary
complaint, his father, Sir Robert Walpole,
who always drank ale, never having known
that disorder, and far less his other parent.
This painful complaint not only affected his
feet, but attacked his hands to such a degree
that his fingers were always swelled and de-
formed, and discharged large chalk-stones once
or twice a year ; upon which occasions he
would observe, with a smile, that he must
set up an inn, for he could chalk up a score
with more ease and rapidity than any man in
England.'
After referring to the strict temperance of
his life, Pinkerton goes on : —
' Though he sat up very late, either writing
or conversing, he generally rose about nine
o'clock, and appeared in the breakfast room,
his constant and chosen apartment, with fine
vistos towards the Thames. His approach
was proclaimed, and attended, by a favourite
little dog, the legacy of the Marquise du
DcfTand,^ and which ease and attention had
^ Tonton. See note to p. 250.
A Memoir. 281
rendered so fat that it could hardly move.
This was placed beside him on a small sofa ;
the tea-kettle, stand, and heater were brought
in, and he drank two or three cups of that
liquor out of most rare and precious ancient
procelain of Japan, of a fine white, embossed
with large leaves. The account of his china
cabinet, in his description of his villa, will
show how rich he was in that elegant luxury.
. . . The loaf and butter were not spared, . . .
and the dog and the squirrels had a liberal
share of his repast.^
' Dinner [his hour for which was four] was
served up in the small parlour, or large dining
room, as it happened : in winter generally the
former. His valet supported him downstairs;^
and he ate most moderately of chicken, phea-
sant, or any light food. Pastry he disliked, as
difficult of digestion, though he would taste a
morsel of venison pye. Never, but once that
1 Another passage in the Walpoliana (i. 71-2) explains
this : ' Regularly after breakfast, in the summer seasom
at least, Mr. Walpole used to mix bread and milk in a
large bason, and throw it out at the window of the sitting-
room, for the squirrels ; who, soon after, came down from
the high trees, to enjoy their allowance.'
2 ' I cannot go up or down stairs without being led by
a servant. It is temptis abire for me : lusi satis ' ( Walpole
to Pinkerton, 15 May, 1794).
282 Horace IValpole :
he drank two glasses of vvhite-vvine, did the
editor see him taste any liquor, except ice-
water. A pail of ice was placed under the
table, in which stood a decanter of water, from
which he supplied himself with his favourite
beverage. . . .
' If his guest liked even a moderate quan-
tity of wine, he must have called for it during
dinner, for almost instantly after he rang the
bell to order coffee upstairs. Thither he
would pass about five o'clock ; and generally
resuming his place on the sofa, would sit till
two o'clock in the morning, in miscellaneous
chit-chat, full of singular anecdotes, strokes of
wit, and acute observations, occasionally send-
ing for books or curiosities, or passing to the
library, as any reference happened to arise
in conversation. After his coffee he tasted
nothing ; but the snuff box of tabac d'etrenncs
from Fribourg's was not forgotten, and was
replenished from a canister lodged in an ancient
marble urn of great thickness, which stood
in the window seat, and served to secure its
moisture and rich flavour.
'Such was a private rainy day of Horace
Walpole. The forenoon quickly passed in
roaming through the numerous apartments
of the house, in which, after twenty visits.
A Memoir. 283
still something new would occur ; and he was
indeed constantly adding fresh acquisitions.
Sometimes a walk in the grounds would in-
tervene, on which occasions he would go out
in his slippers through a thick dew ; and he
never wore a hat. He said that, on his first
visit to Paris, he was ashamed of his effemi-
nacy, when he saw every little meagre French-
man, whom even he could have thrown down
with a breath, walking without a hat, which
he could not do, without a certainty of that
disease, which the Germans say is endemial
in England, and is termed by the natives
le-catch-cold.} The first trial cost him a slight
fever, but he got over it, and never caught
cold afterwards : draughts of air, damp rooms,
windows open at his back, all situations were
alike to him in this respect. He would even
show some little offence at any solicitude,
expressed by his guests on such an occasion,
as an idea arising from the seeming tenderness
of his frame; and would say, with a half smile
of good-humoured crossness, ^' My back is the
same with my face, and my neck is like my
1 'I have persisted' — he tells Gray from Paris in
January, 1766 — 'through this Siberian winter in not
adding a grain to my clothes and in going open-breasted
without an under waistcoat.'
284 Horace Walpole :
nose/' ^ His iced water he not only regarded
as a preservative from such an accident, but he
would sometimes observe that he thought his
stomach and bowels would last longer than his
bones ; such conscious vigour and strength in
those parts did he feel from the use of that
beverage.' ^
The only particular that Cunningham adds to
this chronicle of his habits is one too character-
istic of the man to be omitted. After dinner at
Strawberry, he says, the smell was removed by
' a censer or pot of frankincense.' According
to the Description, etc., there was a tripod of
ormoulu kept in the Breakfast Room for this
purpose. It is difficult to identify the ' ancient
marble urn of great thickness ' in which the
snuff was stored ; but it may have been that ' of
granite, brought from one of the Greek Islands,
and given to Sir Robert Walpole by Sir Charles
Wager,' which also figures in the Catalogue.
Walpole's character may be considered in a
1 He was probably thinking of Spectator, No. 228 :
' The Indian answered very well to an European, who
asked him how he could go naked : I am all Face.'
Lord Chesterfield wished his little godson to have the same
advantage. ' I am very willing that he should be all
face,' he says in a letter to Arthur Stanhope of 19th
October, 1762.
- Walpoliana, i. xi-xiv.
A Memoir. 285
fourfold aspect, as a man, a virtuoso, a politician,
and an author. The first is the least easy to
describe. What strikes one most forcibly is,
that he was primarily and before all an aristo-
crat, or, as in his own day he would have been
called, a ' person of quality,' whose warmest
sympathies were reserved for those of his own
rank. Out of the charmed circle of the peerage
and baronetage, he had few strong connections ;
and although in middle life he corresponded
voluminously with antiquaries such as Cole and
Zouch, and in the languor of his old age turned
eagerly to the renovating society of young
women such as Hannah More and the Miss
Berrys, however high his heart may have placed
them, it may be doubted whether his head ever
quite exalted them to the level of Lady Caroline
Petersham, or Lady Ossory, or Her Grace of
Gloucester. In a measure, this would also
account for his unsympathetic attitude to some
of the great literati of his day. With Gray he
had been at school and college, which made a
difference ; but he no doubt regarded Fielding
and Hogarth and Goldsmith and Johnson, apart
from their confessed hostility to ' high life' and
his beloved ' genteel comedy,' as gifted but un-
desirable outsiders, — ^horn-handed breakers of
the glebe ' in Art and Letters, — with whom it
286 Horace IValpole :
would be impossible to be as intimately familiar
as one could be with such glorified amateurs as
Bunbury and Lady Lucan and Lady Di. Beau-
clerk, who were all more or less born in the
purple. To the friends of his own class he was
constant and considerate, and he seems to have
cherished a genuine affection for Conway,
George Montagu, and Sir Horace Mann. With
regard to Gray, his relations, it would seem,
were rather those of intellectual affinity and
esteem than downright affection. But his closest
friends were women. In them, that is, in the
v.omen of his time, he found just that atmos-
phere of sunshine and insouciance, — those con-
versational ' lilacs and nightingales,' — in which
his soul delighted, and which were most con-
genial to his restless intelligence and easily
fatigued temperament. To have seen him at
his best, one should have listened to him, not
when he was playing the antiquary with Ducarel
or Conyers Middleton, but gossipping of ancient
green-room scandals at Cliveden, or explaining
the mysteries of the ' Officina Arbuteana ' to
Madame de Boufflers or Lady Townshend, or
delighting Mary and Agnes Berry, in the half-
light of the Round Drawing Room at Straw-
berry, with his old stories of Lady Suffolk and
Lady Hervey, and of the monstrous raven, under
A Memoir, 287
guise of which the disembodied spirit of His
Majesty King George the First was supposed
to have revisited the disconsolate Duchess of
Kendal. Comprehending thoroughly that car-
dinal precept of conversation, — ' never to w^ary
your hearer,' — he was an admirable raconteur ;
and his excellent memory, shrewd perceptions,
and volatile wit — all the more piquant for its
never-failing mixture of well-bred malice — must
have made him a most captivating companion.
If, as Scott says, his temper was ' precarious/
it is more charitable to remember that in middle
and later life he was nearly always tormented
with a malady seldom favourable to good
humour, than to explain the less amiable details
of his conduct (as does Mr. Croker) by the
hereditary taint of insanity. In a life of eighty
years many hot friendships cool, even with
tempers not ' precarious.' As regards the
charges sometimes made against him of coldness
and want of generosity, very good evidence
would be required before they could be held to
be established ; and a man is not necessarily
niggardly because his benefactions do not come
up to the standard of all the predatory members
of the community. It is besides clear, as Con-
way and Madame du Deflfand would have testi-
fied, that he could be royally generous when
288 Horace IValpoIe :
necessity required. That he was careful rather
than lavish in his expenditure must be admitted.
It may be added that he was very much in
bondage to public opinion, and morbidly sensi-
tive to ridicule.
As a virtuoso and amateur, his position is a
mixed one. He was certainly widely different
from that typical art connoisseur of his day, — the
butt of Goldsmith and of Reynolds, — who trav-
elled the Grand Tour to litter a gallery at home
with broken-nosed busts and the rubbish of the
Roman picture-factories. As the preface to the
jEdes Walpoliance showed, he really knew
something about painting, in fact was a capable
draughtsman himself; and besides, through Mann
and others, had enjoyed exceptional opportuni-
ties for procuring genuine antiques. But his
collection was not so rich in this way as might
have been anticipated ; and his portraits, his
china, and his miniatures were probably his best
possessions. For the rest, he was an indiscrimi-
nate rather than an eclectic collector ; and there
was also considerable truth in that strange ' at-
traction from the great to the little, and from
the useful to the odd,' which Macaulay has
noted. Many of the marvels at Strawberry
would never have found a place in tTie treasure-
houses — say of Beckford or Samuel Rogers.
A Memoir. 289
It is difficult to fancy Berminghiam's fables in
paper on looking-glass, or Hubert's cardcuttings,
or the fragile mosaics of Mrs. Delany either at
Fonthill or St. James's Place. At the same
time, it should be remembered that several of
the most trivial or least defensible objects were
presents which possibly reflected rather the
charity of the recipient than the good taste of
the giver. All the articles over which Macaulay
lingers — Wolsey's hat, Van Tromp's pipe-case,
and King William's spurs — were obtained in
this way ; and (with a laugher) Horace Walpole,
who laughed a good deal himself, would prob-
ably have made as merry as the most mirth-loving
spectator could have desired. But such items
gave a heterogeneous character to the gathering,
and turned what might have been a model
museum into an old curiosity-shop. In any
case, however, it was a memorable curiosity-
shop, and in this modern era of bric-a-brac
would probably attract far more serious attention
than it did in those practical and pre-aesthetic
days of 1842, when it fell under the hammer of
George Robins.^
1 See Mr. Robins's Catalogue of the Classic Contents of
Strawberry Hill, etc. (1842), 4to. It is compiled in his
well-known grandiloquent manner ; but includes an ac-
count of the Castle by Harrison Ainsworth, together with
19
290 Horace Walpole :
Walpole's record as a politician is a brief one,
and if his influence upon the questions of his
time was of any importance, it must have been
exercised unobtrusively. During the period of
the ' great Walpolean battle,' as Junius styled
the struggle that culminated in the downfall of
Lord Orford, he was a fairly regular attendant
in the House of Commons ; and, as we have
seen, spoke in his father's behalf when the
motion was made for an enquiry into his con-
duct. Nine years later, he moved the address,
and a few years later still, delivered a speech
upon the employment of Swiss Regiments in the
Colonies. Finally he resigned his ' senatorial
dignity,' quitting the scene with the valediction
of those who depreciate what they no longer
desire to retain. ' What could I see but sons
and grandsons playing over the same knaveries,
that I have seen their fathers and grandfathers
act ? Could I hear oratory beyond my Lord
Chatham's ? Will there ever be parts equal to
Charles Townshend's .> Will George Grenville
cease to be the most tiresome of beings?'^ In
his earlier days he was a violent Whig, — 'at
many interesting details. It gave rise to a humorous squib
by Crofton Croker, entitled Gooseberry Hall, with * Puffa-
tory Remarks,' and cuts.
1 Walfole to Montagu, 12 March, 176S.
A Memoir. 2gi
times almost a Republican ' (to which latter
phase of his opinions must be attributed the
transformation of King Charles's death-warrant
into ' Major Charta ') ; ' in his old and enfeebled
age,' says Miss Berry, ' the horrors of the
first French Revolution made him a Tory ;
while he always lamented, as one of the worst
effects of its excesses, that they must neces-
sarily retard to a distant period the progress
and establishment of religious liberty.' He
deplored the American War, and disapproved
the Slave Trade ; but, in sum, it is to be sus-
pected that his main interest in politics, after
his father's death, and apart from the preserva-
tion throughout an ' age of small factions ' of
his own uncertain sinecures, was the good and
ill fortune of the handsome and amiable, but
moderately eminent statesman. General Conway.
It was for Conway that he took his most active
steps in the direction of political intrigue ; and
perhaps his most important political utterance is
the Counter Address to the Public on the late
Dismission of a General Officer, which was
prompted by Conway's deprivation of his com-
mand for voting in the opposition with himself
in the debate upon the illegality of general war-
rants. Whether he would have taken office if
it had been offered to him, may be a question ;
292 Horace IValpole:
but his attitude, as disclosed by his letters, is a
rather hesitating nolo episcopari. The most inter-
esting result of his connection with public affairs
is the series of sketches of political men dis-
persed through his correspondence, and through
the posthumous Memoirs published by Lord
Holland and Sir Denis Le Marchant. Making
every allowance for his prejudices and partisan-
ship (and of neither can Walpole be acquitted),
it is impossible not to regard these latter as
highly important contributions to historical liter-
ature. Even Mr. Croker admits that they
contain ' a considerable portion of voluntary or
involuntary truth ; ' and such an admission, when
extorted from Lord Beaconsfield's ' Rigby,' of
whom no one can justly say that he was igno-
rant of the politics of Walpole's day, has all
the weight which attaches to a testimonial from
the enemy. ^
1 The full titles of these memoirs are Memoires of the
last Ten Years of the Reign of King George II. Edited
by Lord Holland. 2 vols. 4to., 1822 ; and Memoirs of the
Reign of King George III. Edited, with Notes, by Sir
Denis Le Marchant, Bart. 4 vols. 8vo., 1S45. Both were
reviewed, more suo, by Mr. Croker in the Quarterly, with
the main intention of proving that all Walpole's pictures
of his contemporaries were coloured and distorted by
successive disappointments arising out of his solicitude
concerning the patent places from which he derived his
A Memoir. 293
This mention of the Memoirs naturally leads
us to that final consideration, the position of
Walpole as an author. Most of the produc-
tions which fill the five bulky volumes given to
the world in 1798 by Miss Berry's pious care
have been referred to in the course of the fore-
going pages, and it is not necessary to recapi-
tulate them here. The place which they occupy
in English literature was never a large one,
and it has grown smaller with lapse of time.
Walpole, in truth, never took letters with
sufficient seriousness. He was willing enough
to obtain repute, but upon condition that he
should be allowed to despise his calling and
income, — in other words (Mr. Croker's words!), that
' the whole is "a copious polyglot of spleen." ' Such an
investigation was in the favourite line of the critic, and
might be expected to result in a formidable indictment.
But the best judges hold it to have been exaggerated, and
to-day the method of Mr. Croker is more or less discre-
dited. Indeed, it is an instance of those quaint revenges
of the whirligig of Time, that some of his utterances are
really mure applicable to himself than to Walpole. * His
[Walpole's] natural inclination [says Croker] was to grope
an obscure way through mazes and sotiterrains rather than
walk the high road by daylight. He is never satisfied
with the plain and obvious cause of any effect, and is
for ever striving after some tortuous solution,' This is
precisely what unkind modern critics afifirm of the Rt.
Honourable John Wilson Croker.
294 Horace IValpole :
laugh at ' thoroughness/ If masterpieces could
have been dashed off at a hand-gallop ; if
antiquarian studies could have been made of
permanent value by the exercise of mere
elegant facility ; if a dramatic reputation could
have been secured by the simple accumulation
of horrors upon Horror's head, — his might have
been a great literary name. But it is not thus
the severer Muses are cultivated ; and Wal-
pole's mood was too variable, his indstry too
intermittent, his fine-gentleman self-conscious-
ness too inveterate, to admit of his producing
anything that (as one of his critics has said)
deserves a higher title than ' opuscula/ His
essays in the World lead one to think that he
might have made a more than respectable
essayist, if he had not fallen upon days in
which that form of writing was practically
outworn ; and it is manifest that he would
have been an admirable writer of familiar
poetry if he could have forgotten the fallacy
(exposed by Johnson)^ that easy verse is easy
to write. Nevertheless, in the Gothic romance
which was suggested by his Gothic castle — for,
to speak paradoxically, Strawberry Hill is
almost as much as Walpole the author of the
Castle of Otranto — he managed to initiate a
1 /(//er, No. Ixxvii. (6 Oct., 1759)-
A Memoir. 295
new form of fiction ; and by decorating ' with
gay strings the gatherings of Vertue ' he pre-
served serviceably, in the Anecdotes of Painting,
a mass of curious, if sometimes uncritical, in-
formation which, in other circumstances, must
have been hopelessly lost. If anything else
of his professed literary work is worthy of
recollection, it must be a happy squib such as
the Letter of Xo Ho, a fable such as The Entail,
or an essay such as the pamphlet on Landscape
Gardening, which even Croker allows to be * a
very elegant history and happy elucidation of
that charming art.'^
But it is not by his professedly literary work
that he has acquired the reputation which he
1 See Appendix, p. 320. To the advocates of the
rival school Walpole's utterance, perhaps inevitably,
appears in a less favourable light. ' Horace Walpole
published an Essay on Modern Gardening in 1785, in
which he repeated what other writers had said on the
subject. This was at once translated, and had a great
circulation on the Continent. The jardiii h VAnglaise
became the rage ; many beautiful old gardens were
destroyed in France and elsewhere ; and Scotch and
English gardeners were in demand all over Europe to
renovate gardens in the English manner. It is not an
exhilarating thought that in the one instance in which Eng-
lish taste in a matter of design has taken hold on the
Continent, it has done so with such disastrous results'
( The Formal Garden in England, 2nd edn., 1892, p. Zd).
296 Horace IValpole :
retains and must continue to retain. It is
as a letter-writer that he survives ; and it is
upon the vast correspondence, of which, even
now, we seem scarcely to have reached the
limits, that is based his surest claim volitare
per ora virum. The qualities which are his
defects in more serious productions become
merits in his correspondence ; or, rather, they
cease to be defects. No one looks for pro-
longed effort in a gossippfng epistle ; a weighty
reasoning is less important than a light hand ;
and variety pleases more surely than sym-
metry of structure. Among the little band of
those who have distinguished themselves in
this way, Walpole is in the foremost rank, —
nay, if wit and brilliancy, without gravity or
pathos, are to rank highest, he is first. It
matters nothing whether he wrote easily or
with difficulty ; whether he did. or did not,
make minutes of apt illustrations or descrip-
tive incidents : the result is delightful. For
diversity of interest and perpetual entertain-
ment, for the constant surprises of an unique
species of wit, for happy and unexpected turns
of phrase, for graphic characterization and
clever anecdote, for playfulness, pungency,
irony, persiflage, there is nothing in English
like his correspondence. And when one re-
A Memoir. 297
members that, in addition, this correspondence
constitutes a sixty-years' social chronicle of a
specially picturesque epoch by one of the most
picturesque of picturesque chroniclers, there
can be no need to bespeak any further suffrage
for Horace Walpole's ' incomparable letters.'
APPENDIX.
BOOKS PRINTED AT THE STRAW-
BERRY HILL PRESS.
^*^ The following list contains all the books
mentioned in the Description of the Villa of Mr.
Horace Walpole, etc., 1784, together with those
issued between that date and Walpole's death.
It does not include the several title-pages and
labels which he printed from time to time, or
the quatrains and verses purporting to be
addressed by the Press to Lady Rochford,
Lady Townshend, Madame de Boufflers, the
Miss Berrys, and others. Nor does it comprise
the pieces struck off by Mr. Kirgate, the
printer, for the benefit of himself and his
friends. On the other hand, all the works
enumerated here are, with three exceptions,
described from copies either in the possession
of the present writer, or to be found in the
British Museum and the Dyce and Forster
Libraries at South Kensington.
300 Appendix.
1757-
Odes by Mr. Gray, '^wvavra ctvvctoUl — Pin-
dar, Olymp. II. [Strawberry Hill Book-
plate.] Printed at Straivberry Hill, for R.
and J. Dodsley in Pail-Mall, MDCCLVII.
Half-title, 'Odes by Mr. Gray. [Price one Shil-
ling.] '; Title as above ; Text, pp. 5-21. 4to. 1,000
copies printed. 'June 25th [1757], I erected a
printing-press at my house at Strawberry Hill.'
'Aug. 8th, I published two Odes by Mr. Gray, the
first production of my press ' {Sliort Notes). 'And
with what do you think we open ? Ccdite, Romani
Impressores, — with nothing under Graii Carmiua.
I found him [Gray] in town last week : he had
brought his two Odes to be printed. I snatched
them out of Dodsley's hands ' . . . { Walpole to
Chute, 12 July, 1757). 'I send you two copies (one
for Dr. Cocchi) of a very honourable opening of
my press, — two amazing Odes of Mr. Gray ; they
are Greek, they are Pindaric, they are sublime !
consequently, I fear, a little obscure ' ( Walpole to
Mann, 4 Aug., 1757). ' You are very particular, I
can tell you, in liking Gray's Odes ; but you must
remember that the age likes Akenside, and did like
Thomson ! Can the same people like both } ' ( J]"al-
pole to Montagu, 25 Aug., 1757).
To Mr. Gray, on his Odes. [By David Gar-
rick.]
Single leaf, containing six quatrains (24 lines).
4to. Only six copies are said to have been printed ;
Appendix. 301
but it is not improbable that there were more.
There is a copy in the Dyce Collection at South
Kensington.
A Journey into England. By Paul Hentzner,
in the year M.D.XC.VIII. [Strawberry
Hill Bookplate.] Printed at Strawberrf-HHl,
MDCCLVIL
Title, Dedication (2 leaves) ; ' Advertisement,'
i-x; half-title ; Latin and English Text on opposite
pages, I to 103 (double numbers). Sm. 8vo. 220
copies printed. ' In Oct., 1757, was finished at my
press an edition of Hentznerus, translated by Mr.
Bentley, to which I wrote an advertisement. I
dedicated it to the Society of Antiquaries, of which
I am a member ' {Short Notes). ' An edition of
Hentznerus, with a version by Mr. Bentley, and a
little preface of mine, were prepared \i. e., as the
first issue of the press], but are to wait [for Gray's
Odes] ' ( Walpole to Chute, 12 July, 1757).
1758.
A Catalogue of the Royal and Noble Authors of
England, with Lists of their Works. Dovc^
diavolo ! Messer Ludovico, avete pigliato tante
coglionerie ) Card. d'Este, to Ariosto. Vol. i.
[Strawberry Hill Bookplate.] Printed at
Straivherrx-Hiil. MDCCL VIII.
Vol. ii. [Strawberry Hill Bookplate.]
Printed at Strawberry-Hill. MDCCLVIII.
102 Appendix,
Vol. i., — Title; Dedication of 2 leaves to Lord
Hertford ; Advertisement, pp. i-viii ; half-title ;
Text, pp. 1-219, and unpaged Index. There is
also a frontispiece engraved by Grignion. Vol. ii.,
— Half-title; Title; Text, pp. 1-2 15, and unpaged
Index. 8vo. 300 copies issued. A second edition,
'corrected and enlarged,' was printed in 1758 (but
' dated 1759), in two vols. 8vo., 'for R. and J. Dods-
ley, in Pallmall ; and J. Graham in the Strand.'
According to Baker [Cafalo^i^Jie of Books, etc., printed
at the Press at Stra-cvherry Hill\\'^\6\), 40 copies of
a supplement or Postscript to the Royal and A^ohle
Authors were printed by Kirgate in 17S6. 'In
April, 1758, was finished the first impression of my
" Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors," which I
had written the preceding year in less than five
months' [Short Azotes). ' My book is marvellously
in fashion, to my great astonishment. I did not
expect so much truth and such notions of liberty
would have made their fortune in this our day '
[Walpole to Montagu, 4 May, 1758). 'Dec. 5th
[1758] was published the second edition of my
"Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors." Two
thousand were printed, but not at Strawberry Hill'
[Short Notes). ' I have but two motives for offer-
ing you the accompanying trifle [/. e., the Postscript
above referred to]. . . . Coming from my press, I
wish it may be added to your Strawberry editions.
It is so far from being designed for the public that
I have printed but forty copies ' ( IValpole to Han-
nah More, I Jan., 1787).
An Account of Rus«;ia as it was in the Year
1710. By Charles Lord Whitworth. [Straw-
Appendix, 303
berry Hill Bookplate.] Printed at Strawberry-
Hill. MDCCLVIII.
Title, * Advertisement,' pp. i-xxiv ; Text, pp.
1-158; Errata, one page. Sm. 8vo. 700 copies
printed. 'The beginning of October [1758] I pub-
lished Lord Whitvvorth's account of Russia, to
which I wrote the advertisement' (^//^r^ TV ^(^/^-j-).
' A book has been left at your ladyship's house ;
it is Lord Whitworth's Account of Russia ' ( IVa/-
pole to Lady Hervey, 17 Oct., 1758). Mr. (after-
wards Lord) Whitvvorth was Ambassador to St.
Petersburg in the reign of Peter the Great.
The Mistakes ; or, the Happy Resentment.
A Comedy. By the late Lord '* * * *
[Henry Hyde, Lord Hyde and Cornbury.]
London : Printed by S. Richardson, in the
Year 17^8.
Title ; List of Subscribers, pp. xvi ; Advertise-
ment, Prologue, and Dramatis Personce, 2 leaves ;
Text, 1-83; Epilogue unpaged. Baker gives the
following particulars from the Biographia Dra-
matica as to this book : * The Author of this Piece
was the learned, ingenious, and witty Lord Corn-
bury, but it was never acted. He made a present
of it to that great Actress, Mrs. Porter, to make
what Emolument she could by it. And that Lady,
after his Death, published it by Subscription, at
Five Shillings, each Book, which was so much
patronized by the Nobility and Gentry that Three
Thousand Copies were disposed of. Prefixed to it
is a Preface, by Mr. Horace Walpole, at whose
304 Appendix.
Press at Strawberry-Hill it was printed.' Baker
adds, ' Mr. Yardley, who when living, kept a Book-
seller's Shop in New-Inn-Passage, confirmed this
account, by asserting, that he assisted in printing
it at that Press.' But Baker nevertheless prefixes
an asterisk to the title, which implies that it was
* not printed for Mr. Walpole,' and this probably
accounts for Richardson's name on the title-page.
By the subscription list, the Hon. Horace Walpole
took 21 copies, David Garrick, 38, and Mr. Samuel
Richardson, of Salisbury Court, 4. All Walpole
says is, 'About the same time [1758] Mrs. Porter
published [for her benefit] Lord Hyde's play, to
which I had written the advertisement ' [Shori
Notes).
A Parallel ; in the Manner of Plutarch : be-
tween a most celebrated Man of Florence ;
and One, scarce ever heard of, in England.
By the Reverend Mr. Spence. ' — Parvis com-
ponerc magna' — Virgil. [Portrait in circle
of Magliabecchi.] Printed at Slrawhcrry-
Hill, by William Robinson ; and Sold by Mes-
sieurs Dodsley, at Tidlv's-Hcad, Pall-Mali ;
for the Benefit of Mr. Hill. M.DCC.L VIII.
Title ; Text, pp. 4-104. Sm. Svo. 700 copies
printed. * I759- Feb. 2nd. I published Mr.
Spence's Parallel of Magliabecchi and Mr. Hill, a
tailor of Buckingham ; calculated to raise a little
sum of money for the latter poor man. Six hundred
copies were sold in a fortnight, and it was reprinted
in London ' {Short jYotcs). ' Mr. Spence's Maglia-
becchi is published to-day from Strawberry ; I be-
Appendix. 305
lieve you saw it, and shall have it; but 'tis not
worth sending you on purpose ' ( Walpole to Chute,
2 Feb., 1759).
Fugitive Pieces in Verse and Prose. Pereunt
ei imputantur. [Strawberry Hill Bookplate.]
Printed at Strawberrf-Hill, MDCCLVIII.
Title ; Dedication and ' Table of Contents,' iii-vi ;
Text, 1-219. Sm. 8vo. 200 copies printed. 'In
the summer of 1758, I printed some of my own
Fugitive Pieces, and dedicated them to my cousin,
General Conway ' [Short Notes). ' March 17 [1759].
I began to distribute some copies of my " Fugitive
Pieces," collected and printed together at Straw-
berry Hill, and dedicated to General Conway '
{ibid.). One of these, which is in the Forster Col-
lection at South Kensington, went to Gray. ' This
Book [says a MS. inscription] once belonged to
Gray the Poet, and has his autograph on the Title-
page. I [/. e., George Daniel, of Canonbury] bought
it at Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson's Sale Rooms
for £,\. 19 on Thursday, 28 Augt. 1851, from the
valuable collection of Mr. Penn of Stoke.'
1760.
Catalogue of the Pictures and Drawings in the
Holbein Chamber at Strawberry Hill. Straw-
berr/-Hill, 1760.
Pp. 8. 8vo. [Lowndes.]
Catalogue of the Collection, of Pictures of the
Duke of Devonshire, General Guise, and the
20
306 Appendix.
late Sir Paul Methuen. Siraivberry-Hill,
1760.
Pp. 44. 8vo. 12 copies, printed on one side
only. [Lowndes.]
M. Annaei Lucani Pharsalla cum Notis Hugonis
Grotii, et Richardi Bentleii. Mulia sunt con-
donanda in opere postumo. In Li brum iv,
Nota 641. [Emblematical vignette.] Straw-
berrx-Hill, MDCCLX.
Title, Dedication (by Richard Cumberland to
Halifax), and Advertisement {Ad Lectorem), 3
leaves ; Text, pp. 1-525. 4to. 500 copies printed.
Cumberland took up the editing when Bentley the
younger resigned it. ' I am just undertaking an
edition of Lucan, my friend Mr. Bentley having in
his possession his father's notes and emendations
on the first seven books ' ( Walpolc to Zouc/i, 9 Dec,
1758). ' I would not alone undertake to correct the
press ; but I am so lucky as to live in the strictest
friendship with Dr. Ikntley's only son, who, to all
the ornament of learning, has the amiable turn of
mind, disposition, and easy wit ' ( Walpolc (0 Zoitch,
12 Jan., 1759)- 'Lucan is in poor forwardness. I
have been plagued with a succession of bad printers,
and am not got beyond the fourth book. It will
scarce appear before next winter ' ( Walpole to
Zoiich, 23 Dec, 1759). ' My Lucan is finished, but
will not be published till after Christmas ' ( Walpole
to Zoiic/i, 27 Nov., 1760). ' I have delivered to
your brother ... a Lucan, printed at Strawberry,
which, I trust, you will think a handsome edition '
( Walpole to Mann, 27 Jan., 1 761 ).
Appendix, 307
1762.
Anecdotes of Painting in England ; with some
Account of the principal Artists ; and inci-
dental Notes on other Arts ; collected by the
late Mr. George Vertue ; and now digested
and published from his original MSS. By
Mr. Horace Walpole. Malta renascentur qucc
jam cecidere. Vol. I. [Device with Walpole's
crest.] Printed by Thomas Farmer at Siraiv-
berrx-Hill, MDCCLXIL
Le sachant Anglois, je cms qiCil m'alloit
parler d'edifices et de peintures. Nouvelle
Eloise, vol. i. p. 24^. Vol. II. [Device
with Walpole's crest.] Printed by Thomas
Farmer at Straivberry-Hill, MDCCLXIL
Vol. III. (Motto of six lines from
Prior's Protogenes and Apelles.) Straivberry-
Hill : Printed in the Year MDCCLXIIL
To which is added the History of the
Modern Taste in Gardening. The Glory of
Lebanon shall come unto thee, the Fir-tree, the
Pine-tree, and the Box together, to beautify
the Place of my Sanctuary, and I will make
the Place of my Feet glorious. Isaiah, Ix. 13.
Volume the Fourth and last. Stravj berry-Hill :
Printed by Thomas Kirgate, MDCCLXXL
Vol. i., — Title, Dedication, Preface, pp. i-xiii ;
Contents ; Text, pp. 1-168, with Appendix and
308 Appendix.
Index unpaged. Vol. ii., — Title; Text, pp. 1-158,
with Appendix, Index, and ' Errata' unpaged; and
'Additional Lives to the First Edition of Anecdotes of
Painting in England,' pp. 1-12. Vol. iii., — Title;
pp. 1-155, with Appendix and Index unpaged ; and
* Additional Lives to the First Edition of Anecdotes
of Painting in England,' pp. 1-4. Vol. iv., — Title,
Dedication, Advertisement (dated October i, 1780),
pp. i-x ; Contents; Text, pp. 1-151 (dated August
12, 1770) ; * Errata ; ' pp. x-52 ; Appendix of one leaf
(* Prints by or after Hogarth, discovered since the
Catalogue was finished '), and Index unpaged. The
volumes are 4to., with many portraits and plates.
600 copies were printed. The fourth volume was
in type in 1770, but not issued until Oct., 1780. It
was dedicated to the Duke of Richmond, — Lady
Hervey, to whom the three earlier volumes had
been inscribed, having died in 1768. A second
edition of the first three volumes was printed by
Thomas Kirgate at Strawberry Hill in 1765. ' Sept.
1st [1759]. I began tolook over Mr. Vertue'sMSS.,
which I bought last year for one hundred pounds,
in order to compose the Lives of English Painters '
{Short Notes). ' 1760, Jan. ist. I began the Lives
of English Artists, from Vertue's MSS. (that is,
" Anecdotes of Painting," etc.) ' (ibid.). 'Aug. 14th.
Finished the first volume of my "Anecdotes of
Painting in England." Sept. 5th, began the second
volume. Oct. 23d, finished the second volume'
{ibid.). ' 1761. Jan. 4th, began the third volume'
{ibid.). 'June 29th, resumed the third volume of
my "Anecdotes of Painting," which I had laid aside
after the first day' [ibid.). 'Aug. 22nd, finished
the third volume of my " Anecdotes of Painting" '
{ibid.), ' The " Anecdotes of Painting " have sue-
Appendix, 309
ceeded to the press : I have finished two volumes ;
but as there will at least be a third, I am not de-
termined whether I shall not wait to publish the
whole together. You will be surprised, I think, to
see what a quantity of materials the industry of one
man [Vertue] could amass ! ' ( Walpole to Zouch,
27 Nov., 1760.) 'You drive your expectations
much too fast, in thinking my " Anecdotes of Paint-
ing " are ready to appear, in demanding three vol-
umes. You will see but two, and it will be February
first' ( Walpole to Montagu, 30 Dec, 1761). ' I am
now publishing the third volume, and another of
Engravers ' {Walpole to Dalrymple, 31 Jan., 1764).
' I have advertised my long-delayed last volume of
" Painters " to come out, and must be in town to
distribute it ' ( Walpole to Lady Ossory, 23 Sept.,
1780). ' I have left with Lord Harcourt for you my
new old last volume of " Painters " ' ( Walpole to
Mason, 13 Oct., 1780).
1763-
A Catalogue of Engravers, who have been born,
or resided in England ; digested by Mr.
Horace Walpole from the MSS. of Mr. George
Vertue ; to which is added an Account of the
Life and Works of the latter. And Art re-
flected Images to Art. . . . Pope. Strawberry-
Hill : Printed in the Year MDCCLXIII.
Title; pp. 1-128, last page dated 'Oct. loth,
1762;' 'Life of Mr. George Vertue,' pp. 1-14 ;
' List of Vertue's Works,' pp. 1-20, last page dated
*Oct. 22d, 1762;' Index of Names of Engravers,
310 Appendix,
unpaged. 4to. There are several portraits, includ-
ing one of Vertue after Richardson. ' Aug. 2nd
[1762], began the " Catalogue of Engravers." Oc-
tober loth, finished it' {Short lYotes). 'The vol-
ume of Engravers is printed off, and has been some
time ; I only wait for some of the plates ' { IValpole
to Cole, 8 Oct., 1763). ' I am now publishing the
third volume [of the ' Anecdotes of Painting '], and
another of " Engravers " ' ( IValpole to Dalrymple,
31 Jan., 1764).
1764.
Poems by Anna Chamber Countess Temple.
[Plate of Strawberry Hill.] Straivbcrry-Hill :
Printed in the Year MDCCLXIV.
Title, Verses signed ' Horace Walpole, January
26th, 1764,' Text, 1-34 in all. 4to. 100 copies
printed by Prat. ' I shall send you, too. Lady
Temple's Poems' {IValpole to Montagu, 16 July,
1764).
The Magpie and her Brood, a Fable, from the
Tales of Bonaventure des Periers, Valet de
Chambre to the Queen of Navarre ; addressed
to Miss Hotham.
4 pp., containing 72 lines, — initialed 'H. W.'
4to. 'Oct. 15th, [1764] wrote the fable of "The
Magpie and her Brood " for Miss [Henrietta]
Hotham, then near eleven years old, great niece of
Henrietta Hobart, Countess Dowager of Suffolk.
It was taken from Les Notivelles Recreations de
Bonaventure des Periers, Valet-de-Chambre to the
Queen of Navarre' {Short Azotes).
Appendix. 311
The Life of Edward Lord Herbert of Cherbury,
written by Himself. [Plate of Strawberry
Hill.] Siraivberry-Hill : Printed by Prat in
the Year MDCCLXIV.
Title, Dedication, and Advertisement, 5 leaves;
Text, pp. 1-171. Folding plate portrait. 4to. 200
copies printed. * 1763. Beginning of September
wrote the Dedication and Preface to Lord Herbert's
Life' (S/io7-f A'ofes). '1 have got a most delect-
able work to print, which I had great difficulty to
obtain, and which I must use while I can have it.
It is the life of the famous Lord Herbert of Cher-
bury ' {Letter to the Bishop of Carlisle, 10 July,
1763). ' It will not belong before I have the pleasure
of sending you by far the most curious and enter-
taining book that my press has produced. ... It is
the life of the famous Lord Herbert of Cherbury,
and written by himself, — of the contents I will not
anticipate one word ' {Letter to Mason, 29 Dec,
1763). 'The thing most in fashion is my edition
of Lord Herbert's Life ; people are mad after it, I
believe because only two hundred were printed '
• {Letter to Montagu, 16 Dec, 1764). 'This singular
work was printed from the original MS. in 1764, at
Strawberry-hill, and is perhaps the most extraor-
dinary account that ever was given seriously by a
wise man of himself (Walpole, Works, 1798,
i. 363)-
1768.
Cornelie, Vestale. Tragedie. [By the Presi-
dent H^nault.] Imprim^e d Strawberry-Hill,
MDCCLXVIII.
3 1 2 Appendix.
Title; Dedication ' d. Motis. Horace Walpole*
dated '■Paris ce 27 N^ovembre, 1767,' pp. iii-iv ;
'Acteurs;' Text, 1-91. 8vo. 200 copies printed ;
150 went to Paris. Kirgate printed it. ' My press
is revived, and is printing a French play written by
the old President Renault. It was damned many
years ago at Paris, and yet I think is better than
some that have succeeded, and much better than
any of otir modern tragedies. I print it to please
the old man, as he was exceedingly kind to me at
Paris; but I doubt whether he will live till it is
finished. He is to have a hundred copies, and
there are to be but an hundred more, of which you
shall have one ' {Letter to Montagu, 1 5 April, 1768).
President Henault died November, 1770, aged
eighty-six.
The Mysterious Mother. A Tragedy. By
Mr. Horace Walpole. Sit mihi fas audita
loqui! Virgil. Printed at Strawberry-Hill :
MDCCLXVIIL
Title, 'Errata,' 'Persons' (2 leaves) ; Text, pp.
1-120, with Postscript, pp. i-io (which see for origin
of play). Sm. 8vo. 50 copies issued. T/ie Mys-
terious Mother is reprinted in Walpole's Works,
1798, i., pp. 37-129. ' March 15 [1768]. I finished
a tragedy called "The Mysterious Mother," which I
had begun Dec. 25, 1766' (Short A'otes). 'I thank
you for myself, not for my Play. ... I accept with
great thankfulness what you have voluntarily been
so good as to do for me ; and should the Myste-
terious Mother ever be performed when I am dead,
it will owe to you its presentation ' ( JValfole to
Mason, 11 May, 1769).
Appendix, 3 1 3
1769.
Poems by the Reverend Mr. Hoyland. Printed
atSiraivberry-Hill: MDCCLXIX.
Title, Advertisement [by Walpole], pp. i-iv ;
Text, 1-19. 8vo. 300 copies printed. In the Bri-
tish Museum is a copy which simply has ' Printed
in the Year 1769.' 'I enclose a short Advertise-
ment for Mr. Hoyland's poems. I mean by it to
tempt people to a little more charity, and to soften
to him, as much as I can, the humiliation of its
being asked for him; if you approve it, it shall be
prefixed to the edition ' [Walpole to Mason, 5 April,
1769).
1770.
Reply to the Observations of the Rev. Dr.
Milles, Dean of Exeter, and President of
the Society of Antiquaries, on the Ward Robe
Account.
Pp. 24 Six copies printed, dated 28 August,
1770 [Baker]. 'In the summer of this year [1770]
wrote an answer to Dr. Milles' remarks on my
" Richard the Third " ' [Shori Notes).
1772.
Copies of Seven Original Letters from
King Edward VI. to Barnaby Fitzpatrick.
Straw berry -Hill. Printed in the Year
M.DCC.LXXII.
Pp. viii-14. 4to. 200 copies printed. * ijji.
End of September, wrote the Advertisement to the
314 Appendix.
" Letters of King Edward the Sixth " ' [Short
Notes). ' I have printed " King Edward's Letters,"
and will bring you a copy ' ( Walpole to Mason,
6 July, 1772).
Miscellaneous Antiquities ; or, a Collection of
Curious Papers : either republished from
scarce Tracts, or now first printed from origi-
nal MSS. Number I. To be continued
occasionally. Invenies illic et festa domestica
vobis. SiVpe tibi Paler est, scepe legendus
Avus. Ovid. Fast. Lib. i. Strawberry-Hill:
Printed by Thomas Kirgate, M.DCC.LXXIL
Title, ' Advertisement,' pp. i-iv ; Text, 1-48.
4to. 500 copies printed. ' I have since begun a
kind of Desiderata Curiosa, and intend to publish
it in numbers, as I get materials ; it is to be an
Hospital of Foundlings; and though I shall not
take in all that offer, there will be no enquiry into
the nobility of the parents; nor shall I care how
heterogeneous the brats are ' ( IValpoIe to Masou,
6 July, 1772). 'By that time too I shall have the
first number of my "Miscellaneous Antiquities"
ready. The first essay is only a republication of
some tilts and tournaments ' ( Walpole to Mason,
21 July, 1772).
Miscellaneous Antiquities ; or, a Collection of
Curious Papers : either republished from
scarce Tracts, or now first printed from ori-
ginal MSS. Number II. To be continued
occasionally. Inpcnics illic et festa domestica
Appendix. 3 1 5
vohls. S.vpe tibi Pater est, scepe legen-
dus Aims. Ovid. Fast. Lib. i. Straw-
berry-Hill : Printed hy Thomas Kirgaie,
M.DCC.LXXII.
Title and Text, pp. 1-62. 500 copies printed.
•In July [1772] wrote the "Life of Sir Thomas
Wyat [the Elder]," No. II. of my edition of " Mis-
cellaneous Antiquities " ' {Short N'otes).
Memoires du Comte de Grammont, par Mon-
sieur le Comte Antoine Hamilton. Nouvelle
Edition, augmentee de Notes & d'Eclaircis-
semens, necessaires, par M. Horace Walpole.
Des gens qui icrwent pour le Comte de Gram-
mont, peuvent compter sur quelque indulgence.
V. TEpitre prelim, p. xviii. Imprimie a
Strawberry-Hill, M.DCC.LXXII.
Title, Dedication, ' Avis de L'Editeur,' ' Avertis-
sement,' 'Epitre a Monsieur le Comte de Gram-
mont," Table des Chapitres,* 'Errata,' pp. xxiv ;
Text, pp. 1-290 : ' Table des personnes,' 3 pp. Por-
traits of Hamilton, Mdlle. d'Hamilton, and Philibert
Comte de Grammont. 4to. 100 copies printed ; 30
went to Paris. It was dedicated to Madame du
Deffand, as follows : ' L Editeiir vous consacre
cette Edition, commeun monument de son Amitie, de
son Adviiration, &> de son Respect ; a Vous, dont les
Graces, V Esprit, ^ le Gout retracoit au siecle present
le siecle de Louis quatorze 6^ les agremens de
VAuteiir de ces Memoires' *I want to send you
these [the Miscellaneous Antiquities'] . . . and a
*' Grammont," of which I have printed only a
3i6 Appendix.
hundred copies, and which will be extremely
scarce, as twenty-five copies are gone to France '
{lValJ>oie to Cole, 8 Jan., 1773).
1774-
A Description of the Villa of Horace Walpole.
[Plate of Strawberry Hill.] A Description
of the Villa of Horace Walpole, youngest son
of Sir Robert Walpole Earl of Orford, at
Strawberry- Hill, near Twickenham. With
an Inventory of the Furniture, Pictures, Cu-
riosities, &c. Strawberry-Hill : Printed by
Thomas Kir gate, M.DCC.LXXIV.
Two titles ; Text, pp. 1-119. 4to. 100 copies
printed, 6 on large paper. Many copies have the
following; 'Appendix. Pictures and Curiosities
added since the Catalogue was printed,* pp. 121-
145; 'List of the Books printed at Strawberry-
Hill,' unpaged ; * Additions since the Appendix,' pp.
149-152; 'More Additions,' pp. 153-158. Baker
speaks of an earlier issue of 65 pp. which we have
notmetwith. Lowndes( Appendix to Bthliograph er's
Manual, 1864, p. 239) states that it was said by
Kirgate to have been used by the servants in show-
ing the house, and differed entirely from the
editions of 1774 and 1784.
1775-
To Mrs. Crewe. [Verses by Charles James
Fox.l N.D.
Appendix. 3 1 7
Pp.2. Single leaf. 4to. 300 copies printed. Wal-
pole speaks of these in a letter to Mason dated 12
June, 1774; and he sends a copy of them to him,
27 May, 1775. Mrs. Crewe, the Amoret addressed,
was the daughter of Fulke Greville, and the wife
of J. Crewe. She was painted by Reynolds as an
Alpine shepherdess.
Dorinda, a Town Eclogue. [By the Hon.
Richard Fitzpatrick, brother of the Earl of
Ossory.] [Plate of Strawberry Hill.] Straw-
berry-Hill : Printed by Thomas Kirgate.
M.DCC.LXXV.
Title ; Text, 3-8. 4to. 300 copies printed. * 1
shall send you soon Fitzpatrick's " Town Eclogue,"
from my own furnace. The verses are charmingly
smooth and easy. . . .' ' P. S. Here is the
Eclogue' {Letter to Mason, 12 June, 1774).
1778.
The Sleep- Walker, a Comedy : in two Acts.
Translated from the French [of Antoine de
Ferriol, Comte de Pont de Veyle], in March,
M.DCC.LXXVHI. [By Elizabeth Lady
Craven, afterwards Margravine of Anspach.]
Strawberry -Hill : Printed by T. Kir gate,
M.DCC.LXXVHI.
Title, Quatrain, Prologue, Epilogue, Persons, pp.
i-viii ; Text, 1-56. 8vo. 75 copies printed. The
quatrain is by Walpole to Lady Craven, ' on her
Translation of the Somnambule.' ' I will send . . .
for yourself a translation of a French play. ... It
3 1 8 Appendix.
is not for your reading, but as one of the Straw-
berry editions, and one of the rarest; for I have
printed but seventy-five copies. It was to oblige
Lady Craven, the translatress , . .' {Walpole to
Cole, 22 Aug., 1778).
1779.
A Letter to the Editor of the Miscellanies of
Thomas Chatterton. Slrawberr/-Hill : Printed
by T. Kirgate, M.DCC.LXXIX.
Half-title ; Title ; Text, pp. 1-55. The letter is
dated at end; 'May 23, 1778.' 8vo. 200 copies
printed. * 1779. In the preceding autumn had
written a defence of myself against the unjust
aspersions in the Preface to the Miscellanies of
Chatterton. Printed 200 copies at Strawberry
Hill this January, and gave them away. It was
much enlarged from what I had written in July'
(S/iort Azotes).
1780.
To the Lady Horatia Waldegrave, on the
Death of the Duke of Ancaster. [Verses by
Mr. Charles Miller.] N. D.
Pp. 3, dated at end' A. D 1779.' 4*^ 150 copies
printed. ' I enclose a copy of verses, which I have
just printed at Strawberry, only a few copies, and
which I hope you will think pretty. They were
written three months ago by Mr. Charles Miller,
brother of Sir John, on seeing Lady Horatia at
Nuneham. The poor girl is better' (ITii/fole to
Lady Ossory, 29 Jan., 1 7 So). Lady Horatia
Appendix. 319
Waldegrave was to have been married to the Duke
of Ancaster, who died in 1779.
1781.
The Muse recalled, an Ode^ occasioned by the
Nuptials of Lord Viscount Althorp and Miss
Lavinia Bingham, eldest daughter of Charles
Lord Lucan, March vi., M.DCC.LXXXL
By William Jones. Esq. [afterwards Sir
William Jones]. Strawberry-Hill : Printed bv
Thomas Kirgate, M.DCC.LXXXL
Title ; pp. 1-8. 4to. 250 copies printed. There
is a well-known portrait of Lavinia Bingham by
Reynolds, in which she wears a straw hat with a
blue ribbon.
A Letter from the Honourable Thomas Walpole,
to the Governor and Committee of the
Treasury of the Bank of England. Straw-
berry-Hill : Printed by Thomas Kirgate,
M.DCC.LXXXL
Title, and pp. 16 (last blank). 4to. 120 copies
printed.
1784.
A Description of the Villa of Mr. Horace
Walpole, youngest son of Sir Robert Walpole
Earl of Orford, at Strawberry- Hill near
Twickenham, Middlesex. With an Inven-
tory of the Furniture, Pictures, Curiosities,
&c. Strairberrr-Hill : Printed by Thomas
Kirgate, M.DCC.LXXXIV.
320 /Appendix.
Title; ' Preface.' i-iv ; Text, pp. 1-88. 'Errata,
etc,' 'Appendix,' pp. 89-92; ' Curiosities added,'
etc., 93-4 ; ' More Additions,' 95-6. 27 plates.
4to. 200 copies printed. ' The next time he [Sir
Horace Mann's nephew] visits you, I may be able
to send you a description of my Galleria, — I have
long been preparing it, and it is almost finished, —
with some prints, which, however, I doubt, will
convey no very adequate idea of it ' ( IValpole to
Mann, 30 Sept., 17S4). 'In the list for which
Lord Ossory asks, is the Description of this place ;
now, though printed, I have entirely kept it up
[i. t.,held it back], and mean to do so while I live '
{Walpole to Lady Ossory, 15 Sept., 1787).
1785.
Hieroglyphic Tales. Schah Baham ne compre-
noil jamais bien que les choses absurdes 6^ hors
de toide vraisemblance. Le Sopha, p. ^.
Strawberry-Hill : Printed by T. Kirgate,
M.DCC.LXXXV.
Title; 'Preface,' iii-ix ; Text, pp. 50; 'Post-
script.' 8vo. Walpole's own MS. note in the
Dyce example says, ' Only six copies of this were
printed, besides the revised copy.' ' 1772. This
year, the last, and sometime before, wrote some
Hieroglyphic Tales. There are only five ' (S//ort
Azotes). ' I have some strange things in my drawer,
even wilder than the ' Castle of Otranto,' and called
'Hieroglyphic Tales;' but they were not written
lately, nor in the gout, nor, whatever they may
seem, written when I was out of my senses ' ( JTa/-
Appendix. 321
pole to Cole, 28 Jan., 1779). 'This [he is speaking
of Darwin's Bota^iic Gardeti] is only the Second
Part; for, like my King's eldest daughter in the
* Hieroglyphic Tales,' the First Part is not born
yet ; no matter ' ( Walpole to the Miss Bej-rys, 28
April, 1789). In 1822, \.hQ Hieroglyphic Tales yvexQ
reprinted at Newcastle for Emerson Charnley.
Essay on Modern Gardening, by Mr. Horace
Walpole. [Strawberry Hill Bookplate.] Es-
sai sur TArt des Jardins Modernes, par M.
Horace Walpole, traduit en Francois by M.
le Due de Nivernois, en MDCCLXXXIV.
Imprlmi a Strawberry-Hill, par T. Kirgate,
MDCCLXXXV.
Two titles ; English and French Text on op-
posite pages, 1-94. 4to. 400 copies printed.
' How may I send you a new book printed here ?
... It is the translation of my ' Essay on Modern
Gardens' by the Due de Nivernois. . . . You will
find it a most beautiful piece of French, of the
genuine French spoken by the Due de la Roche-
foucault and Madame de Sevigne, and not the
metaphysical galimatias of La Harpe and Thomas,
&c., which Madame du Deffand protested she did
not understand. The versions of Milton and Pope
are wonderfully exact and poetic and elegant, and
the fidelity of the whole translation, extraordinary'
( Walpole to Lady Ossory, 17 Sept., 1785). The
original MS. of the Due de Nivernois — 'a most
exquisite specimen of penmanship ' — was among
the papers at Strawberry.
322 Appendix.
1789.
Bishop Bonner's Ghost. [By Hannah More.]
[Plate of Strawberry Hill.] Strawberry-
Hill : Printed by Thonias Kirgate,
MDCCLXXXIX. "
Title and argument, 2 leaves ; Text, pp. 1-4.
4to. 96 copies printed, 2 on brown paper, one of
which was at Strawberry- It was written when
Hannah More (' my imprimee^^ as Walpole calls
her) was on a visit to Dr. Beilby Porteus, Bishop
of London, at his palace at Fulham, June, 1789.
' I will forgive all your enormities if you will let
me print your poem. I like to filch a little immor-
tality out of others, and the Strawberry press could
never have a better opj^ortunity ' [Walpole to
Hannah More, 23 June, 17S9). 'The enclosed
copy of verses pleased me so much, that, though
not intended for publication, I prevailed on the
authoress, Miss Hannah More, to allow me to take
off a small number.' . . . ' I have been disap-
pointed of the completion of " Bonner's Ghost,"
by my rolling press being out of order, and was
forced to send the whole impression to town to
have the copper-plate taken off. . . . Kirgate has
brought the whole impression, and I shall have the
pleasure of sending your Ladyship this with a
"Bonner's Ghost" to-morrow morning' {Walpole
to Lady Ossory, 16-18 July, 17S9).
The History of Alcidalis and Zelida. A tale of
the Fourteenth Century. [By Vincent
de Voiture.] Printed at Strawberry-HilU
MDCCLXXXIX.
Appendix. 323
Title; Text, pp. 3-9'5. Svo. This is a transla-
tion of Voiture's unfinished Histoire cTAlcidalis et
de Zelide. (See Nonvelles CEiivres de Monsieur de
Voitiire. NoHvelle Edition. A Paris, Chez Louis
Bilaine, an Palais, an second Pilier de la grand'
Salle, a la Palme &' au Grand Cesar, MDCLXXIT.)
There is a copy in the Dyce Collection. Another
was sold in 1823 with the books of John Trotter
Brockett, in whose catalogue it was said to be
'surreptitiously printed.' Kirgate had a copy,
although Baker does not mention it.
Doubtful Date.
Verses sent to Lady Charles Spencer [Mary
Beauclerc, daughter of Lord Vere, and wife
of Lord Charles Spencer] with a painted
Taffety, occasioned by saying she was low
in Pocket and could not buy a new Gown.
Single leaf. Baker says these were by Anna
Chamber, Countess Temple.
Besides the above, Walpole printed at his press
in 1770 vols. i. and ii. of a 4to edition of
his works.
INDEX.
A.
C.
^des Walpoliance^ the, 75-77,
288.
Amelia, the Princess, 171, 228,
234-
American Colonies, the war
with the, 252, 291.
An Account of the Giants^ 189.
Anecdotes of Painting, 142,
150, 241, 295.
Ashe, Miss, 127-130.
Ashton, Thomas, 16-19, 5^> 59-
B.
Balmerino, Lord, trial and exe-
cution of, 93-97.
Beauclerk, Lady Diana, 159,
161, 193, 243, 260, 2S6.
Beauties, The, 104.
Beauty Room, the, 211.
Benedict XIV., Pope, 50.
Bentley, Richard, 136, 137, 146,
148, 161, 214, 224.
Berry, the Misses Mary and
Agnes, 233, 235, 244, 259-
263, 265, 2S5, 286, 291.
Bland, Henry, 12.
Bologna, visited by Walpole,
42, 43-
Bracegirdle, Anne, 83.
Burnet, Bishop Gilbert, 16, 175.
Burney, Frances, 193, 257.
Byng, Admiral, 142, 143.
Castle of Otranto, The, 161,
163, 164, 168, 192, 195.
Catalogue of Engravers, 155.
Catalogue of Royal ajtd Noble
Authors, 142, 149-152.
Catalogue of Strawberry Hill,
262.
Charles X. (Comte d'Artois),
172.
Chartreuse, La Grande, visited
by Walpole and Gray, 38.
Chartreux, Convent of the, de-
scribed by Walpole, 34,
Chatterton, Thomas, 196-200.
Chesterfield, Philip Dormer
Stanhope, Earl of, 86, 131,
177 ; his Letters parodied by
Walpole, 236.
Choiseul, Madame la Duchesse
de, 174, 176, 177, 180, 212.
Christopher Inn, the, 17.
Chudleigh, Elizabeth, Duchess
of Kingston, 230.
Churchill, Lady Mary (Maria),
49, 63, 67, 100.
Chute, John, 52, 68, 118, 134,
171, 208.
Clement XII., Pope, 45.
Clinton, Henry, Earl of Lin-
coln, 56.
Clive, Kitty, %i, 12 j, 133, 140,
143, 192; bon mot of, 181;
326
Index,
allusions to, 213, 217; death
of, 255.
Cocchi, Dr. Antonio, 56.
Coke, Lady Mary, 169.
Cole, William, 13, 19, 161, 206,
285.
Congreve, William, 83.
Conway, Henry, 12, 31, 35, 36,
38, 40, 82, 87, 91, 105, 108,
150, 1S2, 201.
Cope, Gen. Sir John, 89.
Crawford, James, 179.
Culloden Moor, the battle of,
91, 92.
Cumberland, William, Duke of,
19, 86, 91, 92, 99, 108, 120,
122, 17T.
Cunningham, Peter, 10 ; his
account of a drive with Wal-
pole, 227, 229, 231 ; his spe-
cimens of Walpole's letters,
255; quoted, 212, 231.
D.
Damer, Anna (Miss Conway),
203, 242, 270.
Deffand, Madame du (Marie de
Vichy-Chamrond), 177,212;
Walpole's first impression
of, 177, 178; her conquest
of Walpole, 178; Walpole's
letter to Gray concerning,
178, 179; her fondness for
Walpole, 179, 180; the epi-
sode of the snuffbox, 180;
Walpole's second visit to,
187, 188; death of, 252;
Walpole's letters to, 248, 249;
Walpole's adieu to, 251 ; will
of, 252.
Delenda est Oxonia, 124.
Dodington, Bubb, 92, 120.
Dryden, John, imitated by
Walpole, 60 ; claimed as
great-uncle by Catherine
Shorter, 210.
E.
Easton Neston (Northampton-
shire), 23.
Epitaphiinn Vivi Auctoris, 264.
Eton College, 11-17.
F.
Falkirk, the battle of, 91.
Fielding, Henry, 79, %2)^ 160,
161, 230, 285.
Fielding, William, 160.
Florence, visited by Walpole
and Gray, 43-45.
Fontenoy, the battle of, 87, 88,
104.
Foote, Samuel, 173.
Forcalquier, Madame de, 174.
Fortescue, Lucy, 105.
Fox, Charles James, his verses
on Mrs. Crewe, 240.
Francklin, Richard, iii, 123,
Eraser, Simon, Lord Lovat, 97.
Frederick, Prince of Wales.
{See Wales.)
Freethinking in France, 167,
170.
French court, presentation of
Walpole at the, 171, 172.
G.
Garrick, David, S3, 140, 146,
1S6.
Genlis, Stephanie F61icit6,
Madame de, 173, 257.
Geoffrin, Madame, 175, 182.
Index.
327
George I., Walpole's visit to,
8-10; the story of the raven,
286. {See Reminiscences.)
George 11., 63. {See Remi-
niscences.)
George III, {See Memoirs.)
Goldsmith, Oliver, 19, 32, 105,
143, 198, 242; Walpole's
contempt for, 238, 285.
Gordon Riots, the, 253.
Granby, Lord, 129, 131.
Gray, Thomas, at Eton, 16, 19,
22, 25 ; travels v/ith Walpole,
29-32 ; Versailles described
by, 32, 33 ; at Rheims, 35 ;
at Lyons, t,2> ; at La Grande
Chartreuse, 38 ; in Italy, 40-
44, 49, 50, 53, 57; his mis-
understanding with Walpole,
52-55 ; subsequent reconcili-
ation, 55, 135 ; praises Wal-
pole's verse, 59; quoted, 25,
30-34. 37, 38> 5i» 59, 83, 97,
105, 115, 134, 135, 137, m8,
149, 219; resumes his inti-
macy with Walpole, 103, 106,
173 ; visits Strawberry Hill,
135 ; his indebtedness to
Walpole, 135 ; his Elegy
published by Dodsley, 135 ;
the Poemata - Grayo - Ben-
tleiana, 137 ; publication of
the O.ies at Strawberry Hill,
142-148; detects the Rowley
forgeries, 197 ; portrait of,
213 ; Walpole's relations
with, 285.
Grenville, George, 290.
H.
Harrison, Audrey, Lady Towns-
hend, loi, 156.
Hawkins, Miss, 160, 244 ; her
description of Walpole, 277-
279.
Henault, Charles- Jean-Fran-
gois. President, ly'jy 183, 188,
195, 212.
Hervey, Baron, 123 ; said to be
Walpole's father, 4.
Hervey, Lady, 120, 171, 175,
201, 224.
Hill, Robert, the learned tailor,
150.
Historic Doubts on Richard
III., 190, 191, 237.
Hogarth, William, 69, 79, 161,
213, 222, 242.
Houghton, the seat of the Wal-
poles, I, 24, 65, 66, 69, 71,
80, 81 ; the Houghton pictures
sold to Catherine of Russia,
69, 246, 247 ; Walpole buried
at, 268.
Hume, David, 167, 171, iSi-
185.
Hyde Park, robbers in, 125,
126.
I.
Inn, the Christopher, 16, 17.
Inscription for the Neglected
Colli mn, 61.
J.
Jennings, Frances, Duchess of
Tyrconnell, anecdote of, 7 ;
head of, 222.
Jenyns, Soame, quoted, 127,
131-
Jephson, Capt. Robert, 237,
239-
Johnson, Samuel, 55, 84, 236,
285.
K.
Kendal, the Duchess of, 8, 228,
287.
328
Index.
Ker, Lord Robert, 91.
Kilmarnock, Earl, 92 ; trial and
execution of, 93-98.
King's College, Cambridge, 18-
20, 28.
Kirgate, Thomas, 150, 195,
235-
Lens, Bernard, 19.
Lessons for the Day, 75.
Letter from Xo Ho, 143, 144,
295.
Louis XVL (Due de Berry),
172.
Louis XVin. (Comte de Pro-
vence), 172.
^L
Macaulay, Lord, 229; reviews
Lord Dover's edition of Wal-
pole's letters to Mann, 271-
273; letters to Hannah Ma-
caulay quoted, 271, 272;
Lady Holland irritated by,
272 ; his opinion of VValpole,
273-275.
McLean, James, robs Walpole,
125, 126 ; is imprisoned, 126;
becomes a fashionable lion,
126; is executed, 126.
Mann, Sir Horace, 43, 44, 47,
61, 69, 201, 254; death of,
255; Walpole's affection for,
286.
Mason, Rev, William, 53, 197,
202.
Memoirs of the Reign of King
George HI., 189, 292.
Middleton, Dr. Conyers, 2S6 ;
praises Walpole's attain-
ments, 57, 58.
Montagu, Lieut. -Gen. Charles,
K. C. B., 14.
Montagu, Brig Gen. Edward,
14.
Montagu, George, M. P., 14,
17, 21, 29, 187, 201, 286.
Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley,
4, 48, 133; described by
Walpole, 49-51 ; quoted, 50,
102.
Mont Cenis, 40.
Moore, Edward, 131.
More, Hannah, 258, 264, 285.
Miintz (German artist), 13S,
142, 146, 210, 279.
Mysterious Mother, The, 190-
193 ; Byron's praise of, 193 ;
printed at the Strawberry
Hill Press, 195 ; illustrated
by Lady Di. Beauclerk, 243.
N,
Nature will Prevail, 2'?9.
Neale, Betty, 130.
Neuhoff, Baron ('Theodore,
King of Corsica'), 132, 142.
Nolkejumskoi. {See Cumber-
land, William, Duke of.)
O.
Officina Arbuteana. (5"tv Straw-
berry Hill.)
Oiford, George, third Earl df
(nephew of Horace Walpole),
69, 141, 202, 245, 247, 263.
Orford, Horace, fourth Earl of.
{See Walpole, Horace.)
Orford, Robert, first Earl of.
{See Walpole, Sir Robert.)
Orford, Robert, second Earl of.
(6>tf Walpole, Robert.)
Ossory, Lady, 202 ; letters of
Walpole to, 207, 233, 246,
247, 252, 2C0, 266.
Index.
329
P.
Paris, Walpole's first visit to,
31, 32; state of society in,
166-168 ; second visit to,
169, 173-181 ; tliird visit to,
1S6, 187, 189 ; fourth visit
to, 249.
Parish Register of Twi.ken-
hain^ The, 158, 160, 161. 245.
Parodies by Walpole, ']']^ 236.
Patapan, 6'3.
Petersham, Lady Caroline, 127-
130, 2S5.
Picture Gallery at Houghton,
69, 71, 246, 247.
Pinkerton, John, his Walpoli-
ana quoted, 3, 10, 84, 220,
258, 279, 280, 281 ; a favour-
ite of Walpole, 256 ; his di-
scription of Walpole, 279-
282.
Pomfret, Lady, 47-50, loi.
Pope, Alexander, 103, 109, 139,
216.
Preston Pans, the battle of, 89.
Prevost d' Exiles, M. I'Abbi
Antoine-Frangois, 31.
Prior, Matthew, criticised by
Walpole, 76, ']'].
Pulteney, William, Earl of
Bath, 62, 64, 151, 228.
Quadruple Alliance, the, 14 ;
ended, iS, 19.
Oueensberry, the Duke of, 231.
Quinault, Jeanne-Frangoise, 32.
R.
Radnor, Lord, his Chinese
summer-house, 119.
Ranelagh Gardens, the, 83, 86.
Roniniscences of the Courts of
George the I. and II., written
for the Misses Berry, 262.
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 241.
Richardson, Samuel, 167, 171.
Robinson, William, 146, 147,
150, 156.
Rochford, Lady, 156, 157.
Rousseau, J ean -J acques, 181,
182 ; sham letter from Fred-
erick the Great to, 182, 183;
anger of, 184 ; his quarrel
with Hume, 184.
Saint-Cyr, Walpole's visit to.
188.
Saunderson, Professor Nicho-
las, 20.
Scott, Samuel, 139.
Scott, Sir Walter, his study of
the Castle of Otranto, 164,
165.
Selwyn, George Augustus, 13.
138, 168, 231.
Sermon on Painting, The, 71-
76.
Shenstone, WiUiam, 149.
Shirley, Lady Fanny, 160.
Shirley, the Hon. Sewallis, 102,
103, 202.
Shorter, Catherine (Lady Wal-
pole), 3, 4, 210; death of,
24 ; burial of, 25 ; Dryden
claimed as great-uncle to,
210.
Shorter, Sir John, Lord Mayor
of London, 3.
Short Notes, Walpole's, quoted,
5' "> 17, 35) 56,80, 124,152,
189, 239.
Skerret, Maria, 4, 49, 63, 210.
Smollett, Tobias, loi. 105.
Spence, Professor Joseph, 50,
55, 56, 150.
Sterne, Laurence, 173.
330
Index.
Strawberry Hill (Twickenham),
Walpole removes to, 86; de-
scription of, 107-124, 146,
147, 20S ; previous tenants
of, 109, no; additions to,
III, 204, 205; the Gothic
castle at, 113-119; views ex-
ecuted by Miintz, 138 ; private
printing-press at, 142, 145,
146 ; described by William
Robinson, 146-148 ; works
published at the Ofificina Ar-
buteana, 1 49-1 51 {see Ap-
pendix), 152 ; Description of
the Villa at, 195, 201, 208 ;
fetes at, 205, 206 ; ground
plan of the villa at, 20S ; China
Closet and China Room at,
210; the Yellow Bedchamber
(Beauty Room), 211 ; Break-
fast Room, 212, 213 ; plan of
principal floor, 212 ; Green
Closet, 213; Library, 214;
Blue Bedchamber, 214; Ar-
moury, 214 ; the Red Bed-
chamber, 216 ; the Holbein
Chamber, 216; the Star
Chamber, 217; the Gallery.
204, 218 ; the Round Tower,
220; the Cabinet (Tribune),
220; collection of rarities,
220, 221; the Great North
Bedchamber, 218, 221 ; the
Great Cloister, 223 ; the
Chapel, 223 ; the Flower
Garden, 112, 224 ; Gothicism
of the villa, 225, 226; be-
queathed to Mrs. Damer,
270 ; subsequent disposal of,
270.
Stuart, Prince Charles Edward
(the Chevalier), his descent
on Scotland, 88, 96 ; tempo-
rary success of, 90, 91, 96 ;
escape of, 91.
Stuart, Lady Louisa, her Intro-
[ ductory Anecdotes quoted,
i 14-16, 22, 23.
' Suffolk, the Countess of (Mrs.
I Howard), 9, 122, 139, 157,
! 201.
Swift, Jonathan, 19, 103, 139.
Townshend, Charles, Viscount,
: 6, 156.
j Townshend, Lady. {See Har-
rison, Audrey.)
I Tragedy in England, Walpole's
I opinion of, 194, 195.
I Triumvirate, the, 14.
Twickenham. (See Strawberry
Hill.)
^ Vane, Henry, Earl of Darling-
\ ton, 128.
' Vauxhall, 84, 1 28-1 31.
Versailles, visited by Walpole,
: 32, 171-173-
Verses on the Suppression of
the Late Rebellion, 98-100.
Vertue, George, the engraver,
I 69, 70, yy, 154, 216.
Voltaire, Frangois-IVIarie-Arouet
de, i;8, 190.
W.
Wales, Frederick, Prince of,
24, 6i, 86, 87; composes a
chanson on the battle of Fon-
tenoy, 87 ; wins .£800 from
Lord Granby, 131.
Walpol, Sir Henry de, i.
Walpole, Dorothy, Lady Towns-
hend, 6, 210.
Index.
331
Walpole, Sir Edward, Knight
of the Bath, 2.
, Sir Edward (brother of
Horace), 100, 202, 203; the
daughters of, 203; death of,
256.
-, George (third Earl of
Orford), 141, 202, 245
-, Horace (Horatio), his
ancestry, 1-4 ; scandal re-
garding liis birth, 3,4; early-
childhood, 5-10 ; his visit to
George I., 9 ; his appearance
as a boy, 11 ; his school-days
at Eton, 11-17; his scholar-
ship, 12, 19, 20; his com-
panions at Eton, 13-16 ; enters
Lincoln's Inn, 16; enters
King's College, Cambridge,
iS; his university studies, 19,
20; the ' triumvirate,' 19 ; the
'quadruple alliance,' iS, 19;
literary productions at Cam-
bridge, 24 ; appointed In-
spector of Imports and Ex-
ports, 27 ; becomes Usher of
the Exchequer, Controller of
the Pipe, and Clerk of the
Estreats, 27, 28 ; leaves col-
lege, 28 ; travels with Gray,
29 ; visits France, 30-39; in
Switzerland, 39 ; crosses the
Alps, 40; in Italy, 41-56;
his description of Lady Mary
Wortley Montagu, 49 ; his
misunderstanding with Gray,
3^-33 , his illness in Florence,
55 ; his return to England,
56; becomes Member of Par-
liament for CaUington, 56 ;
poetical Epistle to Thofims
Ashton, 58, 59 ; praised by
Gray, 59 ; his letters to Mann,
61, 65, 88 ; his first speech in
Parliament, 64 ; his Sermon
on Paintings 71-75; the
yEdes Walpoliance^ 7S~77 '■>
his parodies, 78, 236; his
paper against Lord Bath, 78 ;
his father's death, 79, 80 ; re-
ceives legacy from his father,
80, 81 ; his criticism of Mrs.
Woffington and of Garrick,
^T, ; removes to Twickenham,
86 ; his Verses on the Stip-
pression of the Late Rebellion,
98, 99 ; epilogue to Tamer-
lane, 98 ; marriage of his
sisters, 100 ; his criticism of
Lady Orford, 10 1, 102 ; his
contributions to The Mu-
seum, 103; his poem. The
Beauties, 104, 105 ; resides at
Windsor, 106; his description
of Strawberry Hill, 107-120,
147, 195, 205, 206, 227 {see
Strawberry Hill) ; his papers
in The Remembrancer, 124 ;
his tract, Dclenda est Oxonia,
124 ; is robbed in Hyde Park,
125, 126 ; his account of
Vauxhall, 128-131 ; his pa-
pers in The World, 131 ; his
reconciliation with Gray, 134;
his admiration of Gray's poe-
try, 135-137; is chosen Mem-
ber of Parliament for Castle
Rising, 141 ; for Lynn, 142 ;
his Castle of Otranto, 142,
163, 168,169; publishes Gray's
Odes, 142, 148; his Catalogue
of Royal and Noble Authors,
142, 149, 151 ; his first Me-
moirs,i42 ; his Letter from Xo
Ho, 143, 145, 295 ; his other
Catalogues, 145, 149, 151 ;
estabHshes the Officina Arbu-
teana, 145 ; his publications,
149-151 {see Appendix), 153,
154, 165 ; his Catalogue of
Engravers, 155 ; his Anec-
dotes of Paijtting, 152, 156,
332
Index.
241, 243; his occasional
pieces ( The Magpie and her
Broody Dialogue between Hvo
Great Ladies^ The Garlaftd,
The Parish Register), 157,
158, 245 ; his second visit to
Paris, 1 67-1 8 1 ; is presented
to the royal family, 171-173;
sham letter to Rousseau, 182;
visits Bath, 186 ; his third
visit to Paris, 187; his Ac-
count of the Giants, 189;
begins his Memoirs of the
Reign of George III., 1S9;
retires from Parliament, 1 89 ;
his letters to the Public Ad-
vertiser, 190 ; his Historic
Doubts on Richard III., 190,
191 ; his tragedy. The Mys-
terious Mother, 191, 192, 195;
his relations with Chatterton,
196-200 ; his fondness for his
nieces, 203 ; his correspond-
ence, 235 ; his minor writings,
236-239 ; his Nature xvill
Prevail, 239 ; his fourth visit
to Paris, 249 ; his corre-
spondence in French, 248 ;
his farewell to Madame du
Deffand, 251, 252 ; his ac-
quaintance with Hannah
More, 258 ; his friendship
with the Misses Beiry, 259-
263, 265, 286, 291 ; his Remi-
niscences, 262 ; his Catalogue
of Strawberry Hill, 262 ;
succeeds his nephew as Earl
of Orford, 263 ; his Epita-
phium Vivi Auctoris, 264 ;
his last letter to Lady Ossory,
267, 268 ; his death and
burial, 268 ; disposal of his
estate, 269, 270 ; Lord Ma-
caulay's criticism of, 271-276;
portraits and descriptions of,
276-278 ; Pinkerton's remi-
niscences of, 280-282; his
character as a man, 284-287 ;
as a virtuoso, 2S8, 289 ; as a
politician, 290-292 ; as an
author, 293, 294.
of Walterton, Horatio,
Baron, 6, 219.
Maria (Lady Walde-
grave), 203, 205.
Lady Mary (Countess
of Cholmondeley), 67, 100.
, Reginald de, i.
-, Sir Robert (first Earl
of Orford), ancestry of, 1,2
first marriage of, 3 ; second
marriage of, 49; decline of
his political power, 61, 62;
resigns the premiership, 63 ;
is created Earl of Orford, 63 ;
intrigues against Pulteney,
64 ; prevents his own dis-
grace, 64, 65 ; death of, -]%-
80 ; will of, 81.
Robert (second Earl of
Orford), 85, 102, 129.
-, Lady Robert (Countess
of Orford), 48, loi, 102, 202;
death of, 256.
, Col. Robert, M.P.,2.
William, 3.
Walpoles of Houghton, pedi-
gree of the, I ; spelled \\'al-
pol, I.
Walpoliana, Pinkerton's, 3,
ID, 84, 256, 25S, 279-282.
Walsingham, Melusina deSchu-
lemberg. Countess of, 9.
Wesley, John, Walpole's de-
scription of, 186.
West, Richard, 15, 16, 103.
Whitehead, Paul, 139.
Wilkes, John, 173.
\\'illiams, George James, 138,
168, 203.
Williams, Sir Charles Hanbury,
13, 131-
Index.
333
William Henry, Duke of Glou-
cester, marries Maria ^^'al-
pole, 203.
Woffington, Margaret, 83.
X.
Xo Ho, Letter of, 143. 144.
Yarmouth, the Countess of
(Madame de Walmoden), 9.
Z.
Zouch, Rev. Henry, 196 ; Wal-
pole's letters to, quoted, 152-
155, 285.
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