Editing Horace Walpole (section)

==Grand Tour: 1739–1741==
[[File:Horace Walpole by Rosalba Carriera.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Walpole by [[Rosalba Carriera]], {{circa|1741}}.]]
Walpole went on the [[Grand Tour]] with Gray, but as Walpole recalled in later life: "We had not got to [[Calais]] before Gray was dissatisfied, for I was a boy, and he, though infinitely more a man, was not enough to make allowances".{{sfn|Ketton-Cremer|1964|p=50}}

They left [[Dover]] on 29 March and arrived at Calais later that day. They then travelled through [[Boulogne]], [[Amiens]] and [[Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis|Saint-Denis]], arriving at Paris on 4 April. Here they met many aristocratic Englishmen.{{sfn|Ketton-Cremer|1964|p=51}} In early June they left Paris for [[Reims]], then in September going to [[Dijon]], [[Lyon]], [[Dauphiné]], Savoy, [[Aix-les-Bains]], Geneva, and then back to Lyons.{{citation needed|date = January 2014}}

In October they left for Italy, arriving in [[Turin]] in November, then going to [[Genoa]], [[Piacenza]], [[Parma]], [[Reggio Emilia|Reggio]], [[Modena]], [[Bologna]], and in December arriving at [[Florence]]. Here he struck up a friendship with [[Sir Horace Mann, 1st Baronet|Horace Mann]], an assistant to the British Minister at the Court of Tuscany.{{sfn|Ketton-Cremer|1964|pp=53 ff.}} In Florence he also wrote ''Epistle from Florence to Thomas Ashton, Esq., Tutor to the Earl of Plymouth'', a mixture of [[Whig history]] and Middleton's teachings.{{sfn|Ketton-Cremer|1964|pp=60 ff.}} In February 1740, Walpole and Gray left for Rome with the intention of witnessing the papal conclave upon the death of [[Pope Clement XII]] but  never saw it.{{sfn|Ketton-Cremer|1964|p=61}} Walpole wanted to attend fashionable parties and Gray wanted to visit antiquities. At social occasions in Rome, he saw the Old Pretender, [[James Francis Edward Stuart]], and his two sons, [[Charles Edward Stuart]] and [[Henry Benedict Stuart|Henry Stuart]], although there is no record of them conversing.{{sfn|Ketton-Cremer|1964|p=62}}

Walpole and Gray returned to Florence in July. However, Gray disliked the idleness of Florence as compared to the educational pursuits in Rome, and animosity grew between them, eventually leading to an end to their friendship.{{sfn|Ketton-Cremer|1964|pp=68 ff.}} On their way back to England they had a furious argument, although it is unknown what it was about. Gray went to Venice, leaving Walpole at Reggio.{{sfn|Ketton-Cremer|1964|pp=72–73}} In later life Walpole admitted that the fault lay primarily with himself:
{{blockquote|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 Minister'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 presumption and folly perhaps made me deem not my superior ''then'' in parts, though I have since felt my infinite inferiority to him.|
source={{harvnb|Ketton-Cremer|1964|p=71}} }}

Walpole then visited [[Venice]], [[Genoa]], [[Antibes]], [[Toulon]], [[Marseille]], Aix, [[Montpellier]], [[Toulouse]], [[Orléans]] and Paris. He returned to England on 12 September 1741, reaching London on the 14th.{{sfn|Ketton-Cremer|1964|p=77}}