Editing Horace Walpole (section)

==Early parliamentary career: 1741–1754==
By 1735, Walpole was a student  at [[King's College, Cambridge]]. He had  long periods of absence from the college, often returning to Norwich to live at [[Houghton Hall]], in [[Norfolk]]. Interested in local politics,  he and the   "wealthy" [[Mayor of Norwich]], Philip Meadows, encouraged local merchant Thomas Vere to run for a seat in Parliament "in the [[Whigs (British political party)|Whig]] interest" with  Vere  becoming the   [[Member of Parliament|MP]] for Norwich  in 1735.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=Kathleen |title=The Sense of the People |page=396 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P5yioX_tv58C&dq=mary+meadows+norwich+mayor+philip+meadows&pg=PA396|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521340724|date=28 July 1995}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url =http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1715-1754/member/vere-thomas-1681-1766|title= Vere, Thomas (c.1681–1766), of Thorpe Hall, Norf.|publisher= History of Parliament |first1=Romney R. |last1=Sedgwick |date=1970 |work=The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754 |accessdate = 9 August 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Walpole |first1=H. |title=Horace Walpole and his World |date=1884 |publisher=Seeley, Jackson, and Halliday, 54, Fleet Street |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/53519/53519-h/53519-h.htm |access-date=3 June 2023 |quote=In 1735, young Horace proceeded from Eton to King's College, Cambridge, where he resided, though with long intervals of absence, until after he came of age. |via=Project Gutenberg }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Walpole |first1=H. |title=A Description of Houghton Hall, continued: The Embroidered Bed-chamber, the Cabinet (partial)  |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/368703 |publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=3 June 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Houghton Hall |website=Literary Norfolk |url=https://www.literarynorfolk.co.uk/houghton_hall.htm  |publisher=Cameron Self 2|access-date=3 June 2023|quote=Walpole's son, the prolific letter writer Sir Horace Walpole (1717–97), lived at Houghton Hall but was not over enamoured with Norfolk. }}</ref>

At the [[1741 British general election|1741 general election]] Walpole was elected as a Member of Parliament for the [[rotten borough]] of [[Callington, Cornwall]]. He held this seat for thirteen years although he never visited Callington.{{sfn|Ketton-Cremer|1964|p=80}} Walpole entered Parliament shortly before his father's fall from power. In December 1741 the Opposition won its first majority vote in the Commons for twenty years. In January 1742 Walpole's government was still struggling in Parliament although by the end of the month Horace and other family members had successfully urged the Prime Minister to resign after a parliamentary defeat.{{sfn|Ketton-Cremer|1964|p=82}} Walpole's philosophy mirrored that of [[Edmund Burke]], who was his contemporary. He was a classical liberal on issues such as [[slavery]] and the [[American Revolution]].{{sfn|Allen|2017}}

Walpole delivered his [[maiden speech]] on 19 March against the successful motion that a Secret Committee be set up to enquire into Sir Robert Walpole's last ten years as prime minister. For the next three years, Walpole spent most of his time with his father at his country house [[Houghton Hall]] in Norfolk.{{sfn|Ketton-Cremer|1964|p=84}} His father died in 1745 and left Walpole the remainder of the lease of his house in Arlington Street, London; £5,000 in cash; and the office of Collector of the Customs (worth £1,000 per annum). However, he had died in debt, the total of which was in between £40,000 and £50,000.{{sfn|Ketton-Cremer|1964|p=97}}

In late 1745 Walpole and Gray resumed their friendship.{{sfn|Ketton-Cremer|1964|pp=100–101}} Also that year the [[Jacobite Rising of 1745|Jacobite Rising]] began. The position of Walpole was the fruit of his father's support for the Hanoverian dynasty and he knew that he was in danger: 
:"Now comes the [[Charles Edward Stuart|Pretender's boy]], and promises all my comfortable apartments in the Exchequer and Custom House to some forlorn Irish peer, who chooses to remove his pride and poverty out of some large old unfurnished gallery at St. Germain's. Why really, Mr. Montagu, this is not pleasant! I shall wonderfully dislike being a loyal sufferer in a threadbare coat, and shivering in an antechamber at Hanover, or reduced to teach Latin and English to the young princes at Copenhagen".{{sfn|Ketton-Cremer|1964|p=102}}