Editing Horace Walpole (section)

==Personal characteristics==
Walpole had formed a number of lifelong friendships with a number of men and women notable for their looks, wit or social standing.   Principal amongst those in his inner circle was arguably Conway, who he had looked up to since his Eton days and corresponded with for the rest of his life.  He entertained himself with others who were like himself, and who possessed notoriety and wit, such as such as [[Etheldreda Townshend]], and [[George Selwyn (politician)|George Selwyn]] with whom he jousted and derided with streams of invective.  The "''Abbot of Strawberry''" immortalised himself in his own words, and also inspired the characters of ''Sir Benjamin Backbite'' in [[Richard Brinsley Sheridan]]'s ''[[The School for Scandal]]'' and ''Monsieur Le Sage'' in the satire ''Ranelagh House: a Satire in prose after the manner of Monsieur Le Sage''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sherson |first1=Errol |title=The Lively Lady Townshend and her Friends |date=1926 |publisher=William Heinemann Ltd |location=London |pages=314}}</ref>

The novelist [[Laetitia Matilda Hawkins]], a younger contemporary of Walpole, wrote of him as follows:{{sfn|White|1950|pp=89–90}}

{{blockquote|His entrance into a room was in that style of affected delicacy, which fashion had made almost natural, [[bicorne|''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 summer dress of ceremony was usually a lavender suit, the waistcoat embroidered with a little silver, or of white silk worked in the [[tambour lace|tambour]], partridge silk stockings, gold buckles, [[Ruffle (sewing)|ruffles]] and lace frill. In the winter he wore powder ... His appearance at the breakfast table was proclaimed, and attended, by a fat and favourite little dog, the legacy of [[Marie Anne de Vichy-Chamrond, marquise du Deffand|Madame du Deffand]]; the dog and favourite squirrel partook of his breakfast. He generally dined at four ... His dinner when at home was of chicken, pheasant, or any light food, of which he ate sparingly. Pastry he disliked, as difficult of digestion, though he would taste a morsel of [[venison]] pie. Iced water, then a London dislike, was his favourite drink. The scent of dinner was removed by a censer or pot of [[frankincense]]. The wine that was drunk during dinner. After his coffee he would take pinch of snuff, and nothing more that night.}}

In his old age, according to G. G. Cunningham, he "was afflicted with fits of an hereditary gout which a rigid temperance failed to remove".{{sfn|Cunningham|1834|pp=207–213}}