Editing Horace Walpole

{{Short description|English politician, writer, historian and antiquarian (1717–1797)}}
{{other people|Horatio Walpole|Horatio Walpole (disambiguation){{!}}Horatio Walpole}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix    = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name                = The Earl of Orford
| image               = Horace Walpole.jpg
| alt                 = Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford
| caption             = Portrait by Sir [[Joshua Reynolds]], 1756
| constituency_MP     = [[King's Lynn (UK Parliament constituency)|King's Lynn]]
| term_start          = 25 February 1757
| term_end            = 16 March 1769
| alongside           = [[Sir John Turner, 3rd Baronet]]
| predecessor         = [[Horatio Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford|Horatio Walpole the Elder]]
| successor           = [[Thomas Walpole]]
| constituency_MP1    = [[Castle Rising (UK Parliament constituency)|Castle Rising]]
| term_start1         = 21 May 1754
| term_end1           = 25 February 1757
| alongside1          = [[Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Suffolk|Thomas Howard]]
| predecessor1        = [[Robert Knight, 1st Earl of Catherlough|Robert Knight]]
| successor1          = [[Charles Boone (died 1819)|Charles Boone]]
| constituency_MP2    = [[Callington (UK Parliament constituency)|Callington]]
| term_start2         = 12 June 1741
| term_end2           = 18 April 1754
| alongside2          = [[Thomas Coplestone]] (1741–1748), [[Edward Bacon (died 1786)|Edward Bacon]] (1748–1754)
| predecessor2        = [[Isaac le Heup]]
| successor2          = John Sharpe
| birth_date          = {{birth date|df=y|1717|9|24}}
| birth_place         = London, England, [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]]
| death_date          = {{death date and age|df=y|1797|3|2|1717|9|24}}
| death_place         = [[Berkeley Square]], London, Great Britain
| restingplace        = {{unbulleted list|St Martin's Church,|[[Houghton, Norfolk]]}}
| birthname           = Horatio Walpole
| party               = [[Whigs (British political party)|Whigs]]
| residence           = [[Strawberry Hill House|Strawberry Hill]], London
| occupation          = {{hlist|Writer|Art Historian|Man of Letters|Antiquarian|Politician}}
| parents             = {{unbulleted list|[[Robert Walpole]]|[[Catherine, Lady Walpole|Catherine Shorter]]}}
| relatives           = [[Hugh Walpole]] (great-great-grandnephew)
| signature           = Horace Walpole signature.svg
| education           = [[King's College, Cambridge]]
}}

'''Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|w|ɔː|l|p|oʊ|l}}; 24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as '''Horace Walpole''', was an English [[Whigs (British political party)|Whig]] politician, writer, historian and antiquarian.{{sfn|Langford|2011}}

He had [[Strawberry Hill House]] built in [[Twickenham]], southwest London, reviving the [[Gothic Revival|Gothic]] style some decades before his [[Victorian era|Victorian]] successors. His literary reputation rests on the first [[Gothic fiction|Gothic novel]], ''[[The Castle of Otranto]]'' (1764), and his ''Letters'', which are of significant social and political interest.<ref name="BBC20141213" /> They have been published by [[Yale University Press]] in 48 volumes.{{sfn|Smith|1983|pp=17–28}} In 2017, a volume of Walpole's selected letters was published.<ref>''Selected Letters'', edited and introduced by Stephen Clarke. New York: Everyman's Library, Alfred A. Knopf, 2017.</ref>

The youngest son of the first British Prime Minister, Sir [[Robert Walpole]], 1st Earl of Orford, he became the 4th and last Earl of Orford of the second creation on his nephew's death in 1791.

==Early life: 1717–1739==
[[File:Horace Walpole (1735) - Jonathan Richardson the Elder (Casa-Museu Medeiros e Almeida).png|thumb|left|upright|Walpole by [[Jonathan Richardson]], 1735.]]

Walpole was born in London, the youngest son of [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|British Prime Minister]] Sir [[Robert Walpole]] and his wife, Catherine. Like his father, he received early education in [[Bexley]];<ref name="richmond.gov.uk" /> in part under [[Edward Weston (politician)|Edward Weston]]. He was also educated at [[Eton College]] and [[King's College, Cambridge]].<ref name="ACAD" />

Walpole's first friends were probably his cousins Francis and [[Henry Seymour Conway|Henry Conway]], to whom he became strongly attached, especially Henry.{{sfn|Ketton-Cremer|1964|p=34}} At Eton he formed a schoolboy confederacy, the "Triumvirate", with [[Charles Lyttelton (bishop)|Charles Lyttelton]] (later an antiquary and bishop) and [[George Montagu (died 1780)|George Montagu]] (later a member of parliament and Private Secretary to Lord North). More important were another group of friends dubbed the "Quadruple Alliance": Walpole, [[Thomas Gray]], [[Richard West (poet)|Richard West]], and [[Thomas Ashton (divine)|Thomas Ashton]].{{sfn|Ketton-Cremer|1964|p=35}}

At Cambridge, Walpole came under the influence of [[Conyers Middleton]], an unorthodox theologian. Walpole came to accept the sceptical nature of Middleton's attitude to some essential Christian doctrines for the rest of his life, including a hatred of superstition and bigotry even though he was a nominal Anglican. Ceasing to reside at Cambridge at the end of 1738, Walpole left without taking a degree.{{sfn|Ketton-Cremer|1964|pp=48–49}}

In 1737, Walpole's mother died. According to one biographer, his love for his mother "was the most powerful emotion of his entire life ... the whole of his psychological history was dominated by it".{{sfn|Ketton-Cremer|1964|p=44}} Walpole did not have any serious relationships with women; he has been called "a natural celibate".{{sfn|Ketton-Cremer|1964|p=47}}

His [[sexual orientation]] has been the subject of speculation. He never married, engaging in a succession of unconsummated flirtations with unmarriageable women, and counted among his close friends a number of women such as [[Anne Seymour Damer]] and [[Mary Berry (writer, born 1763)|Mary Berry]] named by a number of sources as lesbian.{{sfn|Norton|2003|p=}}

Many contemporaries described him as effeminate (one political opponent called him "a [[hermaphrodite]] horse").{{sfn|Langford|2011}} Biographers, such as [[Lewis Walpole Library|W. S. Lewis]], Brian Fothergill, and [[Robert Wyndham Ketton-Cremer]], interpreted Walpole as [[asexuality|asexual]].{{sfn|Haggerty| 2006|pp=543–561}}

Walpole's father secured for him three [[sinecure]]s which afforded him an income: in 1737 he was appointed Inspector of the Imports and Exports in the Custom House, which he resigned to become Usher of the Exchequer, which gave him at first £3900 per annum but this increased over the years. Upon coming of age he became Comptroller of the Pipe and Clerk of the [[Estreat]]s which gave him an income of £300 per annum. Walpole decided to go travelling with Thomas Gray and wrote a will in which he left Gray all his belongings.{{sfn|Ketton-Cremer|1964|pp=49, 98}}

In 1744, he wrote in a letter to Conway that these offices gave him nearly £2,000 per annum; after 1745 when he was appointed Collectorship of Customs, his total income from these offices was around £3,400 per annum.{{sfn|Ketton-Cremer|1964|p=98}}

==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}}

==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}}

==Strawberry Hill==
[[File:Strawberry Hill House from garden in 2012 after restoration.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|[[Strawberry Hill House]] in [[Twickenham]]<!-- in 2012-->]]

Walpole's lasting architectural creation is [[Strawberry Hill House|Strawberry Hill]], the home he built from 1749 onward in [[Twickenham]], southwest of London, which at the time overlooked the [[River Thames|Thames]]. Here he revived the Gothic style many decades before his Victorian successors. Derided thereafter by his friends as "The Abbot of Strawberry", this fanciful [[neo-Gothic]] concoction began a new architectural trend.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sherson |first1=Errol |title=The Lively Lady Townshend and her Friends |date=1926 |publisher=William Heinemann Ltd |location=London |page=178}}</ref>{{sfn|Verberckmoes |2007|p= 77}} Long-connected  with the [[Blue Stockings Society]], Walpole played host to its members and associates at Strawberry Hill, including [[Anna Laetitia Barbauld]] in 1774.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Walpole |first1=Horace |editor1-last=Cunningham |editor1-first=P. |title=The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford |date=1891 |publisher=Richard Bentley and Son, London | series=The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford | volume=8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=brU_AAAAYAAJ&dq=horace+walpole+blue+stockings+strawberry+hill&pg=PR20 |access-date=4 June 2023 |quote=To The Countess of Ossory –  July 15, 1783...I have  given one or two dinners to blue-stockings...}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Russell |first1=G. |title=Romantic Sociability: Social Networks and Literary Culture... |date=2006 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=71 |isbn=9780521026093 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_FhPV1zaccoC&dq=barbould+Horace++had+been+pleased+in+1774&pg=PA71 |access-date=10 June 2023|quote=...of a new literary and personal identity for Anna Barbauld. Horace Walpole had been pleased, in 1774, to show Anna and [her husband] Rochemont around Strawberry Hill, and a few years later to praise her poetry in a letter to William Mason.}}</ref>

==Later parliamentary career: 1754–1768==
[[File:Horace Walpole by John Giles Eccardt.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Horace Walpole by [[John Giles Eccardt]], {{circa|1755}}.]]

In the House of Commons, Walpole represented one of the many [[rotten borough]]s, [[Castle Rising (UK Parliament constituency)|Castle Rising]], which consisted of underlying freeholds in four villages near [[Kings Lynn]], Norfolk, from 1754 until 1757. At his home, he hung a copy of the warrant for the execution of King [[Charles I of England|Charles I]] with the inscription "Major Charta" and wrote of "the least bad of all murders, that of a King".{{sfn|Ketton-Cremer|1964|pp=126–127}} In 1756 he wrote:
{{blockquote|I am sensible that from the prostitution of patriotism, from the art of ministers who have had the address to exalt the semblance while they depressed the reality of royalty, and from the bent of the education of the young nobility, which verges to French maxims and to a military spirit, nay, from the ascendant which the nobility itself acquires each day in this country, from all these reflections, I am sensible, that prerogative and power have been exceedingly fortified of late within the circle of the palace; and though fluctuating ministers by turns exercise the deposit, yet there it is; and whenever a prince of design and spirit shall sit in the regal chair, he will find a bank, a hoard of power, which he may lay off most fatally against this constitution. [I am] a quiet republican, who does not dislike to see the shadow of monarchy, like [[Banquo]]'s ghost, fill the empty chair of state, that the ambitious, the murderer, the tyrant, may not aspire to it; in short, who approves the name of a King, when it excludes the essence.|
source={{harvnb|Ketton-Cremer|1964|p=127}} }}

Walpole worried that while his fellow Whigs fought amongst themselves, the [[Tories (British political party)|Tories]] were gaining power, the result of which would be England delivered to an unlimited, absolute monarchy, "that authority, that torrent which I should in vain extend a feeble arm to stem".{{sfn|Ketton-Cremer|1964|p=127}}

In 1757, he wrote the anonymous pamphlet ''A Letter from Xo Ho, a Chinese Philosopher at London, to his Friend Lien Chi at Peking'', the first of his works to be widely reviewed.{{sfn|Sabor|2013|p=4}}

In early 1757, old Horace Walpole of Wolterton died and was succeeded in the peerage by his son, who was then an MP for [[King's Lynn (UK Parliament constituency)|King's Lynn]], thereby creating a vacancy. The electors of King's Lynn did not wish to be represented by a stranger and instead wanted someone with a connection to the Walpole family. The new Lord Walpole, therefore, wrote to his cousin requesting that he stand for the seat, saying his friends "were all unanimously of opinion that you were the only person who from your near affinity to my grandfather, whose name is still in the greatest veneration, and your own known personal abilities and qualifications, could stand in the gap on this occasion and prevent opposition and expense and perhaps disgrace to the family".{{sfn|Ketton-Cremer|1964|p= 200}}

In early 1757, Walpole was out of Parliament after vacating Castle Rising until his election that year to King's Lynn, a seat he would hold until his retirement from the Commons in 1768.{{sfn|Ketton-Cremer|1964|p=201}}

Walpole became a prominent opponent of the 1757 decision to execute Admiral [[John Byng]].{{sfn|Ketton-Cremer|1964|p=201}}

==Later life: 1768–1788==

Without a seat in Parliament, Walpole recognised his limitations as to political influence.

He wrote to Mann critical of the activities of the [[East India Company]] on 13 July 1773: {{blockquote|What is England now? – A sink of Indian wealth, filled by nabobs and emptied by Maccaronis! A senate sold and despised! A country overrun by horse-races! A gaming, robbing, wrangling, railing nation without principles, genius, character or allies.|source={{harvnb|Walpole|1844|p=339}}, {{harvnb|Carson|2012|pp=18–33}} }}

He opposed the recent [[Catholic Emancipation|Catholic accommodative measures]], writing to Mann in 1784: "You know I have ever been averse to toleration of an intolerant religion".{{sfn|Langford|2011}} He wrote to the same correspondent in 1785 that "as there are continually allusions to parliamentary speeches and events, they are often obscure to me till I get them explained; and besides, I do not know several of the satirized heroes even by sight".{{sfn|Langford|2011}} His political sympathies were with the [[Foxite]] Whigs, the successors of the [[Rockingham Whigs]], who were themselves the successors of the Whig Party as revived by Walpole's father. He wrote to [[William Mason (poet)|William Mason]], expounding his political philosophy:

{{blockquote|
I have for five and forty years acted upon the principles of the constitution as it was settled at the [[Glorious Revolution|Revolution]], the best form of government that I know of in the world, and which made us a free people, a rich people, and a victorious people, by diffusing liberty, protecting property and encouraging commerce; and by the combination of all, empowering us to resist the ambition of the [[House of Bourbon]], and to place ourselves on a level with that formidable neighbour. The narrow plan of royalty, which had so often preferred the aggrandizement of the Crown to the dignity of presiding over a great and puissant free kingdom, threw away one predominant source of our potency by aspiring to enslave America—and would now compensate for [[American Revolutionary War|that blunder and its consequence]] by assuming a despotic tone at home. It has found a tool in the light and juvenile son of the great minister who carried our glory to its highest pitch—but it shall never have the insignificant approbation of an old and worn out son of another minister, who though less brilliant, maintained this country in the enjoyment of the twenty happiest years that England ever enjoyed.
|source={{harvnb|Langford|2011}} }}

==Last years: 1788–1797==
[[File:Oldhorry.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Horace Walpole by Sir [[Thomas Lawrence]], {{circa|1795}}]]
Walpole was horrified by the [[French Revolution]] and commended [[Edmund Burke]]'s ''[[Reflections on the Revolution in France]]'': "Every page shows how sincerely he is in earnest — a wondrous merit in a political pamphlet—All other party writers ''act'' zeal for the public, but it never seems to flow from the heart".{{sfn|Langford|2011}} He admired the purple passage in the book on [[Marie Antoinette]]: "I know the tirade on the Queen of France is condemned and yet I must avow I admire it much. It paints her exactly as she appeared to me the first time I saw her when Dauphiness. She...shot through the room like an aerial being, all brightness and grace and without seeming to touch earth".{{sfn|Lock|2000|pp=34–35}}

After he heard of the [[execution of Louis XVI|execution]] of King [[Louis XVI]] he wrote to [[Lady Ossory]] on 29 January 1793:{{Blockquote|Indeed, Madam, I write unwillingly; there is not a word left in my Dictionary that can express what I feel. ''Savages, barbarians'', &c., were terms for poor ignorant Indians and Blacks and Hyaenas, or, with some superlative epithets, for Spaniards in Peru and Mexico, for Inquisitors, or for Enthusiasts of every breed in religious wars. It remained for the enlightened eighteenth century to baffle language and invent horrors that can be found in no vocabulary. What tongue could be prepared to paint a Nation that should avow Atheism, profess Assassination, and practice Massacres on Massacres for four years together: and who, as if they had destroyed God as well as their King, and established Incredulity by law, give no symptoms of repentance! These Monsters talk of settling a Constitution—it may be a brief one, and couched in one Law, "Thou shalt reverse every Precept of Morality and Justice, and do all the Wrong thou canst to all Mankind".|
source={{harvnb|Ketton-Cremer|1964|pp=305–306}} }}

He was not impressed with [[Thomas Paine]]'s reply to Burke, ''[[Rights of Man]]'', writing that it was "so coarse, that you would think he means to degrade the language as much as the government".{{sfn|Lock|2000|p=159}}

His father was created [[Earl of Orford]] in 1742. Horace's elder brother, [[Robert Walpole, 2nd Earl of Orford]] ({{circa|1701–1751}}), passed the title on to his son, [[George Walpole, 3rd Earl of Orford]] (1730–1791). When the 3rd Earl died unmarried, Horace Walpole became, at the age of 74, the 4th Earl of Orford, and the title died with him in 1797. The massive amount of correspondence he left behind has been published in many volumes, starting in 1798. Likewise, a large collection of his works, including historical writings, was published immediately after his death.{{sfn|Legouis|1957|p=906}}

Horace Walpole was buried in the same location as his father Sir Robert Walpole, at the [[St Martin at Tours' Church, Houghton|Church of St Martin at Tours]] on the [[Houghton Hall]] estate.<ref>{{NHLE|num=1077787|desc=St Martin's Church|grade=I|access-date=31 July 2022}}</ref>

==Rumours of paternity==
[[File:SIR ROBERT WALPOLE 1676-1745 Prime Minister and his son HORACE WALPOLE 1717-1797 Connoisseur and Man of Letters lived here.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Blue plaque]] at Arlington Street, [[City of Westminster]], London commemorating Horace and his father Robert]] 
After Walpole's death, [[Lady Louisa Stuart]], in the introduction to the letters of her grandmother, [[Lady Mary Wortley Montagu]] (1837), wrote of rumours that Horace's biological father was not Sir Robert Walpole but Carr, Lord Hervey (1691–1723), elder half-brother of the more famous [[John Hervey, 2nd Baron Hervey|John Hervey]]. [[T. H. White]] writes: "Catherine Shorter, Sir Robert Walpole's first wife, had five children. Four of them were born in a sequence after the marriage; the fifth, Horace, was born eleven years later, at a time when she was known to be on bad terms with Sir Robert, and known to be on romantic terms with Carr, Lord Hervey."{{sfn|White|1950|pp=84–89}} The lack of physical resemblance between Horace and Sir Robert,{{sfn|White|1950|p=88|ps=: No beings in human shape could resemble each other less than the two passing for father and son." (Lady Louisa Stuart)}} and his close resemblance to members of the Hervey family, encouraged these rumours. [[Peter Cunningham (British writer)|Peter Cunningham]], in his introduction to the letters of Horace Walpole (1857), vol. 1, p. x, wrote: 
{{blockquote|"[Lady Louisa Stuart] has related it in print in the Introductory Anecdotes to Lady Mary's Works ; and there is too much reason to believe that what she tells is true. Horace was born eleven years after the birth of any other child that Sir Robert had by his wife; in every respect he was unlike a Walpole, and in every respect, figure and formation of mind, very like a Hervey. Lady Mary Wortley divided mankind into men, women, and Herveys, and the division has been generally accepted. Walpole was certainly of the Hervey class. Lord Hervey's Memoirs and Horace Walpole's Memoires are most remarkably alike, yet Walpole never saw them. [Yet] we have no evidence whatever that a suspicion of spurious parentage ever crossed the mind of Horace Walpole. His writings, from youth to age, breathe the most affectionate love for his mother, and the most unbounded filial regard for Sir Robert Walpole."}}

==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}}

==Writings==
Strawberry Hill had its own [[printing press]], the [[Strawberry Hill Press]], which supported Horace Walpole's intensive literary activity.{{sfn|Verberckmoes |2007|p=77}}

In 1764, not using his own press, he anonymously published his [[Gothic novel]], ''[[The Castle of Otranto]]'', claiming on its title page that it was a translation "from the Original Italian of Onuphrio Muralto". The second edition's preface, according to James Watt, "has often been regarded as a manifesto for the modern Gothic romance, stating that his work, now subtitled 'A Gothic Story', sought to restore the qualities of imagination and invention to contemporary fiction".{{sfn|Watt |2004|p=120}} However, there is a playfulness in the prefaces to both editions and in the narration within the text itself. The novel opens with the son of Manfred (the Prince of Otranto) being crushed under a massive helmet that appears as a result of supernatural causes. However, that moment, along with the rest of the unfolding plot, includes a mixture of both ridiculous and sublime supernatural elements. The plot finally reveals how Manfred's family is tainted in a way that served as a model for successive Gothic plots.{{sfn|Watt |2004|pp=120–121}}

From 1762 on, Walpole published his ''Anecdotes of Painting in England'', based on [[George Vertue]]'s manuscript notes. His memoirs of the Georgian social and political scene, though heavily biased, are a useful primary source for historians.

[[File:George Montagu Eccardt Peterborough.JPG|thumb|upright|Portrait of ''George Montagu'' by [[John Giles Eccardt]] after [[Jean-Baptiste van Loo]] ({{circa|1713–1780}})<br />Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery<br />A close friend and correspondent of Horace Walpole]]

Smith, noting that Walpole never did any work for his well-paid government sinecures, turns to the letters and argues that:
<blockquote>Walpole served his country, not by drudgery in the Exchequer and Customs, which paid him, but by transmitting to posterity an incomparable vision of England as it was in his day – London and Westminster with all their festivities and riots, the machinations of politicians and the turmoil of elections.{{sfn|Smith|1983|p=25}}</blockquote>

Walpole's numerous letters are often used as a historical resource. In one, dating from 28 January 1754, he coined the word [[serendipity]] which he said was derived from a "silly fairy tale" he had read, ''[[The Three Princes of Serendip]]''.{{sfn|Merton|Barber|2011|p=1}} The oft-quoted [[epigram]], "This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel", is from a letter of Walpole's to [[Anne FitzPatrick, Countess of Upper Ossory|Anne, Countess of Upper Ossory]], on 16 August 1776. The original, fuller version appeared in a letter to Sir Horace Mann on 31 December 1769: "I have often said, and oftener think, that this world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel – a solution of why [[Democritus]] laughed and [[Heraclitus]] wept."

In ''Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of King Richard III'' (1768), Walpole defended [[Richard III of England|Richard III]] against the common belief that he murdered the [[Princes in the Tower]]. In this he has been followed by other writers, such as [[The Daughter of Time|Josephine Tey]] and [[Valerie Anand]]. This work, according to Emile Legouis, shows that Walpole was "capable of critical initiative".{{sfn|Legouis |1957|p= 906}} However, Walpole later changed his views following [[The Terror]] and declared that Richard could have committed the crimes of which he was accused.{{sfn|Sabor|2013|p=223}}{{sfn|Pollard|1991|p=216}}

==Walpole Society==
The [[Walpole Society]] was formed in 1911 to promote the study of the history of British art. Its headquarters is located in the Department of Prints and Drawings at The [[British Museum]] and its director is [[Simon Swynfen Jervis]].

==Works==
===Non-fiction===
* {{cite book |first1=Horace |last1=Walpole |display-authors=0 |title=A Letter from Xo Ho, a Chinese Philosopher at London, to his Friend Lien Chi at Peking |date=1757 |edition=2nd |place=London |publisher=Printed for J. Graham, Strand |url=https://archive.org/details/aletterfromxoho00walpgoog/page/n7/mode/1up}}
* {{cite book |first1=Horace |last1=Walpole |display-authors=0 |title=Anecdotes of Painting in England |orig-date=1762–71 |series= |date=1879 |place=London |publisher=Ward Lock & Co. |url=https://archive.org/details/anecdotesofpai1879walp/page/n5/mode/1up}}
* {{cite book |first1=Horace |last1=Walpole |display-authors=0 |title=A Catalogue of Engravers who have been born, or resided in England |orig-date=1763 |date=1782 |place=London |publisher=Printed for J. Dodsley, Pall Mall |url=https://archive.org/details/catalogueofengra00walp/page/n6/mode/1up}} 
* {{cite book |first1=Horace |last1=Walpole |display-authors=0 |title=Essay on Modern Gardening  |others=''With a faithful translation into French by [[Louis Jules Mancini, Duke of Nevers|The Duke of Nivernois]] and an introduction by [[Alice Morse Earle]]'' |edition=Facsimile reprint |orig-date=1780 |date=1904 |place=Canton, Pa. |publisher=Kirgate Press |url=https://archive.org/details/essayonmodernga00walpgoog/page/n9/mode/1up}}
* {{cite book |first1=Horace |last1=Walpole |display-authors=0 |title=A Description of the Villa of Mr. Horace Walpole |date=1784 |place=[[Strawberry Hill House|Strawberry Hill]], Twickenham |publisher=Printed by Thomas Kirgate |url=https://archive.org/details/descriptionofvil00walp_0/page/n10/mode/1up}}
* {{cite book |first=Horace |last=Walpole |display-authors=0 |title=Historic Doubts on the life and Reign of King Richard the Third |date=1768 |edition =Second |publisher=Printed by J. Dodsley in Pall Mall|location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/historicdoubtso00dodsgoog/page/n10/mode/1up}} 
* {{cite book |first1=Horace |last1=Walpole |display-authors=0 |editor-first=Thomas |editor-last=Park |title=A Catalogue of the Royal and Noble Authors of England, Scotland, and Ireland, enlarged and continued to the present time |orig-date=1758 |date=1806 |place=London |publisher=Printed for John Scott, Strand}}&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/acatalogueroyal08parkgoog/page/n9/mode/1up Vol. 1]&nbsp;•&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/acatalogueroyal02parkgoog/page/n11/mode/1up Vol. 2]&nbsp;•&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/acatalogueroyal06parkgoog/page/n7/mode/1up Vol. 3]&nbsp;•&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/acatalogueroyal00parkgoog/page/n7/mode/1up Vol. 4]&nbsp;•&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/acatalogueroyal04parkgoog/page/n7/mode/1up Vol. 5]&nbsp;•&nbsp;(1st edition: [https://archive.org/details/catalogueofroyal01walprich/page/n8/mode/1up Vol. 1]&nbsp;•&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/catalogueofroyal02walprich/page/n6/mode/1up Vol. 2])
* {{cite book |first=Horace|last=Walpole|display-authors=0|title=Memoirs of the Last Ten Years of the Reign of King [[George II of Great Britain|George the Second]] |editor-last=Vassall-Fox |editor-first=((Henry, 3rd Baron Holland)) |editor-link=Henry Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland |orig-date=1822 |date=1847 |place=London |publisher=Henry Colburn |edition=3 vols.: 2nd, revised |series=(posthumously published.)}}&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/memoirsofreignof0001walp/page/n8/mode/1up Vol. 1]&nbsp;•&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/memoirsreignkingg02walp/page/n10/mode/1up Vol. 2]&nbsp;•&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.24498/page/n7/mode/1up Vol. 3 (reprint of 1st ed., 1846)]<!--There are other editions inc. 1985 ed. John Brooke, Yale, https://archive.org/details/memoirsofkinggeo0002walp/page/n6/mode/1up and https://archive.org/details/memoirsofkinggeo0003walp/page/n6/mode/1up but I cannot find volume 1 on the horrendous mess that is archive.org... Best of luck.-->
* {{cite book |first=Horace |last=Walpole |display-authors=0 |title=Memoirs of the Reign of King [[George III of Great Britain|George III]] |editor-last=Jarrett |editor-first=Keith |place=New Haven and London |publisher=Yale University Press |date=2000 |orig-date=1845 |series=(4 vols) |isbn=0-300-07014-4}}&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/memoirsofreignof0001walp_x8h1/page/n6/mode/1up Vol. 1]&nbsp;•&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/memoirsofreignof0002walp_c7f2/page/n6/mode/1up Vol. 2]&nbsp;•&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/memoirsofreignof0003walp/page/n6/mode/1up Vol. 3]&nbsp;•&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/memoirsofreignof0000walp_q3u8/page/n6/mode/1up Vol. 4]
* {{cite book |last1=Walpole |first1=Horace |title=Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford |series =(16 vols. 1903-5, Supplement, ed. [[Paget Toynbee]], 3 vols., 1918–1925) |date=1903–1925 |editor-last=Toynbee |editor-first=Helen Wrigley |editor-link=Paget Toynbee |place=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press}}&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/lettersofhoracew12walp_0/page/n10/mode/1up Vol. 1]&nbsp;•&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/cu31924087993519/page/n12/mode/1up Vol. 2]&nbsp;•&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/cu31924087993527/page/n10/mode/1up Vol. 3]&nbsp;•&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/lettersofhoracew34walp/page/n486/mode/1up Vol. 4]&nbsp;(bound with Vol. 3)&nbsp;•&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/cu31924087993543/page/n8/mode/1up Vol. 5]&nbsp;•&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/cu31924087993550/page/n8/mode/1up Vol. 6]&nbsp;•&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/cu31924087993568/page/n8/mode/1up Vol. 7]&nbsp;•&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/cu31924087993576/page/n8/mode/1up Vol. 8]&nbsp;•&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/cu31924087993519/page/n12/mode/1up Vol. 9]&nbsp;•&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/cu31924087993592/page/n8/mode/1up Vol. 10]&nbsp;•&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/cu31924087993600/page/n8/mode/1up Vol. 11]&nbsp;•&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/cu31924087993618/page/n8/mode/1up Vol. 12]&nbsp;•&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/cu31924087993626/page/n12/mode/1up Vol. 13]&nbsp;•&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/cu31924087993659/page/n6/mode/1up Vol. 14]&nbsp;•&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/cu31924087993642/page/n10/mode/1up Vol. 15]&nbsp;•&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/cu31924087993634/page/n8/mode/1up Vol. 16]&nbsp;•&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/supplementtolett01walp_0/page/n7/mode/1up Suppl. Vol. 1]&nbsp;•&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/supplementtolett02walp/page/n7/mode/1up Suppl. Vol. 2]&nbsp;•&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/supplementtolett02walp_0/page/n8/mode/1up Suppl. Vol. 3]
* {{cite book |title=Lettres de la Marquise du Deffand à Horace Walpole (1766–1780) |editor-last=Toynbee |editor-first=Helen Wrigley |editor-link=Paget Toynbee |series=3 vols. (Completed by her husband Paget Toynbee after her death in 1910) |language=French |publisher=Methuen & Co. |date=1912}}&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/lettreshoracew01dudeuoft/page/n8/mode/1up Vol. 1]&nbsp;•&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/lettreshoracew02dudeuoft/page/n8/mode/1up Vol. 2]&nbsp;•&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/lettreshoracew03dudeuoft/page/n8/mode/1up Vol. 3]
* ''Selected Letters'', edited and introduced by Stephen Clarke. New York: Everyman's Library, Alfred A. Knopf, 2017. [https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/horace-walpole-margaret-drabble/ Reviewed by Margaret Drabble]

===Fiction===
* ''[[The Castle of Otranto]]'' (1764)
* ''The Mysterious Mother: A Tragedy'' (1768)
* ''Hieroglyphic Tales'' (1785)

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist|refs=

<ref name="BBC20141213">{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30313775 |title=The Castle of Otranto: The creepy tale that launched gothic fiction|date=13 December 2014|publisher=BBC News|access-date= 9 July 2017}}</ref>

<ref name="richmond.gov.uk">{{cite web |url = http://www.richmond.gov.uk/home/leisure_and_culture/local_history_and_heritage/local_studies_collection/local_history_notes/horace_walpole_and_strawberry_hill.htm |title=Horace Walpole and Strawberry Hill – London Borough of Richmond upon Thames |publisher=Government of the United Kingdom |date=3 August 2009 |access-date=28 January 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131103000307/http://www.richmond.gov.uk/home/leisure_and_culture/local_history_and_heritage/local_studies_collection/local_history_notes/horace_walpole_and_strawberry_hill.htm |archive-date=3 November 2013 }}</ref>

<ref name="ACAD">{{acad|id=WLPL734HH|name=Walpole, Horace}}</ref>

}}

=== Sources ===
{{refbegin|2|indent=yes}}
*{{cite news|title=The Word from Strawberry Hill|first= Brooke|last= Allen|newspaper=The Wall Street Journal|date= 9 September 2017}}
*{{cite book |last1=Carson |first1=Penelope |title=The East India Company and Religion, 1698–1858 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/east-india-company-and-religion-16981858/east-india-company-britain-and-india-17701790/763DF2E53E1C412A57958E36001E2F19# |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |access-date=28 October 2020 |pages=18–33 |date=2012 |isbn=9781782040279 }}
*{{citation|url=http://spenserians.cath.vt.edu/BiographyRecord.php?action=GET&bioid=34070|title=Horace Walpole|first=G. G.|last=Cunningham|work=Memoirs of Illustrious Englishmen (1834-37)|volume=6|date=1834|access-date=24 October 2019|archive-date=23 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211023211041/http://spenserians.cath.vt.edu/BiographyRecord.php?action=GET&bioid=34070|url-status=dead}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Haggerty|first1=George E.|title=Queering Horace Walpole|journal=SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500–1900 |volume=46|issue=3|year=2006|pages=543–561|issn=1522-9270|doi=10.1353/sel.2006.0026|jstor=3844520|s2cid=154410341}}
* {{cite book|last=Ketton-Cremer|first=Robert Wyndham|author-link=Robert Wyndham Ketton-Cremer|title=Horace Walpole: a Biography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A1kKAQAAMAAJ|year=1964|publisher=Methuen|location=London|isbn=9787270010670}}
* {{cite ODNB|first = Paul |last = Langford |id=28596 |title=Walpole, Horatio, fourth earl of Orford (1717–1797) |date=19 May 2011 }}
* {{cite book|last=Legouis|first= Emile|title=A History of English Literature|translator= Louis Cazamian|location= New York|publisher=Macmillan |date= 1957}}
* {{cite book|first=F. P. |last=Lock|chapter=Rhetoric and representation in Burke's Reflections|editor-first=John|editor-last= Whale |title=Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France. New Interdisciplinary Essays|location= Manchester |publisher=University Press|date= 2000}}
* {{cite book|last1=Merton|first1=Robert K.|last2=Barber|first2=Elinor|title=The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity: A Study in Sociological Semantics and the Sociology of Science|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ORJVDALLF0kC&pg=PA1|year=2011|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-4152-3}}
* {{cite book|last=Mowl|first=Timothy|title=Horace Walpole: The Great Outsider|url=https://archive.org/details/horacewalpolegre0000mowl|url-access=registration|location=London|publisher=Murray|orig-year=1996|isbn=978-0-7195-5619-7|author-link=Timothy Mowl|date=2010}}
* {{cite book|editor-last=Norton|editor-first=Rictor|chapter=A Sapphick Epistle, 1778|chapter-url=http://www.infopt.demon.co.uk/sapphick.htm|title=Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook|orig-year=1999|date=23 February 2003|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613220104/http://www.infopt.demon.co.uk/sapphick.htm|access-date=16 August 2007|archive-date=13 June 2007}}
* {{cite book|last1=Pollard|first1=A. J.|title=Richard III and the Princes in the Tower|date=1991|publisher=Alan Sutton|location=Stroud}}
* {{citation|last=Smith|first= W. H. |title=Horace Walpole's Correspondence|journal=The Yale University Library Gazette|volume= 58|issue=1/2|pages= 17–28 |date=1983|jstor=40858823}}
* {{cite book|last=Sabor|first=Peter|title=Horace Walpole: The Critical Heritage|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jXzhAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA4|year=2013|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-136-17217-5}}
* {{cite book |last1=Walpole |first1=Horace |title=Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford, to Sir Horace Mann: His ...|volume=1 |date=1844 |publisher=Lea & Blanchard |location=Philadelphia  |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QoE4AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA339}}
* {{cite book|last=Watt|first= James|chapter=Gothic|title=The Cambridge Companion to English Literature 1740–1830|editor1-first= Thomas |editor1-last=Keymer |editor2-first= Jon |editor2-last=Mee|location=Cambridge |publisher=University Press|date= 2004}}
* {{cite book | last = Verberckmoes | first = Johan | title = Geschiedenis van de Britse eilanden | publisher = Uitgeverij Acco Leuven | year = 2007 | location = Leuven | isbn = 978-90-334-6549-9|language=nl|trans-title=The History of the British Isles }}
*{{cite book|last=White|first=T.H.|author-link=T.H. White|title=The Age of Scandal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b1KV1AqECPcC|year=1950|publisher=Putnam|location=New York}}
{{refend}}

== Further reading ==
{{Refbegin}}
* Frank, Frederick, "Introduction" in ''The Castle of Otranto''.
* {{cite book|last=Gwynn|first= Stephen|title=The Life of Horace Walpole|date=1932|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.176376 }}
* Hiller, Bevis. [https://web.archive.org/web/20190912044930/https://web.archive.org/web/20050511041837/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3724/is_199609/ai_n8739134 findarticles.com Who's Horry now?] ''The Spectator'', 14 September 1996
* {{In lang|it}} Carlo Stasi, ''Otranto e l'Inghilterra (episodi bellici in Puglia e nel Salento)'', in 'Note di Storia e Cultura Salentina', anno XV, pp.&nbsp;127–159, (Argo, Lecce, 2003)
* {{In lang|it}} Carlo Stasi, ''Otranto nel Mondo'', in 'Note di Storia e Cultura Salentina', anno XVI, pp.&nbsp;207–224, (Argo, Lecce, 2004)
* {{In lang|it}} Carlo Stasi, ''Otranto nel Mondo, dal 'Castello' di Walpole al 'Barone' di Voltaire'' (Editrice Salentina, Galatina 2018) {{ISBN|9788831964067}}
{{Refend}}

== External links ==
{{Commons|Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford}}
{{Wikiquote|Horace Walpole}}
{{Wikisource author}}
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/horace-walpole}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=358| name=Horace Walpole}}
** [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4609 The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 1] (1735–1748)
** [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4610 The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 2] (1749–1759)
** [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4773 The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 3] (1759–1769)
** [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4919 The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 4] (1770–1797)
** [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12073 Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume I] (1736–1764)
** [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12074 Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume II] (1764–1795)
** [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/696 The Castle of Otranto]
* {{Internet Archive author}}
* {{Librivox author |id = 4690 }}
* [http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/authors/pers00042.shtml Horace Walpole] at the [http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/ Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)]
* [http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4587 The Literary Encyclopedia.]
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Walpole, Horatio | volume= 28 |last1= Courtney |first1= William Prideaux |author1-link= William Prideaux Courtney | pages = 288&ndash;290 |short=1}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110927012644/http://www.friendsofstrawberryhill.org/ The Friends of Strawberry Hill]
* [http://museum.org.uk/detail.asp?ContentID=140 The Twickenham Museum – Horace Walpole]{{Dead link|date=October 2016}}
* {{cite web |url = http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/furniture/stories/walpole/index.html |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070701004905/http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/furniture/stories/walpole/index.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=1 July 2007 |title=The Walpole Cabinet |work=Furniture |access-date=12 August 2007 }}
* {{npg name}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20191024083930/http://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/851822 Lord Carr Hervey (1691–1723) as a Youth]. (National Trust Collections).
* {{cite web |url = http://www.walpolesociety.org.uk/index.shtml |title = The Walpole Society |access-date = 4 April 2013 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120716224147/http://www.walpolesociety.org.uk/index.shtml |archive-date = 16 July 2012 |url-status = dead }}
* [https://archive.org/details/HoraceWalpole "The View From Strawberry Hill: Horace Walpole and the American Revolution"]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20170328022334/http://walpole.library.yale.edu/collections/digital-collections/horace-walpole-correspondence Horace Walpole Correspondence | Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University]
* {{UK National Archives ID}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-par|gb}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Thomas Coplestone]]|before2=[[Isaac le Heup]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=Member of Parliament for [[Callington (UK Parliament constituency)|Callington]]|years=1741–1754|with=[[Thomas Coplestone]] (1741–1748)|with2=[[Edward Bacon (died 1786)|Edward Bacon]] (1748–1754)}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Sewallis Shirley (1709–1765)|Sewallis Shirley]]|after2=[[John Sharpe (MP)|John Sharpe]]}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Robert Knight, 1st Earl of Catherlough|The Lord Luxborough]]|before2=[[Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Suffolk|Thomas Howard]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=Member of Parliament for [[Castle Rising (UK Parliament constituency)|Castle Rising]]|years=1754–1757|with=[[Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Suffolk|Thomas Howard]]}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Suffolk|Thomas Howard]]|after2=[[Charles Boone (died 1819)|Charles Boone]]}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Sir John Turner, 3rd Baronet|Sir John Turner, Bt]]|before2=[[Horatio Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford|Horatio Walpole]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=Member of Parliament for [[Kings Lynn (UK Parliament constituency)|Kings Lynn]]|years=1757–1768|with=[[Sir John Turner, 3rd Baronet|Sir John Turner, Bt]]}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Sir John Turner, 3rd Baronet|Sir John Turner, Bt]]|after2=[[Thomas Walpole]]}}
{{s-reg|gb}}
{{s-bef|before=[[George Walpole, 3rd Earl of Orford|George Walpole]]|rows=4}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Earl of Orford]]|years=1791–1797|creation=2nd creation}}
{{s-non|reason=Extinct|rows=3}}
{{s-brk}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Earl of Orford|Viscount Walpole]]|years=1791–1797}}
{{s-brk}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Baron Walpole]]|years=1791–1797|creation=of Houghton}}
{{s-brk}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Baron Walpole]]|years=1791–1797|creation=of Walpole}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Horatio Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford|Horatio Walpole]]}}
{{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walpole, Horace}}
[[Category:1717 births]]
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[[Category:Children of prime ministers of Great Britain]]
[[Category:Earls in the Peerage of Great Britain|Orford, Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of]]
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[[Category:MPs for rotten boroughs]]
[[Category:People educated at Eton College]]
[[Category:People from Houghton, Norfolk]]
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[[Category:Walpole family|Horace]]
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[[Category:Writers of Gothic fiction]]
[[Category:Younger sons of earls]]