Walpole, Horace or Horatio, 4th earl of Orford, 1717–97, English author; youngest son of Sir Robert Walpole Walpole, Robert, 1st earl of Orford, 1676–1745, English statesman.
Early Life and Career
He was the younger son of a prominent Whig family of Norfolk.
..... Click the link for more information. . Educated at Eton and Cambridge, he toured the Continent with his friend Thomas Gray Gray, Thomas, 1716–71, English poet. He was educated at Eton and Peterhouse, Cambridge. In 1739 he began a grand tour of the Continent with Horace Walpole. They quarreled in Italy, and Gray returned to England in 1741.
..... Click the link for more information. from 1739 to 1741, when the two quarreled and parted. He was elected to Parliament in 1741 and served until 1767, confining himself largely to the role of spectator and defender of his father's memory. In 1747 he acquired a country house, Strawberry Hill, near Twickenham, where he built a pseudo-Gothic castle, which became the showplace of England. He was reconciled with Gray in 1745 and later published his friend's Pindaric odes, as well as many first editions of his own works from the private printing press he started at Strawberry Hill in 1757. Walpole's literary reputation rests primarily on his letters, which have great charm and polish and are invaluable pictures of Georgian England. More than 3,000 of his correspondences are extant and cover a period extending from 1732 to 1797. Among his more famous correspondents are Gray, Sir Horace Mann, Thomas Chatterton, and Mme Du Deffand Du Deffand, Marie de Vichy-Chamrond, marquise , 1697–1780, French woman of letters, whose salon was frequented (1753–80) by the leaders of the Enlightenment. She is widely considered the most brilliant woman of her era.
..... Click the link for more information. . Walpole succeeded to the earldom of Orford in 1791. Besides his enthusiasm for medieval architecture and trappings, he anticipated the romanticism of the 19th cent. with his Gothic romance The Castle of Otranto (1765). His other important works include Historic Doubts on Richard III (1768), an attempt to rehabilitate the character of Richard; Anecdotes of Painting in England (4 vol., 1762–71); and posthumous works, Reminiscences (1798) and memoirs of the reigns of George II (1822) and George III (1845, 1859).
(born Sept. 24, 1717, London, Eng.—died March 2, 1797, London) English writer, connoisseur, and collector. The son of prime minister Robert Walpole, he had an undistinguished career in Parliament. In 1747 he acquired a small villa at Twickenham that he transformed into a pseudo-Gothic showplace called Strawberry Hill; it was the stimulus for the Gothic Revival in English domestic architecture. His literary output was extremely varied. He became famous for his medieval horror tale The Castle of Otranto (1765), the first Gothic novel in English. He is especially remembered for his private correspondence of more than 3,000 letters, most addressed to Horace Mann, a British diplomat. Intended for posthumous publication, they constitute a survey of the history, manners, and taste of his age.
He was the younger son of a prominent Whig family of Norfolk.
..... Click the link for more information. . Educated at Eton and Cambridge, he toured the Continent with his friend Thomas Gray Gray, Thomas, 1716–71, English poet. He was educated at Eton and Peterhouse, Cambridge. In 1739 he began a grand tour of the Continent with Horace Walpole. They quarreled in Italy, and Gray returned to England in 1741.
..... Click the link for more information. from 1739 to 1741, when the two quarreled and parted. He was elected to Parliament in 1741 and served until 1767, confining himself largely to the role of spectator and defender of his father's memory. In 1747 he acquired a country house, Strawberry Hill, near Twickenham, where he built a pseudo-Gothic castle, which became the showplace of England. He was reconciled with Gray in 1745 and later published his friend's Pindaric odes, as well as many first editions of his own works from the private printing press he started at Strawberry Hill in 1757. Walpole's literary reputation rests primarily on his letters, which have great charm and polish and are invaluable pictures of Georgian England. More than 3,000 of his correspondences are extant and cover a period extending from 1732 to 1797. Among his more famous correspondents are Gray, Sir Horace Mann, Thomas Chatterton, and Mme Du Deffand Du Deffand, Marie de Vichy-Chamrond, marquise , 1697–1780, French woman of letters, whose salon was frequented (1753–80) by the leaders of the Enlightenment. She is widely considered the most brilliant woman of her era.
..... Click the link for more information. . Walpole succeeded to the earldom of Orford in 1791. Besides his enthusiasm for medieval architecture and trappings, he anticipated the romanticism of the 19th cent. with his Gothic romance The Castle of Otranto (1765). His other important works include Historic Doubts on Richard III (1768), an attempt to rehabilitate the character of Richard; Anecdotes of Painting in England (4 vol., 1762–71); and posthumous works, Reminiscences (1798) and memoirs of the reigns of George II (1822) and George III (1845, 1859).
Bibliography
See Yale edition of the letters ed. by W. S. Lewis (vol. 1–48; 1937–83).
Walpole, Horace, 4th earl of Orford
orig. Horatio Walpole)
Horace Walpole, detail of an oil painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1757; in the City of Birmingham …
(credit: Courtesy of Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery)
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