Horace Walpole

Born September 24, 1717
London, England
Died March 2, 1797
London, England

Writer, historian, politician

Horace Walpole was a brilliant eighteenth-century man of letters. An accomplished writer of essays, Walpole was also an expert in the fields of history, art history (particularly painting), and gardens. His Memoirs, which he wrote secretly from about 1751 to 1791, is one of the greatest sources of information about the political history of his time.

Horace Walpole, born in London, England, on September 24, 1717, was the fourth child and youngest son of the great British prime minister Sir Robert Walpole, First Earl of Orford, and Catherine Shorter Walpole. The child was christened Horatio, but he disliked the name, preferring to be called Horace.

Young Walpole enjoyed the advantages of wealth and family influence. After his early schooling, in 1727 Walpole went on to attend the highly respected Eton College. There he began a long friendship with Thomas Gray, who later became a famous poet. After leaving Eton in 1734, Walpole attended King's College at Cambridge, England. While at Cambridge, he took a leave of absence to spend time with his sick mother, who died in 1737.

The next year, Walpole published Verses in Memory of King Henry VI: the Founder of King's College, Cambridge. The poems are notable for Walpole's expression of hostility toward the Roman Catholic Church and for foreshadowing his later commitment to the style of writing known as Gothic. Gothic writing uses medieval settings (from the Middle Ages) to produce an effect of horror and mystery.

Comes into money, tours Europe

In the summer of 1738, Walpole's father gave him a substantial source of income in the form of sinecures (pronounced SIN-uh-cures), titles or positions that provide profit without involving much work or responsibility, which lasted throughout his lifetime. Walpole used some of his newly gained fortune to indulge his love for building things and collecting art objects. He also enjoyed gambling.

Walpole was a man of average height for the times, about five-feet-seven, thin, with pale skin and very bright eyes. His personality was lively, he dressed elegantly, and he spoke with a pleasant, though somewhat high-pitched voice. He was a brilliant and sensitive person; although he enjoyed conversing with people of all ages and backgrounds, he required the approval and affections of only a few people very close to him. He was honest and generous, and enjoyed surrounding himself with beautiful objects. He once said, "I would buy the Coliseum [of Rome] if I could."

In 1739 Walpole embarked with his friend Thomas Gray (the poet) on a grand tour of Europe. Personality differences caused them to quarrel during the trip, but the two men remained lifelong friends.

Begins correspondence, writes poem

The year 1739 was also when Walpole began writing the letters for which he became famous. Throughout his life, Walpole wrote thousands of letters in which he made observations on politics, literature, major events that took place throughout Europe and America, and the gossip of his day. Specialists use his letters as an important reference on the eighteenth century. The letters commented on such diverse subjects as the discovery of the planet Uranus, Benjamin Franklin's experiments with electricity, ballooning, prison reform, and social customs, to name just a few topics. In them Walpole also analyzed the chief figures of British politics.

The people with whom Walpole mainly corresponded, besides his friend Thomas Gray, were Horace Mann, the American educator; various noblemen and noblewomen; poets, biographers, and friends from college; his close friend in his later years, Mary Berry; and Madame du Deffand, a witty Parisian woman who was sixty-nine years old when they began their fourteen-year exchange of letters. More than 4,000 of Walpole's letters have been printed.

In 1740 Walpole wrote An Epistle to Mr. Ashtron from Florence. This poem was a piece of satirical writing that reflected his deeply held political and religious commitment to Protestantism and to the Hanovers, the family that ruled England from 1714 until 1901. Satirical writing ridicules individuals or groups by pointing out their stupidities or abuses.

Walpole in Parliament

In 1742 Walpole became a Member of Parliament (the English law-making body) for the Borough of Callington in the section of England known as Cornwall. He kept that post until 1754, but he would remain in Parliament for fifteen more years. While in Parliament Walpole fought oppression and injustice, speaking out against the black slave trade as well as restrictions on the freedoms of colonists in America.

Walpole's primary concern in Parliament, though, was helping to promote the career of his first cousin and closest friend, Henry Seymour Conway. Conway was to become a field marshal in the military, a British secretary of state, and leader of the House of Commons, the lower house of Parliament. Because of Conway's painstaking efforts at getting the hated Stamp Act of 1765 repealed, the towns of Conway in New Hampshire and Massachusetts were named after him. The Stamp Act forced American colonists to pay taxes to England on a variety of papers and documents, including newspapers, so the British government could raise funds to pay off its war debts. It was the first direct tax ever imposed by Great Britain on the Americans, who rioted in opposition. Walpole himself was very much opposed to the Stamp Act and supportive of the Americans' fight for fair treatment by the British government (see box on p. 465).

In 1742 Sir Robert Walpole, Horace's father, resigned from his post as first lord of the treasury and British Prime Minister. He was then made Earl of Orford. On March 23, 1742, Walpole gave his first speech in the House of Commons, the lower house of Parliament, in defense of his father, who was being attacked by his political enemies. Robert Walpole died in March 1745.

Develops Strawberry Hill

In 1747 Horace Walpole leased a building at Strawberry Hill, Twickenham. The property, ten miles west of London, was a forerunner of the kinds of suburbs that are common near London today. He bought the building two years later.

Strawberry Hill was a pioneer achievement for Walpole. He remodeled it in an architectural style that later became known as Victorian Gothic; the style became popular in Europe and the United States. Walpole's house featured towers, arches, painted glass, a chapel, a library, and a notched roof. Its interior featured collections of pictures, furniture, and decorative "curiosities," as well as books of all sorts. Strawberry Hill is also noteworthy because it contained the first printing press located in an English private house.

Creates art catalogue, begins memoirs

In 1747 Walpole wrote Aedes Walpolianae: or A Description of the Collection of Pictures at Houghton Hall in Norfolk. This catalogue of the outstanding collection of pictures at Robert Walpole's home was the first catalogue of its kind in England and served as Horace Walpole's memorial to his father. The book also contained Walpole's "Sermon on Painting," in which he discussed the merits of various styles of painting.

Walpole began writing his political memoirs as a record of happenings based on his personal observations and knowledge in 1751. From February to September 1753, he sent nine written contributions to a publication called The World. They were satires on such diverse subjects as landscape gardening, letter writing, and the politeness shown by the robbers who stole money from him, among other topics.

Walpole described himself in a March 1775 letter to Richard Bentley as an alert but detached spectator. He wrote, "In short, the true definition of me is that I am a dancing senator—not that I do dance, or do anything by being a senator; but I go to balls and to the House of Commons—to look on: and you will believe when I tell you that I really think the former the more serious occupation of the two: at least the performers are more in earnest." This passage is typical of Walpole's type of wit and occasional sarcasm.

Literary critic Martin Kallich warned readers about this passage; in it Walpole gave an impression of himself as an amateur who only dabbled in politics or art. Kallich pointed out in his biography of Walpole that "he was really very deeply committed to these areas of activity, as his history and memoirs … and his literary and art criticism … conclusively demonstrates."

Protests injustice of British government

From 1754 to 1757 Walpole was a Member of Parliament, first for Castle Rising, Norfolk, then for another area in England called King's Lynn. During this time, he made an effort to save the life of a man named Admiral Byng. Byng had been given a military trial and was scheduled to be executed for the wartime loss to the French of the Mediterranean island of Minorca.

Walpole was unable to save Byng's life, so in May 1757 wrote A Letter for Xo Ho, a serious satire on the cruelty of the British government for executing the man. Walpole always showed sympathy for the underdog and tried to protect individuals from being the targets of unfair acts of power by superior forces. Walpole thought the punishment given Byng was unjust and that the man had been used as a scapegoat for the mistakes of the British government.

Prints collections of his writings, an art history, a Gothic novel

In April 1758 Walpole printed A Catalogue of the Royal and Noble Authors of England. The book lists the works of various royal and noble authors and gives accounts of interesting and curious events in their lives. Later that year, Fugitive Piecesin Verse and Prose appeared. It is a collection of a number of Walpole's earlier poems along with various articles on political subjects and other never-before printed essays.

In 1762 Walpole began writing Anecdotes of Painting in England, but it was not completed until 1771. The book provides a history of English art, including painting, architecture, sculpture, engraving, and other forms, from the earliest times to the mid-1700s.

Walpole's Castle of Otranto, which is recognized as the first Gothic novel, appeared in 1764. It portrays everyday characters caught up in incidents that have supernatural elements. About the writing of this novel Walpole commented that he "had a dream, of which all I could recover was that I had thought myself in an ancient castle … and that on the uppermost bannister of a great staircase I saw a gigantic hand in armour. In the evening I sat down, and began to write, without knowing in the least what I intended to … relate."

Travels to France, writes historical work and tragedy

Walpole enjoyed traveling in continental Europe, and in the summer of 1765 he went to France. In Paris he met Madame du Deffand, who was blind. Deffand had been part of the dazzling court life of France in the early eighteenth century. In 1750, after the death of her husband, she had moved to Paris and was at the center of a large and distinguished group of socialites and thinkers that had begun to diminish by the 1760s. Walpole loved Paris and made four more visits to see Deffand, the last in 1775. The two grew to share a closeness and affection that lasted for many years.

The last year Walpole served in Parliament was 1768. In February of that year he wrote Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of King Richard III. The book sought to justify the life of the British king despite the many crimes he was accused of. That same year Walpole completed The Mysterious Mother, which was printed at Strawberry Hill. The tragic drama tells the story of a woman's deliberate violation of the taboo against incest (sexual contact between closely related blood relatives).

Books on gardening and architecture

Walpole was an expert gardener and interior decorator, and he enjoyed writing about those subjects. The History of the Modern Taste in Gardening, which he wrote some time before 1770, revealed the change in the popular attitude toward nature, particularly landscape gardening, that took place in the mid-1700s. During that time the popular, old-fashioned symmetrical gardens gave way to the more irregular types of gardens in the landscaping of English parks.

The author's A Description of the Villa of Horace Walpole at Strawberry Hill appeared in 1774. It was enlarged in 1784, then again in 1786. The book describes Walpole's unique and rather whimsical house; he wrote in the preface, "It was built to please my own taste, and in some degree to realize my own visions." The next year Walpole printed Hieroglyphic Tales. (Hieroglyphic means hard to understand.) The book is a collection of six stories of fantasy written to amuse the children of his friends.

Declining years

In 1791, upon the death of his nephew, seventy-four-year-old Walpole became the fourth Lord Orford. By then he was troubled by various ailments common to the elderly. His final years were saddened by the violent deaths of many of his friends in France who were killed by angry revolutionaries during the French Revolution (1789–99).

Walpole spent much of his time entertaining and playing cards. As a very old man he developed a close friendship with the Berry sisters, two young women in their twenties named Mary and Agnes. They were intelligent, pretty, well-bred, charming, and interested in his stories of the past. Walpole called them his "twin wives" or his "dear both," and gave them a cottage on his property to live in. The never-married elderly man spent many happy hours in their company.

At the age of eighty Walpole fell ill and died on March 2, 1797. He was buried at Houghton in Norfolk, England. In his will he left the cottage on his property to its inhabitants, the Berry sisters.

Becomes a controversial figure

Walpole became a controversial figure after his death. Thomas Macaulay, a nineteenth-century English historian and politician, wrote a negative summation of Walpole's character. According to Kallich, Macaulay found Walpole "incapable of sincerity; odd and incompetent; a poor judge of character who 'sneered at everybody' and whose opinions about men and things, 'wild, absurd, and ever-changing' were almost worthless." Macaulay's observations on Walpole were once widely quoted and even widely believed. But in more recent times, historians have called Macaulay's writings about Walpole unfair and distorted. Today Walpole is looked upon as a more direct, consistent, kinder, and wiser man than the people in the nineteenth century believed him to be; his achievements are also more highly valued.

The famous British novelist Virginia Wolfe once observed about Walpole: "Somehow he was not only the wittiest of men, but the most observant and not the least kindly; and among the writers of English prose he wears forever and with a peculiar grace a [crown] of his own earning."

For More Information

Boatner, Mark M., III. "Walpole, Horatio or Horace." Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1994, pp. 1160-61.

Kallich, Martin. Horace Walpole. New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1971.

Ketton-Creme, R. W. Horace Walpole: A Biography. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1964.

Knollenberg, Bernhard. "Walpole: Pro-American." Horace Walpole: Writer, Politician, and Connoisseur. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1967, pp. 85-90.

Walpole, Horace. Selected Letters of Horace Walpole. Introduction by W. S. Lewis. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1973, pp. xi-xix.

Web Sites

"Horace Walpole." Richmond Upon Thames Local Studies Collection. [Online] Available http:www.richmond.gov.uk/leisure/libraries/wal.html (accessed on 10/13/99).

Walpole Champions Cause of American Revolutionaries

Throughout the American Revolution (1775–83), Horace Walpole was a strong supporter of the rights of Americans (he was unusual in Great Britain for calling them Americans, not "colonists"). He opposed British government attempts to force the colonists to pay taxes while having no say in the way they were governed.

Beginning in 1774, after news of the Boston Tea Party reached England, Walpole's letters reflected an intense interest in American affairs. The Boston Tea Party was an act of protest against British taxation in which Americans threw hundreds of chests of tea into the Boston, Massachusetts Harbor.

In a letter to American educator Horace Mann in August 1775, Walpole wrote, "If England prevails [in forcing the Americans to pay taxes], English and American liberty is at an end!" Walpole always hated war, and believed that the British government had unjustly provoked the Revolutionary War. According to Bernhard Knollenberg: "The ground for Walpole's fear that British victory would destroy liberty in America is self-evident [it requires no proof or explanation]. Once Parliament, by force of arms, established its asserted authority to tax the colonies as it pleased, what was to prevent it from exploiting the colonies as ruthlessly as the East India Company … with the [approval] of Parliament, [was] exploiting India?—a development which Walpole had followed with horrified attention."

Many historians agree that even before the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, a great many Englishmen, perhaps even the majority, opposed England's efforts to force the colonists to pay what Americans viewed as unjust taxes. After France had entered into the Revolutionary War, the war's expense increased for the British and the likelihood of their winning decreased. By that point, most British people likely favored peace, even if it meant that America would gain its independence. Knollenberg pointed out, however, that "for about two years between the middle of 1776 and the middle of 1778, Walpole must have felt himself pretty much a 'loner,' and whatever may be thought of the rightness of his position, deserving of admiration for his [courage] in outspokenly maintaining it through thick and thin."

Historian Mark Boatner said that certain of Walpole's works are of special interest to those studying the American Revolution. They are edited by various authorities, and appear under the titles Memoirs of the Last Ten Years of the Reign of George II (1846), Memoirs of the Reign of King George III (4 volumes, 1845; re-edited in 1894), and Journal of the Reign of George III from 1771 to 1783 (2 volumes, 1859, reedited in 1909).