Chapter I: Front Matter

HORACE WALPOLE

_After Rosalba_

HORACE WALPOLE

_A MEMOIR_

WITH AN APPENDIX OF BOOKS PRINTED AT THE STRAWBERRY-HILL PRESS

BY

AUSTIN DOBSON

NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY

PUBLISHERS

_Copyright, 1890_,
BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY.

University Press:
JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE

The Walpoles of Houghton.--Horace Walpole born, 24
September, 1717.--Lady Louisa Stuart's Story.--Scattered
Facts of his Boyhood.--Minor Anecdotes--'La
belle Jennings.'--The Bugles.--Interview with
George I. before his Death.--Portrait at this time.--Goes
to Eton, 26 April, 1727.--His Studies and Schoolfellows.--The
'Triumvirate,' the 'Quadruple Alliance.'--Entered
at Lincoln's Inn, 27 May, 1731.--Leaves
Eton, September, 1734.--Goes to King's College, Cambridge,
11 March, 1735.--His University Studies.--Letters
from Cambridge.--Verses in the _Gratulatio_.--Verses
in Memory of Henry VI.--Death of Lady Walpole,
20 August, 1737 1

CHAPTER II.

Patent Places under Government.--Starts with Gray on the
Grand Tour, March, 1739.--From Dover to Paris.--Life
at Paris.--Versailles.--The Convent of the Chartreux.--Life
at Rheims.--A _Fête Galante_.--The
Grande Chartreuse.--Starts for Italy.--The tragedy
of Tory.--Turin; Genoa.--Academical Exercises at
Bologna.--Life at Florence.--Rome; Naples: Herculaneum.--The
Pen of Radicofani.--English at Florence.--Lady
Mary Wortley Montagu.--Preparing for Home.--Quarrel
with Gray.--Walpole's Apologia; his Illness,
and return to England. 27

CHAPTER III.

Gains of the Grand Tour.--'Epistle to Ashton.'--Resignation
of Sir Robert Walpole, who becomes Earl of
Orford.--Collapse of the Secret Committee.--Life at
Houghton.--The Picture Gallery.--'A Sermon on
Painting.'--Lord Orford as Moses.--The 'Ædes
Walpolianæ.'--Prior's 'Protogenes and Apelles.'--Minor
Literature.--Lord Orford's Decline and Death;
his Panegyric.--Horace Walpole's Means. 57

CHAPTER IV.

Stage-gossip and Small-talk.--Ranelagh Gardens.--Fontenoy
and Leicester House.--Echoes of the '45.--Preston
Pans.--Culloden.--Trial of the Rebel Lords.--Deaths
of Kilmarnock and Balmerino.--Epilogue
to _Tamerlane_--Walpole and his Relatives.--Lady
Orford.--Literary Efforts.--The Beauties.--Takes a
House at Windsor. 82

CHAPTER V.

The New House at Twickenham.--Its First Tenants.--Christened
'Strawberry Hill.'--Planting and Embellishing.--Fresh
Additions.--Walpole's Description
of it in 1753.--Visitors and Admirers.--Lord Bath's
Verses.--Some Rival Mansions.--Minor Literature.--Robbed
by James Maclean.--Sequel from _The
World_.--The Maclean Mania.--High Life at Vauxhall.--Contributions
to _The World_.--Theodore of
Corsica.--Reconciliation with Gray.--Stimulates his
Works.--The _Poëmata-Grayo-Bentleiana_.--Richard
Bentley.--Müntz the Artist.--Dwellers at Twickenham.--Lady
Suffolk and Mrs. Clive. 107

CHAPTER VI.

Gleanings from the _Short Notes_.--_Letter from Xo Ho._--The
Strawberry Hill Press.--Robinson the Printer.--Gray's
_Odes_.--Other Works.--_Catalogue of Royal
and Noble Authors._--_Anecdotes of Painting._--Humours
of the Press.--_The Parish Register of
Twickenham._--Lady Fanny Shirley.--Fielding.--_The
Castle of Otranto._ 141

CHAPTER VII.

State of French Society in 1765.--Walpole at Paris.--The
Royal Family and the Bête du Gévaudan.--French
Ladies of Quality.--Madame du Deffand.--A Letter
from Madame de Sévigné.--Rousseau and the King of
Prussia.--The Hume-Rousseau Quarrel.--Returns to
England, and hears Wesley at Bath.--Paris again.--Madame
du Deffand's Vitality.--Her Character.--Minor
Literary Efforts.--The _Historic Doubts_.--The
_Mysterious Mother_.--Tragedy in England.--Doings
of the Strawberry Press.--Walpole and Chatterton. 166

CHAPTER VIII.

PAGE

Old Friends and New.--Walpole's Nieces.--Mrs.
Damer.--Progress of Strawberry Hill.--Festivities
and Later Improvements.--_A Description_, etc., 1774.--The
House and Approaches.--Great Parlour, Waiting
Room, China Room, and Yellow Bedchamber.--Breakfast
Room.--Green Closet and Blue Bedchamber.--Armoury
and Library.--Red Bed-chamber, Holbein
Chamber, and Star Chamber.--Gallery.--Round
Drawing Room and Tribune.--Great North Bed-chamber.--Great
Cloister and Chapel.--Walpole on
Strawberry.--Its Dampness.--A Drive from Twickenham
to Piccadilly. 201

CHAPTER IX.

Occupations and Correspondence.--Literary Work.--Jephson
and the Stage.--_Nature will Prevail._--Issues
from the Strawberry Press.--Fourth Volume
of the _Anecdotes of Painting_.--The Beauclerk Tower
and Lady Di.--George, third Earl of Orford.--Sale
of the Houghton Pictures.--Moves to Berkeley Square.--Last
Visit to Madame du Deffand.--Her Death.--Themes
for Letters.--Death of Sir Horace Mann.--Pinkerton,
Madame de Genlis, Miss Burney, Hannah
More.--Mary and Agnes Berry.--Their Residence at
Twickenham.--Becomes fourth Earl of Orford.--_Epitaphium
vivi Auctoris._--The Berrys again.--Death
of Marshal Conway.--Last Letter to Lady Ossory.--Dies
at Berkeley Square, 2 March, 1797.--His Fortune
and Will.--The Fate of Strawberry. 232

CHAPTER X.

Macaulay on Walpole.--Effect of the _Edinburgh_ Essay.--Macaulay
and Mary Berry.--Portraits of Walpole.--Miss
Hawkins's Description.--Pinkerton's Rainy
Day at Strawberry.--Walpole's Character as a Man;
as a Virtuoso; as a Politician; as an Author and Letter-writer. 271

APPENDIX 299

INDEX 325

HORACE WALPOLE:

A Memoir.