Horace Walpole was born in London on September 24, 1717. He was the youngest son of British Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole and his wife Catherine.
He was educated at Eton College and King's College, Cambridge.
Walpole went on the Grand Tour of Europe with his old Eton school-friend Thomas Gray between 1739-1741. The pair fell out and parted in Tuscany because Walpole wanted to attend fashionable parties and Gray wanted to visit all the antiquities.
They were reconciled a few years later. It was Walpole who later helped publish Gray's poetry.
Horace Walpole owned cats called Fátima, Harold, Patapan & Selima. Selima was a tortoiseshell tabby who drowned in a goldfish bowl inspiring Thomas Gray's 1748 poem "Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat Drowned in a tub Of Gold Fishes."
Walpole was a Whig Member of Parliament between 1741-67.
He settled in Twickenham in 1747 at Strawberry Hill, the house he made into a pseudo-Gothic showplace. Walpole built his "Gothick" castle in reaction to the prevailing Classical style of country houses and it started a trend of the Gothic architectural style.
Strawberry Hill had its own printing press, the Strawberry Hill Press, which supported Horace Walpole's huge literary activity.
Walpole was the author of The Castle of Otranto, published in 1764, during his tenure as MP for King's Lynn. It is considered to be the first Gothic novel a genre of literature which combines parts of both horror and romance. The literary genre would become increasingly popular in the late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth centuries.
Walpole is remembered today as perhaps the most prolific letter writer in the English language. He coined the word "serendipity" in a letter dated January 28, 1754 to his friend Horace Mann. He said it was derived from a "silly fairy tale" he had read, The Three Princes of Serendip.
Horace Walpole was a martyr and recommended sitting it out stoically. "It prevents other illnesses and prolongs life." he wrote to Horace Mann, "Could I cure the gout, should not I have a fever, a palsy or an apoplexy."
Walpole,often mentioned his "gouty Bootikins" slippers, boasting of their efficacy, which he would demonstrate by stamping his gouty foot on the marble hearth to impress his friends who were similarly afflicted.
His father was created Earl of Orford in 1742. Horace's elder brother, the 2nd Earl of Orford (c.1701–1751), passed the title on to his son, the 3rd Earl of Orford (1730–1791). When the 3rd Earl died unmarried, Horace Walpole became the 4th Earl of Orford.
Horace Walpole never married and his sexual orientation has been a matter of conjecture. He had a close coterie of male friends with whom he formed a “Committee of Taste”and engaged in a succession of unconsummated flirtations with unmarriageable women. Many contemporaries described Walpole as effeminate.
He died aged March 2, 1797 (aged 79) at Berkeley Square, London. As Horace Walpole was childless, on his death his barony of Walpole descended to his cousin of the same surname, who was created the new Earl of Orford.
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| Walpole by Sir Joshua Reynolds 1756 |
He was educated at Eton College and King's College, Cambridge.
Walpole went on the Grand Tour of Europe with his old Eton school-friend Thomas Gray between 1739-1741. The pair fell out and parted in Tuscany because Walpole wanted to attend fashionable parties and Gray wanted to visit all the antiquities.
They were reconciled a few years later. It was Walpole who later helped publish Gray's poetry.
 |
| Walpole by Rosalba Carriera, circa 1741. |
Horace Walpole owned cats called Fátima, Harold, Patapan & Selima. Selima was a tortoiseshell tabby who drowned in a goldfish bowl inspiring Thomas Gray's 1748 poem "Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat Drowned in a tub Of Gold Fishes."
Walpole was a Whig Member of Parliament between 1741-67.
He settled in Twickenham in 1747 at Strawberry Hill, the house he made into a pseudo-Gothic showplace. Walpole built his "Gothick" castle in reaction to the prevailing Classical style of country houses and it started a trend of the Gothic architectural style.
 |
| Strawberry Hill House in 2012 after restoration By Chiswick Chap |
Strawberry Hill had its own printing press, the Strawberry Hill Press, which supported Horace Walpole's huge literary activity.
Walpole was the author of The Castle of Otranto, published in 1764, during his tenure as MP for King's Lynn. It is considered to be the first Gothic novel a genre of literature which combines parts of both horror and romance. The literary genre would become increasingly popular in the late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth centuries.
Walpole is remembered today as perhaps the most prolific letter writer in the English language. He coined the word "serendipity" in a letter dated January 28, 1754 to his friend Horace Mann. He said it was derived from a "silly fairy tale" he had read, The Three Princes of Serendip.
Horace Walpole was a martyr and recommended sitting it out stoically. "It prevents other illnesses and prolongs life." he wrote to Horace Mann, "Could I cure the gout, should not I have a fever, a palsy or an apoplexy."
Walpole,often mentioned his "gouty Bootikins" slippers, boasting of their efficacy, which he would demonstrate by stamping his gouty foot on the marble hearth to impress his friends who were similarly afflicted.
His father was created Earl of Orford in 1742. Horace's elder brother, the 2nd Earl of Orford (c.1701–1751), passed the title on to his son, the 3rd Earl of Orford (1730–1791). When the 3rd Earl died unmarried, Horace Walpole became the 4th Earl of Orford.
Horace Walpole never married and his sexual orientation has been a matter of conjecture. He had a close coterie of male friends with whom he formed a “Committee of Taste”and engaged in a succession of unconsummated flirtations with unmarriageable women. Many contemporaries described Walpole as effeminate.
He died aged March 2, 1797 (aged 79) at Berkeley Square, London. As Horace Walpole was childless, on his death his barony of Walpole descended to his cousin of the same surname, who was created the new Earl of Orford.
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