Horace Walpole: A memoir With an appendix of books printed at the Strawberry Hill Press — Key Ideas to Explore

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Authors: Dobson, Austin, 1840-1921 Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2016 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Authors, English -- 18th century -- Biography; Legislators -- Great Britain -- Biography; Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- 18th century; Art -- Collectors and collecting -- Great Britain -- Biography; Nobility -- Great Britain -- Biography; Walpole, Horace, 1717-1797; Strawberry Hill Press (Twickenham, London, England); Great Britain -- History -- George II, 1727-1760 -- Biography; Great Britain -- History -- George III, 1760-1820 -- Biography; Twickenham (London, England) -- Imprints Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 74,762

Reading time 326 min

Text sections 16

For Horace Walpole: A memoir With an appendix of books printed at the Strawberry Hill Press — Key Ideas to Explore, the stored edition analysis reports 74,762 words, 5 hr 26 min estimated reading time, and 16 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 19.8 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Authors, English -- 18th century -- Biography,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #53649

Austin Dobson's 1890 memoir of Horace Walpole, drawing on letters and records to trace Walpole's life, his Strawberry Hill press, and his literary works, with particular attention to the tension between his Gothic novel and his historical writings.

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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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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Dobson's memoir of Horace Walpole opens not with a birth date but with a portrait: 'After Rosalba'—the pastel artist Rosalba Carriera—and a frontispiece that signals the book's interest in visual culture. The table of contents reveals a structure built around Walpole's social circles, his travels with Gray, and the gradual construction of Strawberry Hill. Dobson relies heavily on Walpole's own letters, quoting his self-deprecating remarks about The Mysterious Mother—'il n'y a pas de beaux sentiments'—and his claim that the tragedy's 'interest languishes from the first act to the last.' The memoir thus foregrounds Walpole's own critical voice, letting him comment on his own work.

The Strawberry Hill Press and Its Output

The appendix lists books printed at Strawberry Hill, but the excerpts show Dobson's interest in the press's intermittent activity. He notes that The Castle of Otranto and the Historic Doubts were not printed by Kirgate, Strawberry Hill's printer, while The Mysterious Mother was—in a run of only 50 copies. Dobson connects the press to Walpole's self-fashioning: the proprietor of a Gothic villa producing a Gothic novel has 'a certain congruity.' Yet he also records Walpole's own doubts about his tragedy, quoting his letter to Madame du Deffand that calls it 'des crimes, des repentis, et des horreurs.' The press emerges as a tool for limited circulation among friends, not commercial publication.

Walpole's Self-Contradictions as a Critic

Dobson highlights Walpole's shifting judgments on his own work. In a postscript to The Mysterious Mother, Walpole claims 'every scene tends to bring on the catastrophe'—contradicting his earlier admission that the play's interest 'languishes.' Dobson does not resolve this inconsistency but presents it as characteristic. He also includes Walpole's sweeping survey of English tragedy, from Shakespeare through Rowe and Southerne to Young, calling it 'a rapid and characteristic aperçu.' The memoir thus treats Walpole's critical pronouncements as data, not as settled truth, and lets readers weigh his self-assessments against the evidence of the works themselves.

The Social World of Letters and Gossip

The chapter headings promise 'Stage-gossip and Small-talk,' 'Ranelagh Gardens,' and 'High Life at Vauxhall.' Dobson embeds Walpole in a network of correspondents—Montagu, Gray, Madame du Deffand—and in events like the trial of the rebel lords after the '45. He quotes Walpole's letters about being robbed by James Maclean and the ensuing 'Maclean Mania.' The memoir does not isolate Walpole as a solitary genius; instead, it presents him as a node in a lively social and literary scene, where a tragedy's epilogue might be written for Mrs. Clive to speak 'in character.' Dobson's method is to let these details accumulate, building a portrait from the texture of daily life.

Readers coming to this memoir for a straightforward biography will find instead a layered account that foregrounds Walpole's own words and the material culture of his press. Dobson's method—quoting letters, noting contradictions, and listing the Strawberry Hill imprints—invites a skeptical engagement with Walpole's self-presentation. The book rewards those interested in how an eighteenth-century man of letters curated his own legacy, one letter and one limited edition at a time.

That rainy afternoon, Dobson’s portrait of Walpole’s careful, lettered world—the press, the little gothic flourishes—kept returning to something quieter: how a man curates his own memory. Later, half-absently, I picked up A surgeon in khaki — Story, Setting & Ideas. Different century, different ink, but the same patient hand, describing wounds and tents with Walpolean precision, as if order itself were a kind of tenderness.

James Anderson

3 weeks ago

5 out of 5 (1 User reviews )

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Tina Young - 1 month ago

{'type': 'positive', 'text': "This meticulously researched memoir of Horace Walpole paints a vivid portrait of the 18th-century writer and connoisseur. The author skillfully interweaves Walpole's personal letters, his literary achievements, and his famous Strawberry Hill Gothic villa. The appendix on the Strawberry Hill Press is a bibliophilic delight. This is a must-read for lovers of literature, art, and history, offering deep insights into the Georgian era."}

David Weaver - 2 weeks ago

{'type': 'negative', 'text': "This book reads more like a dry academic monograph than a lively biography. The author's heavy reliance on lengthy citations from Walpole's letters interrupts the flow, and the prose is often stilted. The title promises a memoir, but there's little personal perspective or critical analysis. A more engaging narrative style and fewer digressions would have made Walpole's fascinating life more accessible to general readers."}

William Mikayla Terry - 1 week ago

{'type': 'neutral', 'text': "The memoir offers a comprehensive overview of Walpole's life and intellectual pursuits, with valuable details about his correspondence and the famous Strawberry Hill. The writing is scholarly and thorough. However, at times the narrative becomes bogged down in extensive quotes and minor details, which may deter casual readers. Yet, for academics and enthusiasts, it remains a solid reference work."}