Horace Walpole

Horatio Walpole or Horace Walpole (September 24th 1717, London - March 2nd 1797), 4th Count d' Orford, wire of Robert Walpole, is a British politician writer and esthète . He wrote the castle of Otranto , which launched the vogue of the Romance black ( gothic bruise English ). One also owes him the concept of Sérendipité. Walpole is youngest wire of British the Prime Minister Robert Walpole. He studies informed with the college of Eton, then with the King' S College of Cambridge. Its Homosexualité is revealed to him rather early, and it would have had relationship with the poet Thomas Gray and Henry Fiennes Clinton, 9th count of Lincoln (future second duke of Newcastle). Gray accompanies it at the time of its Large Turn, but they quarrel, and Walpole turns over in 1741 in England, where it enters to the Parliament. It does not have any political ambition, but it remains appointed after the death of his father in 1745.

Apart from the policy of his father, it is very devoted to the king George II and with the queen Caroline, taking their party against their son, Frederick, prince de Galles, about which Walpole will speak later with resentment in its memories. The residence of Walpole, Strawberry Hill, close to Twickenham, is a whimsical whole of Style neogothic which creates a new architectural tendency. In 1764, it publishes its Roman Gothic the Castle of Otranto ( The Castle off Otranto ), creating a literary style going hand in hand with architecture. As from 1762, it makes appear its Anecdotes of paintings in England , based on the manuscript of the notes of George Vertue. Its memories of the social and political scene géorgienne, although partisanes, are a first hand source for the historians. He is also the author of the often quoted epigram: “The life is a comedy for those which think and a tragedy for those which feel. ”

His/her father was created count d' Orford in 1742. His/her older brother, Robert Walpole, 2nd count d' Orford (about 1701-1751), transmitted the title to his own son, George Walpole, 3rd count d' Orford (1730-1791). When its George nephew dies unmarried, Horace Walpole becomes the 4th count d' Orford. With died from Horace Walpole, in 1797, the title disappears with him. The family of Walpole, count d' Orford, is not related to Hugh Walpole (1884-1941), popular novelist of the XXe century.

Bibliography:

GWYNN S., The life off Horace Walpole, London: Butterworth, 1932

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