Horace Walpole

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Horace Walpole

Letter to the Earl of Strafford about the Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown

Written on November 27, 1781; excerpted from The Best Letters of Horace Walpole, 1911

"Oh, my Lord, I have no patience with my country, and shall leave it without regret! Can we be proud when all Europe scorns us?"

Horace Walpole

In 1779, the war's action moved from the north to the south. By then, the French had agreed to openly assist the American cause. With the help of the French navy, the Americans finally achieved a stunning victory at Yorktown, Virginia, on October 19, 1781.

Back in England, the news of the surrender at Yorktown came as a complete (and unwelcome) surprise. For two years, all London had been hearing was news of a string of southern victories. Parliament, the British lawmaking body, was scheduled to return from a recess on November 27, 1781. Everyone wanted to hear what would be said about the loss at Yorktown. But King George III (1738–1820) had written his speech before he received news of the loss, and he apparently saw no reason to change it. He spoke to Parliament without mentioning the surrender. At the time, King George planned to pursue the war, but he was soon forced to give up that plan, because Parliament and British public opinion had turned against the war.

Writer and politician Horace Walpole (1717–1797), who has been called the best letter writer in the English language,

was disgusted at the news of the British surrender and at the spectacle of Parliament ignoring the news. He was moved to write a letter to a friend, an excerpt of which follows. In the letter, Walpole bemoaned the fact that England had never experienced such a humiliating defeat. He wondered if the defeat truly meant that the war was over. He complained (in a part of the letter not shown) that the newspapers talked of frivolous matters (such as what society people had worn to the opera the night before) while England was disgraced. He said the newspaper stories must be composed by young boys. He expressed his impatience with his country, which all Europe then scorned.

Things to remember while reading an excerpt from Horace Walpole's letter to the Earl of Strafford:

Walpole began writing the letters for which he became famous in 1739. 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 to 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. In his letters, Walpole also analyzed the chief figures of British politics.
In addition to being a letter writer, Walpole was a politician. He entered Parliament in 1742 and served until 1769. Walpole opposed oppression and injustice, and he spoke out in Parliament against the black slave trade as well as restrictions on the freedoms of colonists in America.
Walpole loved to travel and made frequent trips to Paris, France. It is possible that his reference to leaving the country referred to such a trip.

Excerpt from Horace Walpole's letter to the Earl of Strafford

When did England see two whole armies lay down their arms and surrender themselves prisoners? Can venal addresses efface such stigmas, that will be recorded in every country in Europe? Or will suchdisgraces have no consequences? Is not America lost to us? Shall we offer up more human victims to the demon of obstinacy ; and shall we tax ourselves deeper to furnish out the sacrifice?

Would not one think that our newspapers were penned by boys just come from school…. We are monkeys in conduct, and as clumsyas bears when we try to gambol. Oh, my Lord, I have no patience with my country, and shall leave it without regret! Can we be proud when all Europe scorns us? It was wont to envy us, sometimes to hate us, but never despised us before. (McMahan, pp. 233–34)

What happened next …

Walpole was an expert gardener and interior decorator, and he enjoyed writing about those subjects. In 1749, he had bought a building outside London called Strawberry Hill. 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.

Walpole'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 described 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 (pronounced hy-uh-ruh-GLIH-fik) means hard to understand. The book was a collection of six stories of fantasy written to amuse the children of his friends.

In 1791, 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). At the age of eighty, Walpole fell ill and died on March 2, 1797.

In March 1782, King George III finally admitted defeat and sent representatives to Paris to negotiate a treaty of peace with the Americans. The treaty was signed on September 3, 1783. In the peace treaty, Great Britain finally recognized American independence.

Did you know …

In 1764, Horace Walpole published The Castle of Otranto, which is recognized as the first Gothic novel. 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."