Walpole, Horace or Horatio
Walpole, Horace or Horatio
WALPOLE, HORACE OR HORATIO. (1717–1797). Diarist, author, politician, patron of the arts, and fourth earl of Orford. Walpole, the youngest child of Sir Robert Walpole, left an immense volume of letters and diaries that provide a fertile source for historians studying the eighteenth century. His waspish and often prejudiced observations must be treated with caution, but the memoirs in particular contain a great deal of accurate political information. The first letters were published in 1798, soon after his death, as The Works of Horatio Walpole, Earl of Orford, in five volumes edited by Robert Walpole and Mary Berry. The Reminiscences written by Mr Horace Walpole in 1788, originally published in 1819, were reedited by Paget Toynbee and published by Clarendon Press in 1924. Memoirs of the Reign of King George II first appeared in 1822 and were published again, in an edition by John Brooke, by Yale University Press, in 1985. Memoirs of the Reign of King George III followed in 1845; these were reedited by Derek Jarrett and published by Yale University Press in 2000. The Last Journals of Horace Walpole appeared in 1859, followed by a revised edition in 1910. Although he entered Parliament in 1754, his political activities were marginal.
SEE ALSO Walpole, Sir Robert.
revised by John Oliphant