Horace Walpole
Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797) was an English art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and Whig politician. He is now largely remembered for Strawberry Hill, the home he built in Twickenham, south-west London where he revived the Gothic style some decades before his Victorian successors, and for his Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto. Along with the book, his literary reputation rests on his Letters, which are of significant social and political interest. He was the son of Sir Robert Walpole, and cousin of the 1st Viscount Nelson.
Read more about Horace Walpole: Early Life: 1717–1739, Grand Tour: 1739–1741, Early Parliamentary Career: 1741–1754, Strawberry Hill, Later Parliamentary Career: 1754–1768, Later Life: 1768–1788, Last Years: 1788–1797, Writings, Formal Styles From Birth To Death
Famous quotes by horace walpole:
“Love sits enthroned in Clara’s eyes,
The Graces play her lips around,
And in her cheeks the tendrest dyes
Of lilly mixed with rose are found.
Where charms so irresistless throng
What mortal heart can try resistance?
But ah! her nose is two feet long,
And bids our passions keep their distance.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“Pedants make a great rout about criticism, as if it were a science of great depth, and required much pains and knowledge—criticism however is only the result of good sense, taste and judgment—three qualities that indeed seldom are found together, and extremely seldom in a pedant, which most critics are.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“Eighteen convicts being hanged in one day ... a woman was crying an account of their execution. A gentleman asked her why she said nineteen, when there had been but eighteen hanged? She replied, ‘Sir, I did not know you had been reprieved.’”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“In the drawing room [of the Queen’s palace] hung a Venus and Cupid by Michaelangelo, in which, instead of a bit of drapery, the painter has placed Cupid’s foot between Venus’s thighs. Queen Caroline asked General Guise, an old connoisseur, if it was not a very fine piece? He replied ‘Madam, the painter was a fool, for he has placed the foot where the hand should be.’”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)