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 CHAPTER VI. 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 CHAPTER VII. 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 CHAPTER VIII. PAGE 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 CHAPTER IX.