HORACE WALPOLE AND HIS WORLD [Illustration: _Sir T. Laurence. Pinx._ _A. Dawson. Ph. Sc._ _W. Evans. Sc._ _Horace Walpole._] HORACE WALPOLE AND HIS WORLD _SELECT PASSAGES FROM HIS LETTERS_ EDITED BY L. B. SEELEY, M.A. _Late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge_ _WITH EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS AFTER_ SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS AND SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE LONDON SEELEY, JACKSON, AND HALLIDAY, 54, FLEET STREET 1884 CONTENTS. PAGE CHAPTER I. Introduction--Birth and Parentage--Education--Appointments--Travels--Parliamentary Career--Retirement--Fortune--Strawberry Hill--Collections--Writings--Printing Press--Accession to Title--Death--Character--Political Conduct and Opinions--The Slave Trade--Strikes--Views of Literature--Friendships--Charities--Chatterton--Letters 1 CHAPTER II. Country Life--Ranelagh Gardens--The Rebel Lords--The Earthquake--A Frolic at Vauxhall--Capture of a Housebreaker--Strawberry Hill--The Beautiful Gunnings--Sterne 33 CHAPTER III. A new Reign--Funeral of the late King--Houghton revisited--Election at Lynn--Marriage of George III.--His Coronation 62 CHAPTER IV. General Taste for Pleasure--Entertainments at Twickenham and Esher--Miss Chudleigh’s Ball--Masquerade at Richmond House--The Gallery at Strawberry Hill--Balls--The Duchess of Queensberry--Petition of the Periwig-makers--Ladies’ Head-gear--Almack’s--“The Castle of Otranto”--Plans for a Bower--A late Dinner--Walpole’s Idle Life--Social Usages 78 CHAPTER V. The Gout--Visits to Paris--Bath--John Wesley--Bad Weather--English Summers--Quitting Parliament--Madame du Deffand--Human Vanity--The Banks of the Thames--A Subscription Masquerade--Extravagance of the Age--The Pantheon--Visiting Stowe with Princess Amelia--George Montagu--The Countess of Ossory--Powder-Mills Blown up at Hounslow--Distractions of Business and Pleasure 99 CHAPTER VI.