clerk, had made to illustrate the ‘Mysterious Mother.’ But the more notable events of his history between 1769 and 1797 are his succession in 1791 to the earldom of Orford at the death of the third earl, his elder brother's son, and his friendship with two charming sisters, Agnes and Mary Berry [q. v.], whose acquaintance he first made formally in 1789, nine years after the death of Madame du Deffand. Travelled, accomplished, extremely amiable, and a little French, their companionship became almost a necessity of his existence. In 1791 they established themselves with their father close to him in a house called Little Strawberry, which had formerly been occupied by an earlier friend, the actress Kitty Clive. It was even reported that rather than risk losing the solace of their society he would, at one time, have married the elder sister, Mary. But this was probably no more than a passing thought, begotten of vexation at some temporary separation. His ‘two Straw-Berries,’ his ‘Amours,’ his ‘dear Both,’ as he playfully called them, continued to delight him with their company until his death, which took place on 2 March 1797 at 40 (now 11) Berkeley Square, to which he had moved in October 1779 from Arlington Street. He left the sisters each 4,000l. for their lives, together with Little Strawberry and its furniture. Strawberry Hill itself passed to Mrs. Damer, the daughter of his friend General Conway, together with 2,000l. a year to keep it in repair. After living in it for some time she resigned it to the Countess Dowager of Waldegrave, in whom the remainder in fee was vested. It subsequently passed to George, seventh earl of Waldegrave, who sold its contents by auction in 1842. When he died four years later he left it to Frances, Countess of Waldegrave [q. v.]
Walpole was, above all, a wit, a virtuoso, and a man of quality. As a politician he scarcely counts, and it is difficult to believe that, apart from the fortunes of his father and friends, he took any genuine interest in public affairs. His critical taste was good, and as a connoisseur he would be rated far higher now than he was in those early Victorian days when the treasures of Strawberry were brought to the hammer, and the mirth of the Philistine was excited by the odd mingling of articles of real value with a good many trivial curiosities which, it is only fair to add, were often rather presents he had accepted than objects of art he had chosen himself. As a literary man he was always, and professed to be, an amateur, but the ‘Castle of Otranto,’ the ‘Mysterious Mother,’ the ‘World’ essays, the ‘Historic Doubts,’ and the ‘Anecdotes of Painting’ all show a literary capacity which only required some stronger stimulus than dilettantism to produce enduring results. If his more serious efforts, however, generally stopped short at elegant facility, his personal qualities secured him exceptional excellence as a chroniqueur and letter-writer. The posthumous ‘Memoirs’ of the reigns of George II and George III, published by Lord Holland and Sir Denis le Marchant in 1822 and 1845 respectively, the ‘Journal of the Reign of George III (1771–83),’ published by Dr. Doran in 1859, and the ‘Reminiscences’ written in 1788 for the Misses Berry, and first published in folio in 1805, in spite of some prejudice and bias, are not only important contributions to history, but contributions which contain many graphic portraits of his contemporaries. It is as a letter-writer, however, that he attains his highest point. In the vast and still incomplete correspondence which occupies Mr. Peter Cunningham's nine volumes (1857–1859), it is not too much to say that there is scarcely a dull page. In these epistles to Mann, to Montagu, to Mason, to Conway, to Lady Hervey, to Lady Ossory, to Hannah More, to the Misses Berry, and a host of others (see list in Corresp. vol. ix. p. xlvi), almost every element of wit and humour, variety and charm, is present. For gossip, anecdote, epigram, description, illustration, playfulness, pungency, novelty, surprise, there is nothing quite like them in English, and Byron did not overpraise them when he called them ‘incomparable.’
Of Walpole's person and character a good contemporary account is given in Pinkerton's ‘Walpoliana’ (vol. i. pp. xl–xlv) and the ‘Anecdotes,’ &c., of L. M. Hawkins (1822, pp. 105–6). There are many portraits of him, the most interesting of which are by J. G. Eckhardt and Sir Thomas Lawrence. The former, which hung in the blue bedchamber at Strawberry, represents him in manhood; the other in old age. There are also likenesses by Müntz, Hone (National Portrait Gallery, London), Zincke, Hogarth (at ten), Reynolds (1757), Rosalba, Falconet, Dance, and others. Walpole's ‘Works,’ edited by Mary Berry, under the name of her father, Robert Berry, were published in 1798 in 5 vols. 4to, with 150 illustrations. Of the ‘Royal and Noble Authors’ an enlarged edition was prepared by Thomas Park, in 5 vols. (London, 1806, 8vo). The standard edition of Walpole's ‘Anecdotes of Painting’ was edited by Ralph N. Wornum in 1849 (3 vols.). The ‘Memoirs
