The selected letters of William Cowper. Edited with an introduction by Mark Van Doren

by Horace Walpole

Author of the first gothic novel and son of the first prime minister of Great Britain, Horace Walpole had wide-ranging interests that included literature, politics, world affairs, collecting, antiquities, and architecture, and to his numerous correspondents he wrote on these and other topics in prose that is celebrated for its charm, eloquence, and wit. This new Everyman's edition offers an extensive selection of Walpole's letters, helpfully arranged by subject so the reader can choose from themes including social life, the Court, politics, literature, and the evolution of his Gothic castle and art and book collections at Strawberry Hill. This edition offers new annotations throughout, with introductions to its various sections and a general introduction on Walpole as a letter writer. In addition, the text of the letters has been corrected and previously excised passages have been restored.

Genres: British Literature, 18th Century, Nonfiction

Unknown Binding

About the author

Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford — also known as Horace Walpole — 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 Lord Nelson.

Reviews

[Adam Stevenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Horace Walpole was the son of ‘Prime-Minister’ Robert Walpole and a member of parliament for twenty years. As well as socialising in political and court circles, he collected antiquities and created his own dream castle in Strawberry Hill where he published his own works, including The Castle of Otranto and the works of friends like the poet, Thomas Gray. He maintained a number of relationships by letter, including one to Horace Mann, a diplomat in Italy, for over forty years. The letters in the selection cover topics as diverse as the Gordon Riots, the death of George II, political upheaval during the American War of Independence, the joy of rooting around old churches, experiments in interior design and nights out at Vauxhall Gardens.

An interesting area of discussion is about how far the letters were written to be performance pieces and how far they were personal communications. Walpole certainly asked for some of his letters back to make copies and the more news-based ones have a journalistic quality that beg to be shared. It’s interesting to compare his descriptions of life in George III’s court to Frances Burney’s. She, being short sighted and deeply introspective dwells upon her own feelings of awkwardness but Walpole, much more at home in such settings can dwell on the details - he takes an especial pleasure in describing the women’s dresses and hats. Even in his more intimate letters he seems to be a man constructing himself by words, and it’s really interesting to see how his image of himself changes as he gets older. 

He begins as the Eton schoolboy, sporting the nickname ‘Tydeus’, a brain-eating character from Greek mythology. As the son of the British Prime-Minister, he brashly took his Grand Tour with schoolfriend Gray until they had a falling out. When he grew older, he seemed to have mellowed, making jokes about being a mediocrity, dabbling in his hobbies (if starting a craze for Gothic architecture, giving birth to Gothic literature and accumulating a sizeable collection of arts and antiquities counts as dabbling) and attending too many social functions. Leaving middle-age, many of his letters talk about how shocking it is that someone of his esteemed years can keep the extreme hours of the partying set, before reaching old age and hobbling around with gout. Throughout it all, he maintains a playful, charming, and straightforward demeanour, whether it’s talking issues of national importance or about bickering in the corridors of power.

It’s amazing that he maintained so many relationships for so many years. While he clearly had a sharp tongue and was prepared to hold a grudge along political lines, once Horace Walpole was a friend, he was one for life. His letters are adapted to his recipients. Those to Hannah Moore are full of compliments mixed with over-the-top references to her piety and saintliness. George Montagu was given society news and court gossip, though when he lazily didn’t reply to his letters the correspondence drifted to the Lady Ossory. Horace Mann received personalised newspapers of British political life, while Revd Cole had news about antiquities and new methods to relieve gout. The most personal letters probably went to Henry Conway, whom Walpole said he loved and offered significant financial aid to at various points of his life.

It is no secret that Walpole was not a fan of Johnson, describing his prose as ‘teeth crunching’ but in this section he goes fully into his dislike of our dear Sammy J. He says that his Journey to the Western Islands is ‘a heap of words to describe very little’. He describes Johnson as a ‘babbling old woman’ who ‘marshals words ridiculously’ and compares Johnson’s own elevated style to the failed elevation of Samuel ‘Maggoty’ Johnson in his surprise hit Hurlothrumbo. Indeed, Walpole made ‘a conscience of not buying’ the selections of poetry that included Johnson’s Lives, as he was not interested, and not convinced by what he would say, particularly about his dear friend Thomas Gray.

it may be expected that I might be outraged or dismayed by Walpole’s lack of appreciation for Johnson as a writer, but I am not. For one thing, I am pleased and encouraged by Walpole’s understanding of Johnson’s character; “Although he was good-natured at bottom, he was ill-natured at top.” This is an insight which explains a lot of many of Johnson’s seemingly crass statements with his altruistic actions. I’m also delighted to see someone with a different opinion of Johnson’s writing. Now, we live in a time where Johnson and his writings are established part of the canon of literature and are regarded as pure truth by some people. I love to see someone from the period who is less than convinced, who provides a dissenting voice.

Walpole also provides a dissenting voice on the genius of the actor, David Garrick. Johnson himself criticises Garrick for being only an actor and for overstepping his bounds, especially during the ill-fated Shakespeare Jubilee, but Johnson felt he was the only person qualified to criticise Garrick as they were old friends and former teacher and pupil. Walpole reveals that he didn’t find Garrick’s acting all that. He liked him in some roles, some he was less praised for but found him a ‘jackanapes’ who didn’t pull off high status roles as completely as others thought. It’s lovely to see a contemporary opinion differing from the majority. He was also a big fan of the actress Mrs Pritchard, who played the main role in Johnson’s play Irene and who Johnson thought wasn’t all that good. The fact is that when a work of art comes out, especially a popular or relatively mass-media one, the reaction isn’t homogenous even if later reputation is.

His, slightly distant, view of Goldsmith is also interesting. it seems he appreciated Goldsmith’s writing most out of all of Johnson’s circle and it makes sense. Goldsmith had the most self-consciously smooth and polished style of them all. He reports on Goldsmith’s reputation as someone with ‘parts but little common sense’. Yet, Walpole is distressed at Goldsmith’s death and sees the whole Johnson set as abandoning him, that; “His numerous friends neglected him at last, as if they had no business with him when he was too serious to laugh.” Weirdly, he thought Goldsmith could have saved himself with even more of the James’s Powders that killed him.

I also loved how Walpole regarded Boswell as a strange little leech who forced himself on anybody famous and described him the ‘quintessence of busybodies’. This quintessence would lead Boswell to create a truly remarkable biography but I am always here for a little Boswell bashing.

One thing Johnson and Walpole agreed on was The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne. Johnson thought the book was too strange to last, Walpole felt it was a fun notion to play around with in the pub but wasn’t a premise any sane man would write.

Finally, one of the things that most struck me about Walpole’s Letters was that I was reading a text that completely supported the action of Robert Walpole. The man who Eovaai cast as an evil wizard, enchanting the royal family and turning spurned lovers into baboons to be sexually tortured, who The Beggar’s Opera cast as an evil Jonathan Wilde figure, who countless eighteenth century texts cast as a money-grubbing, corrupt villain, is here, a good guy. In some ways this isn’t surprising, Horace was his son after all but in these letters he is always held up as a figure of wisdom and restraint. Horace makes repeated mention that in his father’s control of the country, the United Kingdom had a twenty-year period of economic growth, political stability and no war. One of Robert Walpole’s first acts was to end a war on a less-than generous treaty and he kept the country out of war his whole time as Prime Minister. as soon as he was engineered into retirement the country entered the Seven Years War, shortly afterwards the War of American Rebellion and then the Peninsular/Napoleonic Wars. As odd as it seems to have this notion of Robert Walpole, good statesman, Horace does make a fair argument for the stability and prosperity of his time.

Indeed, for me as a personal reader of the letters, I found they were most interesting when they presented opinions and points of view that don’t match the received wisdom we have now. Of course there were varying opinion at the time, it’s the same today, and it’s good to have them recorded. I’m still not sure Walpole would have been very fond of poor old me, however.

[Marcos Augusto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Horace Walpole, in full Horace Walpole, 4th earl of Orford, original name Horatio Walpole, (born September 24, 1717, London, England—died March 2, 1797, London), English writer, connoisseur, and collector known for his novel The Castle of Otranto (1764), the first Gothic novel in the English language and one of the earliest literary horror stories. He was perhaps the most assiduous letter writer of his era, and he built Strawberry Hill, a Gothic Revival mansion.

The youngest son of the prime minister Robert Walpole, he was educated at Eton and at King’s College, Cambridge. In 1739 he embarked with his Eton schoolmate, the poet Thomas Gray (later to write “An Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard”), on a grand tour of France and Italy, in the midst of which they quarrelled and separated. They were later reconciled, and Walpole remained throughout his life an enthusiastic admirer of Gray’s poetry. On his return to England in 1741, Walpole entered Parliament, where his career was undistinguished, although he attended debates regularly until 1768. In 1791 he inherited the peerage from a nephew, a grandson of Robert Walpole. He remained unmarried, and on his death the earldom became extinct.

The most absorbing interests of his life were his friendships and a small villa that he acquired at Twickenham in 1747 and transformed into a pseudo-Gothic showplace known as Strawberry Hill. Over the years he added cloisters, turrets, and battlements, filled the interior with pictures and curios, and amassed a valuable library. The house was open to tourists and became widely known in Walpole’s own lifetime. He established a private press on the grounds, where he printed his own works and those of his friends, notably Gray’s Odes of 1757. Strawberry Hill was the stimulus for the Gothic Revival style in English domestic architecture.

Walpole’s private correspondence of some 4,000 letters constitutes a survey of the history, manners, and taste of his age. He revered the letters of the 17th-century French writer Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné, and, following her example, consciously cultivated letter writing as an art. His most substantial correspondence was with Horace Mann, a British diplomat whom Walpole met on his grand tour and with whom he maintained contact for 45 years, although the two never met again.

[James Henderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A classic collection of correspondence from the pen of a great eighteenth century prose stylist. His letters encompass a wide range of culture and commentary on life in the eighteenth century. This is considered a classic of its kind and is a great book for serious readers.

[Moises Gutierrez · Rating 3 out of 5]

The 'Selected Letters of Horace Walpole' is an absolute must read for anyone interested in 18th century politics, architecture and literature. The fact we are able to read and get a glimpse of his life from when he was in his 20s and full of energy all the way until the end of his life where he suffered with Gout is amazing and has inspired me to start journalling when I can.

One of the nicest aspects of the book is his very open display of affection for his long time friend Sir Horace Mann, and honestly, that is how Horace carried himself generally - he was a very open individual. He made his dissatisfaction of the French revolution and the British handling of the American revolution known; even if Britain triumphed he did not believe the situation would end well for the island he called home. He was a dramatic individual, suggesting that the Empire was nearing its end (British expansion continued for many, many years after American independence), and complained about how style and manners were disappearing. However, he was surprisingly prescient in other regards, he described the East India Company as a "crew of monsters," and spoke up against the brutality of slavery.

He was humble when discussing his own contemporary works, and gave deference to widely respected people like Voltaire. In a way, I got the sense that Horace was insecure, and really concerned himself with what others thought about him, particularly after he stepped down from Parliament and essentially became yesterday's man. It was interesting therefore to catch a glimpse of his psychology, and overall, saddening to see him deal with something we all deal with - the deaths of those around him, including his dog TonTon who he looked after following the death of his friend Madame Du Duffand, who herself seemed an extremely eccentric character.

All I can say is it is a fantastic read. The funny thing is that for someone who died in 1797 thinking that he wasn't a great writer, he is still being discussed 200 odd years later.