July 27, 2025 • 17 mins
Immerse yourself in Georgian England as depicted through the charming and witty letters of Horace Walpole, the 4th Earl of Orford. An active participant and keen observer of social and political life, Walpoles letters offer a vivid snapshot of the era. Virginia Woolf described him as a man who could beautifully capture every gift and foible of his time - his long life reflecting a panorama of houses, friends, wars, snuff boxes, revolutions, and lap dogs, all playing out against the serene blue sky. Join us as we delve into these valuable historical documents, brought to life by Barbara2.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Section eleven of Horace Walpole's Letters a selection. This is
a LibriVox recording or LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
About the Castle of Otranto, Bishop Percy's Old Ballads to
the Reverend William Cole Strawberry Hill, March the ninth, seventeen
(00:22):
sixty five, Desir, I had time to write at a
short note with the Castle of a Tranto, as your
messenger called on me at four o'clock, as I was
going to dine abroad. Your partiality to me and the
Strawberry have, I hope inclined you to excuse the wilderness
of the story. You will even have found some trace
(00:45):
to put you in mind of this place when you
read of the picture quitting its panel? Did you not
recollect the portrait of Lord Falkland all in white in
my gallery? Shall I even confess to you what was
the origin of this romance? I waked one morning in
the beginning of last June from a dream of which
(01:07):
all I could recover was that I had thought myself
in an ancient castle, a very natural dream for a
head filled like mine with Gothics story, and that on
the uppermost banister of the great staircase, I saw a
gigantic hand in armor. In the evening, I sat down
(01:28):
and began to write, without knowing in the least what
I intended to say or relate. The work grew on
my hands, and I grew fond of it, and that
I was very glad to think of anything rather than politics.
In short, I was so engrossed with my tale, which
I completed in less than two months, that one evening
(01:50):
I wrote from the time I had drunk my tea
about six o'clock till half an hour after one in
the morning, when my hand and fingers were so weary
that I could not hold the pen to finish the
sentence that left Matilda and Isabella talking in the middle
of a paragraph. You will laugh at my earnestness. But
(02:11):
if I have amused you by retracing with any fidelity
the manners of ancient days, I am content and give
you leave to think me as idle as you please. Ellipses,
Lord Essex's Trial is printed with the State Trials. In
return for your obliging offer, I can acquaint you with
(02:33):
a delightful publication of This Winter, a collection of old
ballads and poetry, and three volumes, many from Peepsa's collection
at Cambridge. There were three such published between thirty and
forty years ago, but very carelessly and wanting in many
of this set. Indeed, there were others of a looser sort,
(02:56):
which the present editor in square back ats Bishop Percy,
who was a clergyman, thought it decent to omit. My
bower is determined, but not at all what it is
to be, though I write romance, as I cannot tell
how to build all that belongs to them. Madame Dolmis
(03:17):
in the fairy tales used to tapestry them with junqles,
But as that furniture will not last above a fortnight
in the year, I shall prefer something more huckaback. I
have decided that the outside shall be of a trayage,
which however I shall not commence. I have again seen
(03:38):
some of Old Louis old fashioned gallantree at Versailles. Rosamond's bower,
you and I and Tom Herne know was a labyrinth,
But as my territory will admit of a very short clue,
I lay aside all thoughts of a maizy habitation. Though
(03:58):
a bower is very different from an arbor, and must
have more chambers than one. In short, I both know
and don't know what it should be. I'm almost afraid
I must go and read Spencer and wade through his
allegories in drawling stanzas to get at a picture. But
(04:20):
good night. You see how one gossips when one is
alone and a quiet on one's own dunghill. Well they
may be trifling, Yet tis such trifling as ambition never
is happy enough to know. Ambition orders palaces, But it
is content that chat's a page or two over a
(04:42):
bour Illness of George the third to the Earl of Harvard,
Arlington Street, marched the twenty sixth seventeen sixty five. Three
weeks are a great while, my dear Lord, for me
to have been without writing to you. But besides that,
I have has many days at Strawberry to cure my cold,
(05:02):
which it has done. There has nothing happened worth sending
across the sea. Politics are dozed, and common events been
fast asleep. Ellipses. The king has been very seriously ill
and in great danger. I would not alarm you, as
there were hopes when he was at the worst. I
(05:25):
doubt he is not free yet from his complaint as
the humor fallen on his breast still oppresses him. They
talk of his having a levy next week, but he
has not appeared in public, and the bills are passed
by commission, but he rides out. The royal family have
suffered like us mortals. The Duke of Gloucester has a fever,
(05:51):
but I believe his chief complaint is of a youthful kind.
Prince Frederick is thought to be in deep consumption. And
for the Duke of Cumberland, next post will probably certify
you of his death, as he has relapsed and there
are no hopes of him. He fell into his lethargy again,
and when they waked him, he said he did not
(06:13):
know whether he could call himself obliged to them. Street
Rights Ministerial changes. Two sohrace men Arlington Street made the
twenty fifth seventeen sixty five, sent by way of Paris.
My last, I think was of the sixteenth. Since that
(06:37):
we have had events of almost every sort, a whole
administration dismissed, taken again, suspended, confirmed, an insurrection, and we
have been at the eve of a civil war. Many
thousand weavers rose on a bill for their relief being
thrown out of the House of Lords by the Duke
(06:59):
of Bedford. Before days they were suffered to march about
the town with colors displayed, petitioning the King, surrounding the
House of Lords, mobbing and wounding the Duke of Bedford,
and at last besieging his house, which with his family
was narrowly saved from destruction. At last it grew a
(07:22):
regular siege and blockade, but by garrissing it with horse
and foot, literally and calling in several regiments, the tumults
appeased good butte rashly, taking advantage of this unpopularity of
his enemies, advised the King to notify to his ministers
(07:43):
that he intended to dismiss them, and by this step
no second oneum being prepared, reduced his majesty to the
alternative of laying his crown at the foot of mister Pitt,
or of the Duke of Bedford, and disapproved at last
of both, the Duke of Cumberland was sent for and
(08:06):
sent to mister Pitt, from whom, though offering almost carte blanche,
he received a peremptory refusal. The next measure was to
form a ministry from the opposition willing they were, but timid.
Without mister Pitt, nobody would engage. The King was forced
(08:29):
to desire his old ministers to stay where they were. They,
who had rallied their very dejected courage, demanded terms and
hard ones, indeed, promise of never consulting Lord Butte, dismission
of his brother, and the appointment of Lord Granby to
(08:49):
be Captain General. So soon did those tools of prerogative
talk to their exalted sovereign in the language of the
Parliament of Charles the first, the King, rather than resigned
his scepter on the first Summons, determined to name his
uncle Captain General. Thus the commanders at least were ready
(09:14):
on each side. But the ministers, who by the Treaty
of Paris showed how little military glory was the object
of their ambition, have contented themselves with seizing Saint James's
without bloodshed. They gave up their general upon condition Mister
Mackenzie and Lord Holland were sacrificed to them, and tacitly
(09:38):
Lord Northumberland, whose government they bestow on Lord Weymouth without
furnishing another place to the Earl, as was intended for him.
All this is granted, still there are inexplicable riddles. In
the height of negotiations, Lord Temple was reconciled to his
brother George and declares himself of fast friend to the
(10:01):
late and present ministry. What part mister Pittwell act is
not yet known, probably not a hostile one. But here
are fine seeds of division and animosities sown. I have
thus in six words told you the matter of volumes.
(10:24):
You must analyze them yourself, unless you have patience to
wait till the consequences are the comment. Don't you recollect
very similar passages in the time of mister Pellham, the
Duke of Newcastle, Lord Granville, and mister Fox. But those
wounds did not penetrate so deep as these. Here are
(10:48):
all the great and opulent noble families engaged on one
side or the other. Here is the king insulted in prisoner,
his mother, stigmatized, his uncle, affronted, his favorite persecuted. It
is again the scene of Baul's Montfaus and Plantagenets. When
(11:13):
I recollect all I have seen and known, I seem
to be as old as Methusnah. Indeed, I was born
in politics, but I hope not to die in them.
With all my experience, these last five weeks have taught
me more than any other ten years. Accordingly, a retreat
(11:35):
is the whole scope of my wishes. But not yet arrived.
His outlook on old Age and the Gout to George
Montague Esquire Strawberry Hill till I the twenty eighth seventy
sixty five. The less one is disposed if one has
(11:55):
any sense to talk of oneself to people that inquire
only out of com implement and do not listen to
the answer, the more satisfaction one feels in indulging a
self complacency by sighing to those that really sympathize with
our griefs. Do not think it is pain that makes
(12:16):
me give this low spirited air to my letter. No,
it is the prospect of what is to come, not
the sensation of what is passing, that affects me. The
loss of youth is melancholy enough, but to enter into
old age through the gate of infirmity most disheartening. My
(12:39):
health and spirits made me take but slight notice of
the transition, and under the persuasion of temperance being a talisman,
I marched boldly on towards the descent of the hill,
knowing I must fall at last, but not suspecting that
I should stumble by the way. This confession explains the
(13:02):
mortification I feel. A month's confinement to one who never
kept his bed is a stinging lesson, and has humbled
my insolence to almost indifference. Judge, then, how little I
interest myself about public events. I know nothing of them
since I came hither, for I had not only the
(13:25):
disappointment of not growing better, but a bad return in
one of my feet, so that I am still wrapped
up and upon a couch. It was the more unlucky.
As Lord Hartford has come to England for a very
few days, he has offered to come to me, But
as I then enture to see him only for some minutes,
(13:45):
I propose being carried to town to morrow. It will
be so long before I can expect to be able
to travel that my French journey will certainly not take
place so soon as I intended. And if Lord Hartford
goes to Ireland, I shall be still more fluctuating. For
(14:06):
though the Duke and Duchess of Richmond will replace them
at Paris, and are as eager to have me with them.
I've had so many more years heaped on me within
this month that I have not the conscience to trouble
young people when I can no longer be as juvenile
as they are. Indeed, I shall think myself to crepit
(14:27):
till I again saunter into the garden in my slippers
and without my hat, in all weathers, A point I
am determined to regain, if possible, for even this experience
cannot make me resign my temperance and my heartiness. I
am tired of the world, its politics, its pursuits, and
(14:49):
its pleasures. But it will cost me some struggles before
I submit to be tender and careful ellipses. I do
wish to dress up a withered person or drag it
about to public places, but to sit in one's room
clothed warmly, expecting visits from folks. I don't wish to
(15:12):
see and tendered and flattered by relations, impatient for one's death.
Let the gout do its worst as expeditiously as it can.
It will be more welcome in my stomach than in
my limbs. I am not made to bear a course
of nonsense and advice, but must play the fool in
my own way to the last alone with all my heart.
(15:35):
If I cannot be with the very few I wished
to see, but to depend for comfort on others who
would be no comfort to me. This surely is not
a state to be preferred to death. And nobody can
have truly enjoyed the advantages of youth, health and spirits.
Who is content to exist without the two last, which
(15:59):
alone bear any resemblance to the first. You see how
difficult it is to conquer my proud spirit. Low and
weak as I am, I think my resolution and perseverance
get the better, and that I shall still be a
gay shadow. At least I will impose any severity upon myself,
(16:21):
rather than humor the gout and sink into that indulgence
with which most people treat it. Bodily. Liberty is as
dear to me as mental and I would as soon
flatter any other tyrant as the gout, my whigism, extending
as much to my health as to my principles, and
being as willing to part with life when I cannot
(16:43):
preserve it as your uncle Algernon, when his freedom was
at stake. Adieu. End of Section eleven.
Section eleven of Horace Walpole's Letters a selection. This is
a LibriVox recording or LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
About the Castle of Otranto, Bishop Percy's Old Ballads to
the Reverend William Cole Strawberry Hill, March the ninth, seventeen
(00:22):
sixty five, Desir, I had time to write at a
short note with the Castle of a Tranto, as your
messenger called on me at four o'clock, as I was
going to dine abroad. Your partiality to me and the
Strawberry have, I hope inclined you to excuse the wilderness
of the story. You will even have found some trace
(00:45):
to put you in mind of this place when you
read of the picture quitting its panel? Did you not
recollect the portrait of Lord Falkland all in white in
my gallery? Shall I even confess to you what was
the origin of this romance? I waked one morning in
the beginning of last June from a dream of which
(01:07):
all I could recover was that I had thought myself
in an ancient castle, a very natural dream for a
head filled like mine with Gothics story, and that on
the uppermost banister of the great staircase, I saw a
gigantic hand in armor. In the evening, I sat down
(01:28):
and began to write, without knowing in the least what
I intended to say or relate. The work grew on
my hands, and I grew fond of it, and that
I was very glad to think of anything rather than politics.
In short, I was so engrossed with my tale, which
I completed in less than two months, that one evening
(01:50):
I wrote from the time I had drunk my tea
about six o'clock till half an hour after one in
the morning, when my hand and fingers were so weary
that I could not hold the pen to finish the
sentence that left Matilda and Isabella talking in the middle
of a paragraph. You will laugh at my earnestness. But
(02:11):
if I have amused you by retracing with any fidelity
the manners of ancient days, I am content and give
you leave to think me as idle as you please. Ellipses,
Lord Essex's Trial is printed with the State Trials. In
return for your obliging offer, I can acquaint you with
(02:33):
a delightful publication of This Winter, a collection of old
ballads and poetry, and three volumes, many from Peepsa's collection
at Cambridge. There were three such published between thirty and
forty years ago, but very carelessly and wanting in many
of this set. Indeed, there were others of a looser sort,
(02:56):
which the present editor in square back ats Bishop Percy,
who was a clergyman, thought it decent to omit. My
bower is determined, but not at all what it is
to be, though I write romance, as I cannot tell
how to build all that belongs to them. Madame Dolmis
(03:17):
in the fairy tales used to tapestry them with junqles,
But as that furniture will not last above a fortnight
in the year, I shall prefer something more huckaback. I
have decided that the outside shall be of a trayage,
which however I shall not commence. I have again seen
(03:38):
some of Old Louis old fashioned gallantree at Versailles. Rosamond's bower,
you and I and Tom Herne know was a labyrinth,
But as my territory will admit of a very short clue,
I lay aside all thoughts of a maizy habitation. Though
(03:58):
a bower is very different from an arbor, and must
have more chambers than one. In short, I both know
and don't know what it should be. I'm almost afraid
I must go and read Spencer and wade through his
allegories in drawling stanzas to get at a picture. But
(04:20):
good night. You see how one gossips when one is
alone and a quiet on one's own dunghill. Well they
may be trifling, Yet tis such trifling as ambition never
is happy enough to know. Ambition orders palaces, But it
is content that chat's a page or two over a
(04:42):
bour Illness of George the third to the Earl of Harvard,
Arlington Street, marched the twenty sixth seventeen sixty five. Three
weeks are a great while, my dear Lord, for me
to have been without writing to you. But besides that,
I have has many days at Strawberry to cure my cold,
(05:02):
which it has done. There has nothing happened worth sending
across the sea. Politics are dozed, and common events been
fast asleep. Ellipses. The king has been very seriously ill
and in great danger. I would not alarm you, as
there were hopes when he was at the worst. I
(05:25):
doubt he is not free yet from his complaint as
the humor fallen on his breast still oppresses him. They
talk of his having a levy next week, but he
has not appeared in public, and the bills are passed
by commission, but he rides out. The royal family have
suffered like us mortals. The Duke of Gloucester has a fever,
(05:51):
but I believe his chief complaint is of a youthful kind.
Prince Frederick is thought to be in deep consumption. And
for the Duke of Cumberland, next post will probably certify
you of his death, as he has relapsed and there
are no hopes of him. He fell into his lethargy again,
and when they waked him, he said he did not
(06:13):
know whether he could call himself obliged to them. Street
Rights Ministerial changes. Two sohrace men Arlington Street made the
twenty fifth seventeen sixty five, sent by way of Paris.
My last, I think was of the sixteenth. Since that
(06:37):
we have had events of almost every sort, a whole
administration dismissed, taken again, suspended, confirmed, an insurrection, and we
have been at the eve of a civil war. Many
thousand weavers rose on a bill for their relief being
thrown out of the House of Lords by the Duke
(06:59):
of Bedford. Before days they were suffered to march about
the town with colors displayed, petitioning the King, surrounding the
House of Lords, mobbing and wounding the Duke of Bedford,
and at last besieging his house, which with his family
was narrowly saved from destruction. At last it grew a
(07:22):
regular siege and blockade, but by garrissing it with horse
and foot, literally and calling in several regiments, the tumults
appeased good butte rashly, taking advantage of this unpopularity of
his enemies, advised the King to notify to his ministers
(07:43):
that he intended to dismiss them, and by this step
no second oneum being prepared, reduced his majesty to the
alternative of laying his crown at the foot of mister Pitt,
or of the Duke of Bedford, and disapproved at last
of both, the Duke of Cumberland was sent for and
(08:06):
sent to mister Pitt, from whom, though offering almost carte blanche,
he received a peremptory refusal. The next measure was to
form a ministry from the opposition willing they were, but timid.
Without mister Pitt, nobody would engage. The King was forced
(08:29):
to desire his old ministers to stay where they were. They,
who had rallied their very dejected courage, demanded terms and
hard ones, indeed, promise of never consulting Lord Butte, dismission
of his brother, and the appointment of Lord Granby to
(08:49):
be Captain General. So soon did those tools of prerogative
talk to their exalted sovereign in the language of the
Parliament of Charles the first, the King, rather than resigned
his scepter on the first Summons, determined to name his
uncle Captain General. Thus the commanders at least were ready
(09:14):
on each side. But the ministers, who by the Treaty
of Paris showed how little military glory was the object
of their ambition, have contented themselves with seizing Saint James's
without bloodshed. They gave up their general upon condition Mister
Mackenzie and Lord Holland were sacrificed to them, and tacitly
(09:38):
Lord Northumberland, whose government they bestow on Lord Weymouth without
furnishing another place to the Earl, as was intended for him.
All this is granted, still there are inexplicable riddles. In
the height of negotiations, Lord Temple was reconciled to his
brother George and declares himself of fast friend to the
(10:01):
late and present ministry. What part mister Pittwell act is
not yet known, probably not a hostile one. But here
are fine seeds of division and animosities sown. I have
thus in six words told you the matter of volumes.
(10:24):
You must analyze them yourself, unless you have patience to
wait till the consequences are the comment. Don't you recollect
very similar passages in the time of mister Pellham, the
Duke of Newcastle, Lord Granville, and mister Fox. But those
wounds did not penetrate so deep as these. Here are
(10:48):
all the great and opulent noble families engaged on one
side or the other. Here is the king insulted in prisoner,
his mother, stigmatized, his uncle, affronted, his favorite persecuted. It
is again the scene of Baul's Montfaus and Plantagenets. When
(11:13):
I recollect all I have seen and known, I seem
to be as old as Methusnah. Indeed, I was born
in politics, but I hope not to die in them.
With all my experience, these last five weeks have taught
me more than any other ten years. Accordingly, a retreat
(11:35):
is the whole scope of my wishes. But not yet arrived.
His outlook on old Age and the Gout to George
Montague Esquire Strawberry Hill till I the twenty eighth seventy
sixty five. The less one is disposed if one has
(11:55):
any sense to talk of oneself to people that inquire
only out of com implement and do not listen to
the answer, the more satisfaction one feels in indulging a
self complacency by sighing to those that really sympathize with
our griefs. Do not think it is pain that makes
(12:16):
me give this low spirited air to my letter. No,
it is the prospect of what is to come, not
the sensation of what is passing, that affects me. The
loss of youth is melancholy enough, but to enter into
old age through the gate of infirmity most disheartening. My
(12:39):
health and spirits made me take but slight notice of
the transition, and under the persuasion of temperance being a talisman,
I marched boldly on towards the descent of the hill,
knowing I must fall at last, but not suspecting that
I should stumble by the way. This confession explains the
(13:02):
mortification I feel. A month's confinement to one who never
kept his bed is a stinging lesson, and has humbled
my insolence to almost indifference. Judge, then, how little I
interest myself about public events. I know nothing of them
since I came hither, for I had not only the
(13:25):
disappointment of not growing better, but a bad return in
one of my feet, so that I am still wrapped
up and upon a couch. It was the more unlucky.
As Lord Hartford has come to England for a very
few days, he has offered to come to me, But
as I then enture to see him only for some minutes,
(13:45):
I propose being carried to town to morrow. It will
be so long before I can expect to be able
to travel that my French journey will certainly not take
place so soon as I intended. And if Lord Hartford
goes to Ireland, I shall be still more fluctuating. For
(14:06):
though the Duke and Duchess of Richmond will replace them
at Paris, and are as eager to have me with them.
I've had so many more years heaped on me within
this month that I have not the conscience to trouble
young people when I can no longer be as juvenile
as they are. Indeed, I shall think myself to crepit
(14:27):
till I again saunter into the garden in my slippers
and without my hat, in all weathers, A point I
am determined to regain, if possible, for even this experience
cannot make me resign my temperance and my heartiness. I
am tired of the world, its politics, its pursuits, and
(14:49):
its pleasures. But it will cost me some struggles before
I submit to be tender and careful ellipses. I do
wish to dress up a withered person or drag it
about to public places, but to sit in one's room
clothed warmly, expecting visits from folks. I don't wish to
(15:12):
see and tendered and flattered by relations, impatient for one's death.
Let the gout do its worst as expeditiously as it can.
It will be more welcome in my stomach than in
my limbs. I am not made to bear a course
of nonsense and advice, but must play the fool in
my own way to the last alone with all my heart.
(15:35):
If I cannot be with the very few I wished
to see, but to depend for comfort on others who
would be no comfort to me. This surely is not
a state to be preferred to death. And nobody can
have truly enjoyed the advantages of youth, health and spirits.
Who is content to exist without the two last, which
(15:59):
alone bear any resemblance to the first. You see how
difficult it is to conquer my proud spirit. Low and
weak as I am, I think my resolution and perseverance
get the better, and that I shall still be a
gay shadow. At least I will impose any severity upon myself,
(16:21):
rather than humor the gout and sink into that indulgence
with which most people treat it. Bodily. Liberty is as
dear to me as mental and I would as soon
flatter any other tyrant as the gout, my whigism, extending
as much to my health as to my principles, and
being as willing to part with life when I cannot
(16:43):
preserve it as your uncle Algernon, when his freedom was
at stake. Adieu. End of Section eleven.
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