retains and must continue to retain. It is as a letter-writer that he survives; and it is upon the vast correspondence, of which, even now, we seem scarcely to have reached the limits, that is based his surest claim volitare per ora virum. The qualities which are his defects in more serious productions become merits in his correspondence; or, rather, they cease to be defects. No one looks for prolonged effort in a gossipping epistle; a weighty, reasoning is less important than a light hand; and variety pleases more surely than symmetry of structure. Among the little band of those who have distinguished themselves in this way, Walpole is in the foremost rank,nay, if wit and brilliancy, without gravity or pathos, are to rank highest, he is first. It matters nothing whether he wrote easily or with difficulty; whether he did, or did not, make minutes of apt illustrations or descriptive incidents the result is delightful. For diversity of interest and perpetual entertainment, for the constant surprises of an unique species of wit, for happy and unexpected turns of phrase, for graphic characterization and clever anecdote, for playfulness, pungency, irony, persiflage, there is nothing in English like his correspondence. And when one re

members that, in addition, this correspondence constitutes a sixty-years' social chronicle of a specially picturesque epoch by one of the most picturesque of picturesque chroniclers, there can be no need to bespeak any further suffrage for Horace Walpole's 'incomparable letters.'

APPENDIX.

BOOKS PRINTED AT THE STRAWBERRY HILL PRESS.

**

*The following list contains all the books mentioned in the Description of the Villa of Mr. Horace Walpole, etc., 1784, together with those issued between that date and Walpole's death. It does not include the several title-pages and labels which he printed from time to time, or the quatrains and verses purporting to be addressed by the Press to Lady Rochford, Lady Townshend, Madame de Boufflers, the Miss Berrys, and others. Nor does it comprise the pieces struck off by Mr. Kirgate, the printer, for the benefit of himself and his friends. On the other hand, all the works enumerated here are, with three exceptions, described from copies either in the possession of the present writer, or to be found in the British Museum and the Dyce and Forster Libraries at South Kensington.

1757.

Odes by Mr. Gray. dar, Olymp. II.

Povávra ovveroisɩ— Pin[Strawberry Hill Bookplate.] Printed at Strawberry Hill, for R. and J. Dodsley in Pall-Mall, MDCCLVII.

Half-title, 'Odes by Mr. Gray. [Price one Shilling.]'; Title as above; Text, pp. 5-21. 4to. 1,000 copies printed. 'June 25th [1757], I erected a printing-press at my house at Strawberry Hill.' ‘Aug. 8th, I published two Odes by Mr. Gray, the first production of my press' (Short Notes). And with what do you think we open? Cedite, Romani Impressores, with nothing under Graii Carmina. I found him [Gray] in town last week: he had brought his two Odes to be printed. I snatched them out of Dodsley's hands'. . . (Walpole to Chute, 12 July, 1757). 'I send you two copies (one for Dr. Cocchi) of a very honourable opening of my press, two amazing Odes of Mr. Gray; they are Greek, they are Pindaric, they are sublime! consequently, I fear, a little obscure' (Walpole to Mann, 4 Aug., 1757). 'You are very particular, I can tell you, in liking Gray's Odes; but you must remember that the age likes Akenside, and did like Thomson! Can the same people like both?' (Walpole to Montagu, 25 Aug., 1757).

To Mr. Gray, on his Odes. [By David Garrick.]

Single leaf, containing six quatrains (24 lines). 4to. Only six copies are said to have been printed;