tions of secrecy. The horrible story on which it is founded he professed to have heard when young, and that it happened in archbishop's Tillotson's time: but he soon discovered that it had appeared in bishop Hall's works, and that it had actually been twice dramatised, however unfit such a shocking case of incest is to be presented to the public eye. Of this indeed the author was aware; "The subject," he says, "is so horrid, that I thought it would shock rather than give satisfaction to an audience. Still I found it so truly tragic in the two essential springs of terror and pity, that I could not resist the impulse of adapting it to the scene, though it should never be prac ticable to produce it there. I saw too that it would admit of great situations of lofty characters, and of those sudden and unforeseen strokes which have singular effect in operating a revolution in the passions, and in interesting the spectator. It was capable of furnishing not only a contrast of characters, but a contrast of vice and virtue in the same character: and by laying the scene in what age and country I pleased, pictures of ancient manners might be drawn, and many allusions to historic events introduced to bring the action nearer to the imagination of the spectator. The moral resulting from the calamities attendant on unbounded passion, even to the destruction of the criminal person's race, was obviously suited to the purpose and object of tragedy." This tragedy, however, remained for some years tolerably concealed from the public at large, until about 1783, when some person, possessed of a copy, began to give extracts from it in Woodfall's Public Advertiser, which produced the following private letter from the author, dated Berkeley-square, Nov. 8. 1783.

"Mr. H. Walpole sends his compliments to Mr. Woodfall, and does intreat him to print no more of the Mysterious Mother, which it is a little hard on the author to see retailed without his consent. Mr. Walpole is willing to make Mr. Woodfall amends for any imaginary benefit he might receive from the impression, though as copies of the play have been spread, there can be little novelty in it; and at this time the public must be curious to see more interesting articles than scenes of an old tragedy on a disgusting subject, which the author thinks so little worthy of being published, that after the first small impression, he has endeavoured to suppress it as much as lies in his power; and which he assures Mr. Woodfall he would not suffer to

be represented on the stage, if any manager was injudicious enough to think of it.

"Mr. Walpole is very sorry Mr. Woodfall dropped such a bint, as well as the extravagant preference given to him over other gentlemen of great merit, which preference Mr, Walpole utterly disclaims, as well as the other high-flown compliments which he is not so ridiculous as to like.

"Mr. Walpole trusts that Mr. Woodfall will not communicate this letter to any body, and will be much obliged to him if he will let him know what satisfaction Mr. Woodfall will expect for suppressing all farther mention of him and his play."

This letter, the original of which is now before us, is very characteristic of that double traffic which Mr. Walpole too frequently endeavoured to carry on between the public and himself, and which seems to have ended only in deceiving both. With all his efforts to 66 suppress it as much as possible," he had at this time printed the tragedy in the first volume of his collected works intended for sale, and begun some years before.

From this period no circumstance of importance occurred in the course of Mr. Walpole's life until 1791, when, by the death of his nephew, he succeeded to the title of earl of Orford. The accession of this honour, and of the fortune annexed to it, made no alteration, in any respect, in his manner of living, nor did he take his seat in the House of Peers. He still pursued the same unvaried tenor of life, devoting himself to the conversation of his friends and to the pursuits of literature. He had been early afflicted with the gout, which, as he advanced in years, acquired strength, though it did not disqualify him either for company or conversation. The same spirit of inquiry, and the same ardour of pursuit, prevailed almost to the latest period of his life. He was capable of enjoying the society of his friends until a very short time before his death, which happened on the 2d March 1797.

By his will, which contains twenty-two sheets, besides the addition of seven codicils, by one of which he directed that his body might be opened and afterwards privately interred, he bequeathed to Robert Berry, esq. and his two daughters, Mary and Agnes Berry, all his printed works and manuscripts, to be published at their discretion, and for their own emolument. To these two ladies he gives 4000l. each; and, for their lives, the house and garden late

Mrs. Clive's, with the long meadow before the same, and all the furniture there; after their deaths or marriages, to go to the same uses as Strawberry-hill; and with a restriction not to let the house for longer than a year. By the same codicil he also directs all the boxes containing his prints, books of prints, &c. to be conveyed to Strawberryhill, to remain as heir-looms appurtenant to that estate; and makes it a particular request to the person in possession of his favourite residence, that the books, and every article of furniture there, may be preserved with care, and not disposed of, nor even removed. But all the letters written to him by such of his friends as shall be living at the time of his death, are to be returned to the writers.

Strawberry-hill he bequeathed to the hon. Mrs. Anne Damer, and a legacy of 2000l. to keep it in repair, on condi tion that she resides there, and does not dispose of it to any person, unless it be to the countess dowager of Waldegrave, on whom and her heirs it is entailed. He died worth 91,000l. 3 percents. This villa of Strawberry-hill, so often mentioned, was originally a small tenement, built in 1698, by the earl of Bradford's coachman, as a lodging-house. Colley Cibber was one of its first tenants; and after him, successively, Talbot, Bishop of Durham, the marquis of Carnarvon, Mrs. Cheyevix, the toy-woman, and lord John Philip Sackville. Mr. W. purchased it 1747, began to fit it up in the Gothic style 1753, and completed it 1776. He permitted it to be shewn, by tickets, to partics of four, from May to October, between the hours of twelve and three, and only one party a day. The best concise account of this villa, and its valuable contents, that has hitherto appeared, may be found. in Mr. Lysons's "Environs of London." A catalogue raisonnée of its furniture was drawn up by the noble owner, printed at Strawberry-hill in 1774, and is now among his works. He devoted a great part of his life and fortune to the embellishment of this villa, which has long been viewed as one of the greatest curiosities near the metropolis. In it he had amassed a collection of pictures, prints, and drawings, selected with great taste.

His intervals of leisure, health, and spirits, he employed in the works above mentioned, most of which have been favourites with the public, although they are of very opposite merits. He was alternately a poet, an historian, a politician, an antiquary, and a writer of dramas and romances. Of all his works his own opinion appeared to be

humble; but this was mere affectation, for he was pertinacious in maintaining what he had once asserted: and being possessed of keen powers of controversy, he betrayed all the irascibility of the author, while he affected to be considered only as a gentleman writing for his amusement. In his latter days he determined to vindicate his claims to literary rank, and employed himself in preparing for the press that splendid and complete edition of his works, which was published the year after his death, and was bought up with avidity, as an important addition to every library. He had begun to print this edition as far back as 1768, and nearly two volumes were completed at his private press.

Of his poetry, no very high character has been formed; yet, like his prose, it often surprises by unexpected flashes of wit, and epigrammatic turns of expression and illustration, in which he evidently delighted. His "Mysterious Mother" is, indeed, of very superior merit, and has occasioned a general regret that he should have chosen a subject so unfit for public performance. For nervous, simple, and pathetic language, each appropriated to the several persons of the drama; for striking incidents; for address in conducting the plot; and for consistency of character uniformly preserved through the whole piece; the late editor of the Biographia Dramatica thinks it equal, if not superior, to any play of the last century. The "Castle of Otranto" is his only original work in prose which displays great powers. It passed through many editions, and received new popularity when the story was dramatized in 1782 by captain Jephson. It ought not to be less a favourite now, when a passion for the marvellous seems to prevail like an epidemic with the writers and readers of romance *.

In one of his letters to Mr. Cole in the British Muscum, dated March 9, 1765, he gives the following as the origin of this romance. "I waked one morning in the beginning of last June from a dream, of which 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 gothic story), and that on the uppermost bannister of a great stair-case, I saw a gigantic band in armour. In the evening I sat down, and began to write, without knowing in the least

what I intended to say or relate. The work grew on my hands, and Igrew fond of it. Add, that I was very glad to think of any thing rather than poli tics. In short, I was so engrossed with my tale, which I completed in less than two mouths, that one evening 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 hands and fingers were so weary, that I could not hold the pen to finish the sentence, but left Matilda and Isabella talking in the middle of a paragraph.”

Of his compilations, the most useful is; "The Anecdotes of Painting and Engraving." This was avowedly formed. from materials left by Vertue, but it is also evident that the arrangement, the principles, the taste, and every thing not technical, is Mr. Walpole's. It is a just complaint that he did not continue to improve and enlarge what had been so well received, what will ever be a standard book, and has, probably in no inconsiderable degree, led to the advancement of the arts in this country.

One of the predominant features in Mr. Walpole's character was, a veneration for birth and rank, to which he certainly had pretensions in the long list of his ancestors, although among them we find few distinguished benefactors to their country. This passion, however, which in his political career he joined with principles that have not been thought connected with it, led him to search after those illustrious examples in whom birth and rank have been allied with genius. His industry soon produced the pleasing compilation entitled "A Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors," which, although greatly enlarged in the edition published with his works, has been thought meagre by those who did not consider that he professed to give a catalogue only. To what size and importance might it not have swelled, had he given the lives of the authors on the scale usually allowed in biographical compilations? In this work, the chief excellence is in his characters: they are adinirable as portraits; and, like portraits, they have some of the faults, as well as beauties, of the most celebrated masters. We have often referred, and been greatly indebted, to Mr. Park's splendid, accurate, and highly improved edition of this work, published in 1806, 5 vols. 8vo.

The letters to general Conway and his other friends, which he left for publication with his works, have been much admired. They exhibit his taste, his disposition, his friendship, and all his peculiarities, to the greatest advantage. It cannot be doubted that he valued those compositions, as he had kept copies of them for so many years, with a view to publication; and as he was always of opinion that the English made a very poor figure in letter-writing, it is not unfair to suppose that he might wish to remove this reproach, with what success, it is not necessary here to inquire. It must be observed, however, that his wit has many marks of effort and labour, that it recurs too VOL. XXXI.

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