A Description of the Villa of Mr Horace Walpole

Description of the Villa of Mr Horace Walpole, youngest son of Sir Robert Walpole Earl of Orford, at Strawberry-Hill near Twickenham, Middlesex, with an Inventory of the Furniture, Pictures, Curiosities, &c.

An autobiographical account of his own breath-taking creation, Strawberry Hill House, Walpole describes at length what is now regarded as Britain’s finest example of Georgian Gothic revival architecture. Inspiring the first gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto, the accompanying engravings reveal the attention to detail which he lavished on the design of chambers, stairways, cabinets, secret passages, and dungeons, setting an atmospheric stage for fear and suspense.

Thomas Walpole, 1784. Layton Collection 7664

 

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