Twickenham.] CONTENTS OF STRAWBERRY HILL. in Old St. Paul's, parted off the "abbot's garden on the right. On the left, before the entrance to the house was reached, a small cloister had to be passed, in which were two objects of interest. The first was a bas-relief in marble of the Princess Leonora D'Este-" Dia Helionora "--with whom Tasso was in love. This was sent to Horace Walpole from Italy by Sir William Hamilton, minister at Naples. The second was the blue-and-white china tub in which Walpole's favourite cat was drowned. To the pedestal on which it stood was affixed the first stanza of Gray's well-known ode on the occasion : "'Twas on this lofty vase's side, Where China's gayest art has dy'd Gaz'd on the lake below!" 113 thirteen pages of his list. Among them were "two The chimney-piece in the Little Parlour is re Thomas Ruthall, Bishop of Durham, in Westminster Abbey. In this room, amongst other things, was the original model in terra-cotta, by Mrs. Damer, of two sleeping dogs, which she afterwards executed in marble for the Duke of Richmond. The hall, in its original condition, was small and gloomy, being lighted only by two narrow windows of painted glass. It was connected with the stair-markable as having been taken from the tomb of case, in the well of which depended a Gothic lantern. This latter, and also the balustrade, at each corner of which is an antelope (one of Lord Orford's supporters) holding a shield, were designed by Mr. Richard Bentley, the son of the learned Dr. Bentley, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. On the left of the hall, approached through a On the first landing of the staircase is a boudoir small passage, over the entrance to which is an formerly known as the Blue Breakfast Room, which ancient carving in wood of the arms of Queen contained several portraits of the Digby family and Elizabeth, is the refectory or great parlour, "hung," others. In this room was preserved the watch says Walpole himself in his description of the build-given to General Fairfax by the Parliament, after ing, "with paper in imitation of stucco!" This the battle of Naseby; also a curious picture of apartment contained several portraits of members of the family, most of which are still at Strawberry Hill, although differently placed. Amongst them may be mentioned Sir Robert Walpole, his two wives and three sons; an early production of Sir Joshua Reynolds's, called "A Conversation," representing George Selwyn, Lord Edgcombe, and G. I. Williams, all intimate friends of Walpole's; and the three beauties, the Ladies Laura, Maria, and Horatia Waldegrave, by the same eminent master. In the waiting-room was a bust of Colley Cibber, formerly the property of Mrs. Clive the celebrated actress, and after her death presented by her brother, Mr. Rastor, to Lord Orford. There was also a bust of Dryden, who was great-uncle to Catharine Shorter, Horace Walpole's mother; and a curious emblematic picture of a man standing (small whole length), with a bust of Charles II., seemingly previous to his restoration. The contents of the china-room adjoining were much prized by the owner, and fill no less than Rose, the royal gardener, presenting to Charles II. the first pine-apple raised in England. This picture was bequeathed by the grandson of Loudon, the nurseryman, to the Rev. Mr. Pennicott, of Ditton, who gave it to Walpole. On the staircase was a suit of steel armour which had belonged to Francis I. It was purchased in 1772 from the Crozat collection, on the death of the Baron de Thiers, and realised £320 5s. at the Strawberry Hill sale in 1842. Amongst other articles here were an ancient curfew, or coverfire, and the top of a warming-pan which had belonged to Charles II., with his arms and the motto "Sarve God and live for ever." The library contained a valuable collection of about 15,000 volumes, chiefly of antiquarian and historical subjects. The book-cases were modelled from the choir of Old St. Paul's, as represented by Dugdale, and the chimney-piece was copied partly from the tomb of John Eltham, Earl of Cornwall, in Westminster Abbey, and partly from that of did not retain the great man's friendship for long, for, as was the case with Walpole and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, the Misses Blount, and others, a quarrel arose between him and the lord of Strawberry Hill, which put an end to their friendship. stood the famous bust of Henry VII., designed | Walpole in putting Strawberry Hill together, yet he for his tomb by Torregiano. The chimney-piece in the Holbein Room was designed chiefly from the tomb of Archbishop Warham, at Canterbury. A part of the room is divided off by a screen, the pierced arches of which were copied from the gates of the choir of Rouen cathedral. Two highly interesting relics were preserved in this room, among them being "a very ancient chair of oak, which came out of Glastonbury Abbey ;" and "the red hat of Cardinal Wolsey, found in the great wardrobe by Bishop Burnet, when clerk of the closet. From his son, the judge, it came to the Dowager Countess of Albemarle, who gave it to Mr. Walpole." This red hat was bought by Mr. Charles Kean, the The gallery, nearly sixty feet in length, was the largest and most attractive apartment in the house. "The ceiling is taken from one of the side aisles in Henry VII.'s Chapel. The great door is copied from the north door at St. Albans, and the two smaller are parts of the same design. The side recesses, which are finished with a gold network over looking-glass, is taken from the tomb of Archbishop Bourchier at Canterbury." Leaving the gallery by its great door, we reach the new boudoir, drawing-room, and other rooms added to the house by its present owner. This new wing was built about 1860, and though erected to harmonise with the general edifice, is, it is almost needless to add, as solid and substantial as the latter is fragile. The drawing-room contains a large number of family portraits of the Waldegraves and Walpoles, and also Magni's celebrated piece of sculpture, "The Reading Girl," exhibited at the London International Exhibition of 1862. In the adjoining boudoir are a Madonna by Sasso Ferrato, and a few other pictures. A wide staircase leads from this room into the garden. The new diningroom is enriched by a large number of pictures, mostly from the old collection. Returning to the original part of the building, we pass from the further extremity of the gallery into the Round Drawing-room. The design of the chimney-piece of this room was copied from the tomb of Edward the Confessor, and executed in white marble inlaid with scagliola. The ceiling was taken from a round window in Old St. Paul's. The "Tribune" is a square room, with a semicircular recess in the middle of each side, with windows and niches, the latter taken from those on the sides of the north door of the great church at St. Albans. The roof, which is copied from the chapter-house at York, is terminated by a square of yellow glass." In this room was formerly preserved the large collection of miniatures by Petitot and other masters, and also a vast number of antiquarian objects. Among the latter was one of the seven mourning rings given at the burial of Charles I.; the dagger of Henry VIII., which was purchased by Mr. Charles Kean for £54 12s.; a pendant golden heart-shaped ornament, richly jewelled and enamelled, made in memory of the Earl of Lennox, Regent of Scotland, who was murdered in 1572. This jewel was purchased by the Queen at the sale in 1842. Here, too, was a curious silver bell, made for Pope Clement VII. by Benvenuto Cellini, "with which to curse the caterpillars." The bell came out of the collection of Leonati at Parma, and was bought by the Marquis of Rockingham. Walpole, who prized it very highly, exchanged for it all his collection of Roman coins. It was pur chased by Lord Waldegrave, at the sale in 1842, for the sum of £252. and his children, and the original sketch of "The Beggar's Opera," with portraits of Walker as Macheath, Miss Lavinia Fenton (afterwards Duchess of Bolton) as Polly, Hippesley as Peach'em, and Hall as Lockit. Among the curiosities preserved in this room was the "speculum of cannel coal" used by the famous impostor Dr. Dee in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The "Beauclerk Closet," originally hung with blue damask, is an hexagon in shape, and was built in 1776 on purpose to receive seven drawings by Lady Diana Beauclerk, in illustration of Walpole's tragedy of "The Mysterious Mother." A portrait of Lady Diana, by Powell, after Sir Joshua Reynolds, which formerly hung in this room, has been removed to the billiard-room; as also has a portrait of Mrs. Clive, by Davison, which formerly adorned the library over the Round Drawing-room, now a bedroom. So multifarious was the collection of Strawberry Hill, that no less than 113 quarto pages are devoted to the details of it in the second volume of Walpole's printed works; and in order that no visitor might be deceived as to its precise nature and definite complexion, Walpole remarked, in a letter to a friend :-"The chief boast of my collection is the portraits of eminent and remarkable persons, particularly the miniatures and enamels, which, so far as I can discover, are superior to any other collection whatever. The works I possess of Isaac and Peter Oliver are the best extant; and those I bought in Wales for three hundred guineas, are as well preserved as when they came from the pencil!" Walpole never allowed large parties to go over Strawberry Hill; he made an exception, however, in favour of great people, as shown by the following letter to the celebrated actress, Mrs. Abington: "MADAM, "You may certainly always command me and my house. My common custom is to give a ticket for only when all laws are set at nought, to pretend to prescribe rules. four persons at a time; but it would be very insolent in me, At such times there is a shadow of authority in setting the laws aside by the legislature itself; and though I have no army to supply their place, I declare Mrs. Abington may march through all my dominions at the head of as large a troop as she pleases ;—I do not say, as she can muster and command, for then I am sure my house would not hold them. The day, too, is at her own choice; and the master is her very obedient humble servant, "Strawberry Hill, June 11th, 1780." "HOR. WALPOLE. In the gardens Walpole in 1771 erected a sham chapel, but this has been demolished and removed. It was built of brick, with a front of Portland Twickenham.] BIOGRAPHY OF HORACE WALPOLE. stone, copied from the tomb of Bishop Audley in Salisbury Cathedral. Fronting the door stood a "shrine" of mosaic work, three storeys in height, having on one side, in a recess, a figure of an ancient king of France, and on the other side a figure of the Virgin Mary in bronze. On a tablet. over the doorway of the chapel the following particulars were given : "The shrine in front was brought in the year 1768 from the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, in Rome, when the new pavement was laid there. The shrine was erected in the year 1256, over the bodies of the holy martyrs, Simplicissa, Faustina, and Beatrix, by John James Capoccio and his wife, and was the work of Peter Cavalini, who made the tomb of Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey. The window was brought from the church of Bexhill, in Sussex. The two principal figures are King Henry III. and Eleanor of Provence, his queen, the only portraits of them extant. King Henry died in 1272; and we know of no painted glass more ancient than the reign of his father, King John, of Magna Charta memory." At the end of the winding walk in the garden was placed a large seat in the form of a shell, carved in an oak, which had a very pretty appear ance. That Strawberry Hill and its varied contents— its pictures, and statuary, and curiosities-should have been made the subject of verse by the aspirants for poetic fame at the end of the last century is scarcely to be wondered at. Maurice thus writes : "Hail to the Gothic roofs, the classic bow'rs, In one lov'd spot their blended charms combine, The Earl of Bath's panegyric on his son's residence is well known. The humorous composition was completed by Walpole himself. The first stanza is given as the motto to this chapter; of the remainder, as here given, Lord Bath wrote only the second stanza : "Some love to roll down Greenwich Hill, "Though Surrey boasts its Oatlands And some prefer sweet Southcote's, t "Since Denham sung of Cooper's, Is turn'd to fairy ground- "Great William | dwells at Windsor, And many a Gaul, and many a Scot, Such heroes ought to dwell; Like Strawb'ry Hill as well!" 117 In January 1772 the mansion of Strawberry Hill suffered considerably from the effects of an explosion at the powder-mills at Hounslow. Walpole thus amusingly makes mention of it in a letter to the Hon. H. S. Conway :-" The north side of the castle looks as if it had stood a siege. The two saints in the hall have suffered martyrdom. They have their bodies cut off, and nothing remains but their heads." The career of Horace Walpole may be briefly summed up thus :-Born in 1717, he was the third son of Sir Robert Walpole, by his marriage with the daughter of a Mr. John Shorter, who had been "appointed Lord Mayor of London by the special favour of King James II." Mr. Walpole was educated at Eton (where he commenced his friendship with Gray), and whence he proceeded to King's College, Cambridge. In 1738 he was appointed to a Government post, which he shortly after exchanged * Mrs. Clive, the celebrated actress, lived near Strawberry Hill, in a house which Walpole bought, and gave to her, and of which we shall have more to say hereafter. ↑ Woburn Park, near Chertsey, the seat of Mr. Philip Southcote. William Bristow, Esq., brother of the Countess of Buckingham, friend of Lord Bath, and a great pretender to taste. William, Duke of Cumberland, who defeated the rebels at Culloden in 1746. |