Crest.—The bust of a man in profile couped, ppr., ducally coroneted or, and from the coronet, flowing forward, a long cap gu., tasselled or, charged with a Catherine wheel of the last.
Helmet.—That of an Esquire.
Motto.—Fari quæ sentiat.
[Watts. Memoirs of the Revolution in Bengal. London, 1764.]
Horace Walpole (born 5th October 1717, died 2nd March 1797) was a younger son of Robert Walpole, Earl of Oxford, for many years Prime Minister of England. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge, and as a young man studied law. For a time Mr. Walpole served in the office of the Exchequer, and represented Callington, Castle Rising, and King's Lynn in Parliament, where the chief thing he did seems to have been that he exerted himself to save the life of Admiral Byng.
In 1792 Mr. Walpole succeeded his nephew George in the Earldom, but never took his seat in the House of Lords. On his death without heirs most of his titles became extinct, but the Barony of Walpole devolved on his cousin Horatio.
At Strawberry Hill, near Twickenham, Walpole collected a splendid library, and also a number of pictures, antiquities, and treasures of all sorts. Here also he set up a private press, at which he printed many of his own works. Many of Walpole's books are now famous; among the best known are, perhaps, the Anecdotes of Painting and the Castle of Otranto. The Strawberry Hill Collection was sold in 1840.
