entered the House of
Commons in 1741 as Member for Callington in Cornwall, and afterwards sat
for the family boroughs of Castle Rising and King's Lynn, but although
he took a considerable interest in politics, public life was not
congenial to his pursuits and tastes, and in 1767 he resigned his seat
in Parliament. In his earlier days he was a Whig with a strong leaning
to republicanism, but the public events of his later years greatly
modified his views. It has been well said of him that 'he was an
aristocrat by instinct and a republican by caprice.' On the death of his
nephew, George, the third Earl, in 1791, he succeeded to the earldom,
but he never took his seat in the House of Lords, and seldom signed his
name as Orford. He died at his house in Berkeley Square on the 2nd of
March 1797, and was buried at Houghton, the family seat in Norfolk.

In 1747 Walpole purchased the remainder of the lease of a small house
which stood near the Thames 'just out of Twickenham,' popularly called
Chopped-Straw Hall, on account of its having been the residence of a
retired coachman of an Earl of Bradford, who was supposed to have made
his money by starving his master's horses. On the 5th of June 1747
Walpole writes to Sir Horace Mann, that although 'the house is so small
that I can send it to you in a letter to look at, the prospect is as
delightful as possible, commanding the river, the town (Twickenham), and
Richmond Park, and being situated on a hill descends to the Thames
through two or three little meadows, where I have some Turkish sheep and
two cows, all studied in their colours for becoming the view.' This
cottage grew into the Gothic mansion of Strawberry Hill, the erection
and embellishment of which formed for so many years the principal
occupation and amusement of Walpole's life. Here he collected works of
art and curiosities of every kind--pictures, miniatures, prints and
drawings, armour, coins, and china, together with a fine library of
about fifteen thousand volumes, chiefly of antiquarian and historical
subjects. These he acquired with the emoluments of three sinecure
offices which his father had obtained for him.

[Illustration: VIGNETTE OF STRAWBERRY HILL. Used in books printed at
Walpole's Press.]

In 1757 Walpole set up a printing-press in a small cottage adjoining his
residence, and this continued in use until his death in 1797. Gray's
_Odes_, in a handsome quarto, was the first of a large number of works
and