Born Sept. 24, 1717, in London; died there Mar. 2, 1797. English writer. Son of R. Walpole.

Walpole graduated from Cambridge University. From 1741 to 1767 he was a member of Parliament. In 1747 he purchased an estate, Strawberry Hill, near London, where he built a castle in the Gothic style. He became well known as a collector of works of art and as a patron of the arts. Walpole’s Gothic novel The Castle of Otranto (1765) and his tragedy The Mysterious Mother (1768) are early models of English pre-romanticism. He was also the author of A Catalogue of the Royal and Noble Authors of England (1758) and Anecdotes of Painting in England (1762–71). Walpole’s correspondence (published 1798), which spans the period 1732–97, has considerable cultural and historical value.