HORACE WALPOLE, forgotten as the fourth Earl of Orford, but remembered as the author of “The Castle of Otranto,” was born in London, October 5th, 1717. After leaving Cambridge, he traveled on the Continent, accompanied by the poet Gray; and before returning to England, spent a year at Florence. In 1741 he entered Parliament as a Liberal, but his opponents have not neglected to record that he secured lucrative sinecures through his family influence and used the revenues from them to enlarge and adorn his celebrated house on Strawberry Hill. “The Castle of Otranto,” by which he is best remembered, appeared in 1765. His “Anecdotes of Painting in England” were published between 1762 and 1771. He died March 2d, 1797. The “Elegant Epistle” intended for posterity, but pretended to be written for the sole benefit of some convenient acquaintance, was a favorite recreation of eighteenth-century “wits.” Walpole left a notable collection of such “Letters,” an edition of which, edited by Cunningham, appeared in 1857–59.