1717-1797
[Sidenote: _Walpoliana._]
“The person of Horace Walpole was short and slender, but compact and
neatly formed. When viewed from behind he had somewhat of a boyish
appearance, owing to the form of his person, and the simplicity of his
dress. His features may be seen in many portraits; but none can express
the placid goodness of his eyes, which would often sparkle with sudden
rays of wit, or dart forth flashes of the most keen and intuitive
intelligence. His laugh was forced and uncouth, and even his smile not
the most pleasing. His walk was enfeebled by the gout; which, if the
editor’s memory do not deceive, he mentioned he had been tormented
with since the age of twenty-five.... This painful complaint not only
affected his feet, but attacked his hands to such a degree that his
fingers were always swelled and deformed.... His engaging manners and
gentle endearing affability to his friends exceed all praise.”
[Sidenote: Cunningham’s _Letters of Walpole_. *]
“The person of Horace Walpole[6] was short and slender, but compact,
and neatly formed. When viewed from behind he had, from the simplicity
of his dress, somewhat of a boyish appearance: fifty years ago, he
says, ‘Mr. Winnington told me I ran along like a pewet.’ His forehead
was high and pale. His eyes remarkably bright and penetrating. His
laugh was forced and uncouth, and his smile not the most pleasing.
His walk, for more than half his life, was enfeebled by the gout,
which not only affected his feet, but attacked his hands. Latterly
his fingers were swelled and deformed, having, as he would say, more
chalk-stones than joints in them, and adding with a smile, that he
must set up an inn, for he could chalk a score with more ease and
rapidity than any man in England.... His entrance into a room was
in that style of affected delicacy which fashion had made almost
natural--_chapeau bras_ between his hands as if he wished to compress
it, or under his arm, knees bent, and feet on tiptoe, as if afraid of
a wet floor. His summer dress of ceremony was usually a lavender suit,
the waistcoat embroidered with a little silver, or of white silk worked
in the tambour, partridge silk stockings, gold buckles, ruffles, and
lace frills. In winter he wore powder. He disliked hats, and in his
grounds at Strawberry would even in winter walk without one. The same
antipathy, Cole tells us, extended to a greatcoat.”
[Sidenote: Hawkins’s _Memoirs_.]
“His figure was not merely tall, but more properly long and slender to
excess; his complexion, and particularly his hands, of a most unhealthy
paleness. His eyes were remarkably bright and penetrating, very dark
and lively: his voice was not strong, but his tones were exceedingly
pleasant, and if I may say so, highly gentlemanly. I do not remember
his common gait; he always entered a room in that style of affected
delicacy which fashion had then made almost natural--_chapeau bras_
between his hands, as if he wished to compress it, or under his arm,
knees bent, and feet on tiptoe, as if afraid of a wet floor. His
dress in visiting was most usually, in summer, when I most saw him,
a lavender suit, the waistcoat embroidered with a little silver, or
of white silk worked in the tambour, partridge silk stockings, and
gold buckles, ruffles and frill generally lace. I remember, when a
child, thinking him very much under-dressed, if at any time, except in
mourning, he wore hemmed cambric. In summer, no powder, but his wig
combed straight, and showing his very smooth, pale forehead, and queued
behind; in winter, powder.”