Walpole
Walpole names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Walpole HORACE, EARL OF OXsha Sir Robert Walpole
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
HORACE , EARL OF OXsha Sir Robert Walpole; born in London, Sept. 24, 1717; was educated at Eton, and which he traveled two years on the Con- King's College, Cambridge, on leaving tinent in company with Gray the poet. of Commons and sat for various consti- Returning in 1741 he entered the House tuencies up to 1768. He always took a lively but superficial interest in politics, inclining sentimentally to extreme opinions. In 1747 he purchased "Strawberry Hill," near London, where he erected a Gothic villa, laid out the grounds with minute ingenuity, and made it a principal business of his life to adorn and furnish it with objects of curiosity and antiquarian interest . His maintenance pointments. In 1757 he established a was provided for by some sinecure apprivate printing press at "Strawberry Hill," at which he printed not only his own works but those of others . In 1791 he succeeded his nephew in the peerage. He never took his seat in the House of Lords, and appears to have avoided using his title. The works of Horace Walpole are numerous; but his fame as a writer rests on his "Letters" and "Memoirs." The former are held to be unsurpassed HORACE WALPOLE in the English language, and both are highly interesting and valuable as a storehouse of the more evanescent traits of contemporary history. His romance, "The Castle of Otranto," is also well known. He died in London, March 2, 1797.
Walpole SIR ROBERT, EARL OF OXFORD
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
SIR ROBERT, EARL OF OXFORD, an English statesman; younger son Sir Robert Walpole; born in Houghton, England, Aug. 26, 1676; was educated at Eton, and at King's College, Cambridge; succeeded to the paternal estate in 1700, and entered Parliament as member for Castle Rising. In 1702 he was elected for King's Lynn, became an active member of the Whig party, and soon distinguished himself by his business capacity, and by his debates. In 1712 he was expelled from Parliament for breach of trust and corruption, and sent to the Tower, but was returned to his seat the following year. He was Secretary of War and leader in the House of Commons in 1708, paymaster of the forces in 1714 and 1720, and first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer in 1715, and again in 1721, and prime minister from 1715-1717 and from 1721-1742. During his long administration the Hanoverian succession, to which he was zealously attached, became firmly established, a result to which his prudence and political sagacity largely contributed. He relieved the weight of taxation by many improvements in the tariff. In 1724 he was made a Knight of the Bath, in 1726 a Knight of the Garter, and in 1742 was created Earl of Orford. As. able monograph on Walpole has been published by John Morley. He died in Houghton, England, March 18, 1745.
Walpole HUGH SEYMOUR, a British author
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
HUGH SEYMOUR, a British author, born in 1884, son of the Bishop of Edinburgh. He finished his education at Cambridge bridge University, and almost immediately tely took up literature as his life vocation, publishing his first novel, "The Wooden Horse," at the age of twenty-five. After the outbreak of the World War he went to Russia as a member of the Red Cross, where he incidentally gathered the material for the novel which gained him his first wide popularity among intellectual readers, "The Secret City" (1919), the city indicated in the title being Petrograd. He has also written, "Maradick at Forty" (1910); "The Prelude to the Adventure" (1912); "The Dark Forest" (1916); and "Jeremy" (1919).
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's in 1921 introduced Hugh Walpole as a rising novelist of 37 with "The Secret City" behind him; he went on to be knighted in 1937, wrote the Herries chronicles, and died in 1941, after which his reputation collapsed almost completely — helped by Somerset Maugham's cruel caricature of him as Alroy Kear in "Cakes and Ale" (1930). Horace Walpole's letters, which the entry already called "unsurpassed in the English language," were finally gathered in the 48-volume Yale Edition of his correspondence edited by W. S. Lewis, published between 1937 and 1983, and his "Castle of Otranto" is now taught as the founding text of the Gothic novel; his Gothic villa at Strawberry Hill was restored and reopened to visitors in 2010. Note that Collier's headline calls Sir Robert "Earl of Oxford" while its own text correctly gives Orford; modern accounts also date his premiership from 1721 to 1742 rather than crediting the earlier 1715–17 spell, and treat him as Britain's first prime minister and the first occupant of 10 Downing Street.
Written for this edition, 2026.