WALPOLE, Horace. The Works of Horatio Walpole, Earl of Orford. With engraved plates. Five volumes.

With numerous plates. London: Printed for G.G. and J. Robinson, Paternoster-Row, and J. Edwards, Pall-Mall, 1798. Large quarto. Contemporary full tree calf, gilt decorated spines, title and volume numbers in gilt on contrasting red and navy blue morocco labels. Signature of James Westropp on titlepage. Some minor rubbing, wear to corners and minute traces of old worming. A very attractive set.
Contents: Volume I: Fugitive Pieces and Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors. Volume II: Castle of Otranto, Miscellaneous Description of Strawberry Hill. Volume III: Anecdotes of Painting. Volume IV: Catalogue of Engravers, Miscellanies, Prologues & Epilogue. Volume V: Correspondence. With 166 engraved plates as called for; some plates lightly spotted; lacks the three pages of directions to the binder the end of Volume V (rarely present), but an attractive set of the first issue with the titles watermarked 1797.
Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (1717-1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English writer, art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and Whig politician. He had Strawberry Hill House built in Twickenham, south-west London, reviving the Gothic style some decades before his Victorian successors. His literary reputation rests on the first Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto, and his Letters, which are of significant social and political interest. The youngest son of the first British Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, he became the 4th and last Earl of Orford on his nephew’s death in 1791. Walpole’s first friends were probably his cousins Francis and Henry Conway, to whom he became strongly attached, especially Henry. At Eton he formed a schoolboy confederacy, the “Triumvirate”, with Charles Lyttelton (later an antiquary and bishop) and George Montagu (later a member of parliament and Private Secretary to Lord North). More important were another group of friends dubbed the “Quadruple Alliance”: Walpole, Thomas Gray, Richard West and Thomas Ashton.