Plot, rules, nor even poetry, are not half so great beauties in tragedy or comedy as a just imitation of nature, of character, of the passions and their operations in diversified situations.

Early life: 1717–1739
Walpole was born in London the youngest son of British Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole and his wife Catherine. Upon coming of age he became Comptroller of the Pipe and Clerk of the Estreats which gave him an income of £300 per annum.

He is now largely remembered for Strawberry Hill the home he built in Twickenham south-west London where he revived the Gothic style some decades before his Victorian successors and for his Gothic novel The Castle of Otranto. Horatio Walpole 4th Earl of Orford (24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797) was an English art historian man of letters antiquarian and Whig politician. Along with the book his literary reputation rests on his Letters which are of significant social and political interest.