These two volumes of Horace Walpole's correspondence illustrate the
breadth and variety of Walpole's friendships. The rakes, wits, and
politicians of Volume 30 are the intimates of his younger days as an
active member of the Young Club at White's and of Parliament, although
correspondences with George Selwyn and Henry Fox continue until their
deaths. Walpole's subjects in these letters are politics and gossip,
occasionally dispensed with asperity and witty allusions to entertain
Sir Charles Williams and Lord Lincoln. Volume 31 shows Walpole the
attendant of wise and spirited dowagers and later, of pretty young women
with good minds and literary tastes. Here he is soliciting the
reminiscences of Lady Suffolk, comforting and entertaining Lady Hervey,
squiring Lady Browne, teasing Lady Mary Coke and Hannah More, dispensing
gaiety and gifts to all.Eighty-one of the letters from Walpole in these
two volumes are printed for the first time and seven others first
printed in full; the correspondences with Lord Lincoln, Selwyn, Hannah
More, and Lady Browne are particularly rich in this new material.
Seventy-seven other Walpole letters, although printed in supplements to
the previous edition of Walpole letters, are integrated here for the
first time with the main body of his correspondence, as are all of
sixty-three letters to him. The appendices contain several of his
biographical sketched and other writings as well as his will.