A Description of the Villa at Strawberry Hill

Strawberry Hill, Horace Walpole's 'little castle' southwest of London is the finest building in the Gothick style - the playful antiquarianism that flourished at the end of the eighteenth century. Here Walpole established his 'Committee of Taste', collected furiously, and wrote the first Gothic horror novel, 'The Castle of Otranto'. Although the villa was popular with tourists from its inception, Walpole published the Description not so much as a guide to the building as a record of its design and of its bewilderingly rich contents. Only 30 copies were printed in Walpole's lifetime, and many of these were kept for friends. This facsimile contains the final version of the text and the 26 engravings commissioned by Walpole as the definitive images of his paper castle: views of the house, the garden, the principal rooms, individual details of the decoration, and plans. A preface by Michael Snodin and an extensive essay by Stephen Clarke explain the fascinating context of this important book.