STRAWBERRY HILL-Å BALLAD.

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At the end of the Winding Walk is a large Seat, in the form of a Shell, carved in an oak; it has a pretty appearance, and adds to the surrounding scenery.

Having furnished you, my young Friend, with this circumstantial detail of this curious and unique spot, I shall close with an humorous composition, which betrays an easy, gaiety, and a playful fancy suited to the nature of the subject:

STRAWBERRY HILL,

A BALLAD.
By William Pulteney, Earl op Bath.
Some cry up Gunnersbury,

For Sion some declare,
And some say that with Chiswick House

No Villa can compare;
But ask the Beaux of Middlesex,

Who know the country well,
If STRAWB’RY Hill, if STRAWB’ry Hill,

Don't bear away the bell?

Some love to roll down Greenwich Hill,

For this tbing and for that;
And some prefer sweet Marble Hill,

Though sure 'tis somewhat flat:
Yet Marble Hill and Greenwich Hill,

If Kitty Clive * can tell,
From STRAWB'ry Hill, from STRAWB’ry Hill,

Will never bear the bell!

* Mrs. Clive, the celebrated actress, lived near Strawberry Hill, in a house which Mr. Walpole bought, and gave to her.

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STRAWBERRY HILL-A BALLAD.

Though Surry boasts its Oatlands,

And Clermont kept so jim,
And some prefer sweet Southcote's,

'Tis but a dainty whim;
For ask the gallant Bristow,*

Who does in taste excel,
If STRAWB’RY Hul, if STRAWB'RY HILL,

Don't bear away the bell ?

Since Denham sung of Cooper's,

There's scarce a hill around
But what in song or ditty
• Is turn’d to fairy ground-
Ah, peace be with their mem'ries !

I wish them wondrous well;
But STRAWB’RY HILL, but STRAWB'RY Hul,

Must bear away the bell!

Great William | dwells at Windsor,
• As EDWARD did of old;
And many a Gaul, and many a Scot,

Have found him full as bold:
On lofty hills like WINDSOR

Such heroes ought to dwell;
Yet little folks like STRAWB'RY HILL,

Like STRAWB’RY Hill as well!

Such is STRAWBERRY HILL, together with its Curiosities; concerning which so much has been said,

* William Bristow, Esq., brother of the Countess of Buckingham, friend of Lord Bath, and a great pretender to taste.

+ William, Duke of Cumberland, who defeated the Rebels at Culloden, in 1746.

STRAWBERRY HILL

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in prose and in poetry. Elegance is its predominant feature; and its beauty may be deemed unrivalled. Most assuredly another edifice of the kind cannot be found in Great Britain. In my next epistle, its late Noble Owner will engage our attention, as well as the vicinity of Strawberry Hill.

LETTER VII.

BIOGRAPHY OF HORACE WALPOLE, LATTERLY

LORD ORFORD; STORY OF CHATTERTON, AND HIS MELANCHOLY EXIT; CURIOUS EPISTLE OF LORD ORFORD TO A LADY; AIS GREAT LOVE OF PAINTING; HIS SERMON ON PAINTING, DELIVERED AT HOUGHTON; Shee's DELINEATION OF A PAINTER; ANECDOTES OF BENJAMIN WEST; HIS EARLY GENIUS, AND SINGULAR SETTING APART TO THE PROFESSION; LITTLE STRAWBERRY HILL; MRS. KATHERINE CLIVE; HER HISTORY, MONUMENT AND EPITAPH; EXCURSIONS OF THE CORPORATION OF LONDON ON THE THAMES ; THE SWANS ON THE THAMES ; SWANS NOTICED BY HOMER, HORACE AND VIRGIL; THEIR DYING STRAINS; SIMILE BY DODDRIDGE; BAND OF GYPSIES, WITH REMARKS ON THEIR FOOD AND HABITS; TEDDINGTON ; ITS RURAL

SITUATION; ITS CHURCH; DR. STEPHEN HALES ; HISTORY AND ANECDOTES OF; HOPE OF A FUTURE LIFE; GENERAL RESURRECTION OF THE

DEAD.

Islington, July, 1810. MY DEAR YOUNG FRIEND, AGREEABLY to the promise with which I closed my last epistle, I shall proceed to give you a summary biography of the late Lord Orford: the survey that has been taken of STRAWBERRY HILL must excite a curiosity respecting him, and it shall be gratified.

HORACE WALPOLE, son of the celebrated Sir Robert Walpole, was born 1718, educated at Eton, and finished at King's College, Cambridge. In 1738 he wrote Verses to the Memory of Henry the Sixth,

HORACE WALPO

WORKS.

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which were his first production. The next year he, accompanied by Gray the poet, made a tour on the continent. From Florence he wrote an epistle to Thomas Aston, Esq. tutor to the Earl of Plyinouth, breathing an ardent spirit of liberty. Though he and Gray differed, and even parted,when abroad, yet he afterwards took the blame of the quarrel upon himself. In 1741 he entered parliament as member for Callington, in Cornwall, and evinced his filial piety by a spirited speech against a motion made by Lord Limerick for an inquiry into his father's conduct. ' But he was not fond of public life; declaring, not long before his death, that “ he was once, forty years ago, at the late Duke of Newcastle's levee, the only minister's levee, except that of his father's, at which he was ever present."

He soon turned his attention to the Fine Arts, and was bent on the indulgence of a literary curiosity. He, in 1753, became one of the fashionable contributors to the periodical paper entitled The World. And in 1758 there appeared, from his own press at STRAWBERRY Hill, his Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors, a singular appendage to literary biography. In 1761 he published, in two volumes quarto, his Anecdotes of Painting in England; two more volumes followed; and the whole is a valuable addition to the History of the Fine Arts. In 1765 appeared his Castle of Otranto, under the disguise of a translation from the Italian, but, being well received, he soon owned it. The story is very terrific