HORACE WALPOLE'S ‘FASTIDIOUS PAIN’: Strawberry Hill and the Vanities of Collecting with Beornn McCarthy

The 4th Earl of Orford, Horace Walpole, was the owner of the neo-gothic manor Strawberry Hill. A fabulous icon of taste and extravagance, Strawberry Hill is a monument to 18th century fashion, and Walpole himself is a central character in any history of vanity. This lecture will introduce a famously eccentric collector, and guide its audience through the many exotic features, vain follies and foibles of Strawberry Hill.

Beornn McCarthy has lectured and tutored in English Literature and Literary Theory at the University of Melbourne and Deakin University. His research spans the 18th and 19th centuries, and is focused on the relationship between literature and collecting in this period. A Masters Graduate, he is in the final stages of his PhD at the University of Melbourne, and is preparing a monograph on the life and letters of Isaac D’Israeli.

Horace Walpole’s likeness seen on a carving at Strawberry Hill after the unveiling of the restoration of the house on 23 September 2010.

photo credit | Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images Europe.