Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Oxford (1717-97), British politician and author. Horatio was born in London, youngest son of prime minister Robert Walpole. He was educated at Eton and at King's College, Cambridge. After taking the Grand Tour of Europe, he returned to England and was elected member of parliament for Callington, Cornwall. In 1748 he bought Strawberry Hill, a house at Twickenham in west London. He commenced to rebuild it in a neo-gothic style, starting a trend that reached its peak in Victorian times. He also wrote one of the earliest Gothic novels, The Castle of Otranto. This engraving was published in 'Portraits of Illustrious Personages of Great Britain' by Edmund Lodge in 1835.