as we are now to consider him as an author,
some account of his personal appearance may be of interest. "His
figure," says Miss Hawkins, "was not merely tall, but long and slender
to excess; his complexion, and particularly his hands, of a most
unhealthy paleness. His eyes were remarkably bright and penetrating,
very dark and lively:--his voice was not strong, but his tones were
extremely pleasant, and, if I may so say, highly gentlemanly. I do not
remember his common gait; he always entered a room in that style of
affected delicacy which fashion had then made almost natural; _chapeau
bras_ between his hands as if he wished to compress it, or under his
arm; knees bent, and feet on tiptoe, as if afraid of a wet floor. His
dress in visiting was most usually, in summer, when I most saw him, a
lavender suit, the waistcoat embroidered with a little silver, or of
white silk worked in the tambour, partridge silk stockings, and gold
buckles, ruffles and frill generally lace. I remember, when a child,
thinking him very much under-dressed, if at any time, except in
mourning, he wore hemmed cambric. In summer, no powder, but his wig
combed straight, and showing his very smooth, pale forehead, and queued
behind; in winter, powder."

Posterity has cause to regret that Horace Walpole, of all men best
fitted by personal knowledge and ability to draw a picture of the
brilliant society of his time, should have contributed no work in the
department of realistic fiction. Had the keen observation and
experience of the world so conspicuous in his letters been brought to
bear on a narrative of real life not less ably constructed than that of
"The Castle of Otranto," an addition of no little value to the social
history of the eighteenth century must have been the result. But
although Walpole attempted no novel in which he might have depicted the
fashionable life of which he was so faithful a chronicler, he yet tried
an experiment in fiction for which he was peculiarly qualified by his
antiquarian studies and his fondness for the arts and customs of feudal
times.

The object of "The Castle of Otranto" was to unite the characteristic
elements of the ancient romance with those of the modern novel. It was
attempted to introduce into a narrative constructed with modern order
and sequence, such supernatural events as controlled the incidents of
romantic fiction. To accomplish this result, it was necessary that the
_mise en scene_ should be impre