Editing Horace Walpole (section)

==Early life: 1717–1739==
[[File:Horace Walpole (1735) - Jonathan Richardson the Elder (Casa-Museu Medeiros e Almeida).png|thumb|left|upright|Walpole by [[Jonathan Richardson]], 1735.]]

Walpole was born in London, the youngest son of [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|British Prime Minister]] Sir [[Robert Walpole]] and his wife, Catherine. Like his father, he received early education in [[Bexley]];<ref name="richmond.gov.uk" /> in part under [[Edward Weston (politician)|Edward Weston]]. He was also educated at [[Eton College]] and [[King's College, Cambridge]].<ref name="ACAD" />

Walpole's first friends were probably his cousins Francis and [[Henry Seymour Conway|Henry Conway]], to whom he became strongly attached, especially Henry.{{sfn|Ketton-Cremer|1964|p=34}} At Eton he formed a schoolboy confederacy, the "Triumvirate", with [[Charles Lyttelton (bishop)|Charles Lyttelton]] (later an antiquary and bishop) and [[George Montagu (died 1780)|George Montagu]] (later a member of parliament and Private Secretary to Lord North). More important were another group of friends dubbed the "Quadruple Alliance": Walpole, [[Thomas Gray]], [[Richard West (poet)|Richard West]], and [[Thomas Ashton (divine)|Thomas Ashton]].{{sfn|Ketton-Cremer|1964|p=35}}

At Cambridge, Walpole came under the influence of [[Conyers Middleton]], an unorthodox theologian. Walpole came to accept the sceptical nature of Middleton's attitude to some essential Christian doctrines for the rest of his life, including a hatred of superstition and bigotry even though he was a nominal Anglican. Ceasing to reside at Cambridge at the end of 1738, Walpole left without taking a degree.{{sfn|Ketton-Cremer|1964|pp=48–49}}

In 1737, Walpole's mother died. According to one biographer, his love for his mother "was the most powerful emotion of his entire life ... the whole of his psychological history was dominated by it".{{sfn|Ketton-Cremer|1964|p=44}} Walpole did not have any serious relationships with women; he has been called "a natural celibate".{{sfn|Ketton-Cremer|1964|p=47}}

His [[sexual orientation]] has been the subject of speculation. He never married, engaging in a succession of unconsummated flirtations with unmarriageable women, and counted among his close friends a number of women such as [[Anne Seymour Damer]] and [[Mary Berry (writer, born 1763)|Mary Berry]] named by a number of sources as lesbian.{{sfn|Norton|2003|p=}}

Many contemporaries described him as effeminate (one political opponent called him "a [[hermaphrodite]] horse").{{sfn|Langford|2011}} Biographers, such as [[Lewis Walpole Library|W. S. Lewis]], Brian Fothergill, and [[Robert Wyndham Ketton-Cremer]], interpreted Walpole as [[asexuality|asexual]].{{sfn|Haggerty| 2006|pp=543–561}}

Walpole's father secured for him three [[sinecure]]s which afforded him an income: in 1737 he was appointed Inspector of the Imports and Exports in the Custom House, which he resigned to become Usher of the Exchequer, which gave him at first £3900 per annum but this increased over the years. Upon coming of age he became Comptroller of the Pipe and Clerk of the [[Estreat]]s which gave him an income of £300 per annum. Walpole decided to go travelling with Thomas Gray and wrote a will in which he left Gray all his belongings.{{sfn|Ketton-Cremer|1964|pp=49, 98}}

In 1744, he wrote in a letter to Conway that these offices gave him nearly £2,000 per annum; after 1745 when he was appointed Collectorship of Customs, his total income from these offices was around £3,400 per annum.{{sfn|Ketton-Cremer|1964|p=98}}