English politician, writer and architectural designer Horatio (Horace) Walpole was BOTD in 1717. Born in London, he was the youngest son of British Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole. He grew up in luxury, attending Eton College, where he fell in love with his cousin Henry Conway, and later at Cambridge University. After a two-year Grand Tour of Europe with his friend (and possible lover) Thomas Gray, Walpole followed his father into politics, and was elected as a Member of Parliament in 1741, starting an undistinguished career in the Whig Party. He is best known for his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, thought to be the first Gothic novel in English literature. His other works include The Mysterious Mother, a tragedy with incestuous themes; the psuedo-historical study Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of King Richard the Third; and Anecdotes of Painting in England. In in 1747, he acquired a villa in Twickenham which he transformed into a Gothic edifice known as Strawberry Hill, adding cloisters, turrets, and battlements and amassing an impressive research library. He also established a private printing press, publishing his own work and Gray’s poetry, which he enthusiastically promoted. In 1791, he became the 4th Earl of Orford following the death of his nephew, though perhaps sensibly never took up his parliamentary seat in the House of Lords. A lifelong bachelor, he was infamous for his effeminacy, affected manners and fastidious dress sense, prompting one political opponent to call him “a hermaphrodite horse”. In addition to his lifelong infatuations with Conway and Gray, he is also thought to have had an affair with Henry Pelham-Clinton, 2nd Duke of Newcastle. His social circle included a number of lesbians, including his cousin Anne Seymour Damer. He died in 1797, aged 79, leaving Strawberry Hill House to Damer. A prolific letter-writer, his correspondence was first published in the 1930s, providing a lively account of 18th century social and political life, and a detailed record of his sexual crushes on his male friends.