lord Orford is believed by his critic to have “sneered” at every body. sneering was not his way of showing dislike.  He had very strong prejudices, sometimes adopted on very insufficient grounds, and he therefore often made great mistakes in the appreciation of character; but when influenced by such impressions, he always expressed his opinions directly, and often too violently.

The affections of his heart were bestowed on few; for in early life they had never been cultivated, but they were singularly warm, pure, and constant; characterized not by the ardour of passion, but by the constant preoccupation of real affection.  He had lost his mother, to whom he was fondly attached, early in life; and with his father, a man of coarse feelings and boisterous manners, he had few sentiments in common.  Always feeble in constitution, he was unequal to the sports of the field, and to the drinking which then accompanied them, so that during his father’s retreat at Houghton, however much he respected his abilities and was devoted to his fame, he had little sympathy in his tastes, or pleasure in his society.  To the friends of his own selection his devotion was not confined to professions or words:  on all occasions of difficulty, of whatever nature, his active affection came forward in defence of their character, or assistance in their affairs.

When his friend Conway, as second in command under Sir John Mordaunt, in the expedition to St. Maloes, partook in some degree of the public censure called forth by the failure of these repeated ill-judged attempts on the coasts of France, Walpole’s pen was immediately employed in rebutting the accusations of the popular pamphlet of the day on this subject, And establishing his friend’s exemption from any responsibility in the failure.  When, on a more important occasion, Mr. Conway was not only dismissed from being Equerry to the King, George iii., but from the command of his regiment, for his constitutional conduct and votes in the House of Commons, in the memorable affair of the legality of General Warrants for the seizure of persons and papers, Walpole immediately stepped forward, not with cold commendations of his friend’s upright and spirited conduct, but with all the confidence Of long-tried affection, and all the security of noble minds incapable of misunderstanding each other, he insisted on being allowed to share in future his fortune with his friend, and thus more than repair the pecuniary loss he had incurred.  Mr. Conway, in a letter to his brother, Lord Hertford, of this period, says “Horace Walpole has on this occasion shown that warmth of friendship that you know him capable of so, strongly, that I want words to express my sense of it;” (10) thus proving the justice he did to Walpole’s sentiments and intentions.