This was afterwards still more exemplified in his “Anecdotes of Painting in England,” of which the different volumes were published in 1761, 1763, and 1771; and in the “Catalogue of Engravers,” published in 1763.  These works were compiled from papers of Vertue, the engraver; but Walpole, from the stores of his own historical knowledge, from his taste in the fine arts, and his happy manner of sketching characters, rendered them peculiarly his own.  But his masterpiece in this line was his “Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors,” originally published in 1758.  It is very true, as Walter Scott observes, that “it would be difficult, by any process or principle of subdivision, to select a list of so many plebeian authors, containing so very few whose genius was worthy of commemoration.” (38) But this very circumstance renders the merit of Walpole the greater, in having, out of such materials, composed a work which must be read with amusement and interest, as long as liveliness of diction and felicity in anecdote are considered ingredients of amusement in literature.

In 1757 Walpole established a private printing-press at Strawberry Hill, and the first work he printed at it was the Odes of Gray, with Bentley’s prints and vignettes.  Among the handsomest and most valuable volumes which subsequently issued from this press, in addition to Walpole’s own Anecdotes of Painting, and his description of Strawberry Hill, must be mentioned the quarto lucan, with the notes of Grotius and Bentley; the Life of Lord Herbert of Cherbury by himself, flentzner’s Travels, and Lord Whitworth’s account of Russia.  Of all these he printed a very limited number.  It does not, however, appear, as stated in the Biographical Dictionary, (39) he reserved all the copies as presents; on the contrary, it would seem that in most instances he sold a certain portion of the copies to the booksellers, probably with a view of defraying the expenses of his printing establishment.  As, however, the supply in the book-market of the Strawberry Hill editions was very small, they generally sold for high prices, and a great interest was created respecting them.

In 1764 Walpole published one of the most remarkable of his works, “The Castle of Otranto;” and in 1768 his still more remarkable production, “The Mysterious Mother.” (40) In speaking of the latter effort of his genius, (for it undoubtedly deserves that appellation,) an admirable judge of literary excellence has made the following remarks; “It is the fashion to underrate Horace Walpole firstly, because he was a nobleman, and secondly, because he was a gentleman:  but, to say nothing of the composition of his incomparable letters, and of “The Castle of Otranto,” he is the Ultimus Romanorum, the author of the ‘Mysterious Mother,’ a tragedy of the highest order, and not a puling love-play:  he is the father of the first romance, and of the last tragedy in our language, and surely worthy of a higher place than any living author, be he who he may.” (41)