A friend of Mr. Walpole’s has observed, that “his epistolary talents have shown our language to be capable of all the grace and all the charms of the French of Madame de S`evign`e;” (47) and the remark is a true one, for he is undoubtedly the author who first proved the aptitude of our language for that light and gay epistolary style, which was before supposed peculiarly to belong to our Gallic neighbours.  There may be letters of a higher order in our literature than those of Walpole.  Gray’s letters, and perhaps Cowper’s, may be taken as instances of this; but where shall we find such an union of taste, humour, and almost dramatic power of description and narrative, as in the correspondence of Walpole?  Where such happy touches upon the manners and characters of the time?  Where can we find such graphic scenes, as the funeral of George the Second; as the party to Vauxhall with Lady Harrington; as the ball at Miss Chudleigh’s, in the letters already published; or as some of the House of Commons’ debates and many of the anecdotes of society in those now offered to the world?  Walpole’s style in letter-writing is occasionally quaint, and sometimes a little laboured; but for the most part he has contrived to throw into it a great appearance of ease, as if he wrote rapidly and without premeditation.  This, however, was by no means the case, as he took great pains with his letters, and even collected, and wrote down beforehand, anecdotes, with a view to their subsequent insertion.  Some of these stores have been discovered among the papers at Strawberry Hill.  The account of the letters of Walpole leads naturally to some mention of his friends, to whom they were addressed.  These were, Gray the poet, Marshal Conway, his elder brother, Lord Hertford, George Montagu, Esq., the Rev. William Cole, Lord Strafford, Richard Bentley, Esq., John Chute, Esq., Sir Horace Mann, Lady Hervey, and in after-life, Mrs. Hannah More, Mrs. Damer, and the two Miss Berrys.  His correspondence with the three latter ladies has never been published; but his regard for them, and intimacy with them, are known to have been very great.  Towards Mrs. Damer, the only child of the friend of his heart, Marshal Conway, he had an hereditary feeling of affection; and to her he bequeathed Strawberry Hill.  To the Miss Berrys he left, in conjunction with their father, the greater part of his papers, and the charge of collecting and publishing his works, a task which they performed with great care and judgment.  To these friends must be added the name of Richard West, Esq., a young man of great promise, (only son of Richard West, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, by the daughter of Bishop Burnet,) who died in 1742, at the premature age of twenty-six.