IN the opening pages of this book, the author makes a point of describing himself as happily married to a second wife and the experienced father of a school age son". Hardly the kind of information usually preferred by a biographer, but then Dr Mowl's is not a standard biography; he comes to his task with a very specific agenda - to prove that hi subject was an active homosexual - and gives details of his current marital status presumably to demonstrate no partisanship in the matter.
It may be helpful to explain who Horace Walpole was. The youngest son of Sir Robert Walpole - usually regarded as Britain's first prime minister under the early Hanoverians - Horace achieved fame in his lifetime as the author of a Gothic romance, The Castle of Otranto, and builder of a gothic house called Strawberry Hill. His memoirs of the reigns of George II and III were invaluable to subsequent 19th century writers and helped fix what is known as the Whig view of English history.
Walpole was also one of the most prolific letter writers of his generation and this voluminous correspondence (no less than 48 volumes) was edited by the American, Wilmarth Lewis, over a period of some 45 years earlier this century and published by Yale University Press. For Dr Mowl, Lewis is something of a villain, since, for reasons of personal fastidiousness, it is suggested, he chose to play down Walpole's sexuality. The intention of the new book is to reinstate this aspect of the subject's nature and, as far as the writer is concerned, demonstrate its crucial importance.
Accordingly, Dr Mowl's focus is extraordinarily narrow, with a very narrow selection of facts presented to suit the thesis. Walpole's background and family, not to mention the important role of his father in British history, occupy barely a handful of pages. On the other hand, Dr Mowl, when discussing the Georgian gothic revival, attempts to suggest that "the style, with its sinuous forms and conscious rebellion against orthodox classicism, may have had a particular attraction for homosexuals". A series of bachelor architects and patrons including Robert Adam and James Gibbs is then cited in favour of this opinion.
But the most important argument marshalled by Dr Mowl is Walpole's relationship with Henry, Earl of Lincoln. The two had first met when both were schoolboys at Eton and remained close friends thereafter. Dr Mowl believes that more than friendship was involved and that in the Yale edition of Walpole's letters, evidence of a homosexual relationship between the two was deliberately suppressed. To this end, he quotes extravagant protestations of devotion from Walpole to Lincoln (the latter's side of the correspondence no longer exists): "there is no part I won't act to keep you . . . tis absolutely necessary that, you should continue to love me."
Such words are certainly indicative of inordinate devotion, but they should be read firstly in the context of the period (when such language - devoid of sexual overtones - was more commonly used than today) and also while bearing in mind Walpole's own background as the son of a self made "man. Sir Robert Walpole was a Norfolk squire who liked to chew apples while standing in the House of Commons in order to demonstrate that he had not forgotten his humble origins. His fastidious youngest son preferred to project himself as a man of refinement, and consorting with someone who was not merely the ninth Earl of Lincoln but also heir to the Duke of Newcastle assisted his own aristocratic aspirations. That Walpole's nature was essentially homosexual has never been in doubt, but he was far too fearful of his social standing to take any risks. As the author admits, Walpole publicly mocked known homosexuals and on the one occasion he found himself accused of engaging in homosexual activity, he panicked.
Dr Mowl enjoys a fine reputation as an architectural historian; in future, he should stick to analysing buildings and not people.
