representatives it was given up, unopened and unsealed, to the
present Earl of Waldegrave, when he attained the age of
twenty-five. On examining the box, it was found to contain a
number of manuscript volumes and other papers, among which
were the Memoires now published.' "

"The correspondence of Horace Walpole with Sir Horace Mann,
now first published, was also contained in the same box. It
appears that Walpole, after the death of Sir Horace, became
again the possessor of his own letters. He had them copied
very carefully in three volumes, and annotated them with short
notes, explanatory of the persons mentioned in them, with an
evident view to their eventual publication.
"It is from these volumes that the present publication is
taken. The notes of the author have also been printed
verbatim. As, however, in the period of time which has
elapsed since Walpole's death, many of the personages
mentioned in the letters, whom he appears to have thought
sufficiently conspicuous not to need remark, have become
almost forgotten, the Editor has deemed it necessary to add,
as shortly as possible, some account of them; and he has taken
care, whenever he has done so, to distinguish his notes from
those of the original author, by the letter D. placed at the
end of them.

"This correspondence is perhaps the most interesting one of
Walpole's that has as yet appeared; as, in addition to his
usual merit as a letter-writer, and the advantage of great
ease, which his extreme intimacy with Sir Horace Mann gives to
his style, the letters to him are the most uninterrupted