"My Dear Mr H. Walpole": Mary Hamilton, Horace Walpole and the art of conversation

Abstract

This article explores Horace Walpole’s connections with the Bluestocking community in the 1780s, focusing on his long-standing friendship with second-generation Bluestocking Mary Hamilton. Via a close examination of Hamilton’s diaries, correspondence, and manuscript volumes an attempt is made to reconstruct their friendship and to look at it through the eyes of a young woman. The manuscript material produced by Hamilton provides a glimpse into their interaction, communication network, shared interests, and activities. It is argued that Mary Hamilton’s friendship with Walpole formed within the metropolitan Bluestocking salons, and conversation was its driving force.