Morris Brownell wants to rescue Horace Walpole from detractors and admirers alike. The famous detractor was Macaulay. To Walpole, he ruled, 'serious business was a trifle, and trifles were serious business'. Having, as an insignificant MP, 'indulged the recreation of making laws and voting millions, he returned to more important pursuits, to researches after Queen Mary's comb, Wolsey's red hat, the pipe which Van Tromp smoked during his last sea-fight'. Macaulay's ruling gained authority early in Victoria's reign, partly through the advances of high seriousness, partly because of the haphazard mixture of gems and trivia on display when the treasures of Strawberry Hill were auctioned.
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