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The Chapel, both in its exterior and interior, was based on the Chantry Chapel of Edmond Audley, Bishop of Salisbury in Salisbury Cathedral. This was recorded in Richard Rawlinson, The History and Antiquities of the Cathedral Church of Salisbury 1719 in Walpole's Library. The Chapel in the Woods was built in Portland stone in 1771 by Thomas Gayfere, master-mason of Westminster Abbey who also carved the fireplace in the Great North Bedchamber. The cosmati-work shrine in its apse was acquired from Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. Walpole believed it to be by Peter Cavalini, designer of the tomb of Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey. It was actually far more squeezed into the space .than is represented in this painting. Superimposed on the architecture are the painted glass images in its windows of Henry III and Queen Eleanor of Provence which Walpole brought from St. James' Church, Bexhill, Sussex. Walpole was very proud of this painted glass because he thought it to be one of the oldest examples of painted

I first employed the medium of charcoal to capture quickly the fleeting effects of light in the rooms, then to exaggerate them as the idea grew of "gothicising" the atmosphere in the paintings. The "gothic," ominous atmosphere of the closet in The Castle of Otranto is very different from the reality of this light room. The use of charcoal also suggests the "soot-water" paintings by Lady Diana Beauclerc which were housed in this room.

The Beauclerc Closet is in the small turret attached to the Round Tower which was the last stage in Walpole's building campaign (1776). It was designed by Essex and was based on Buckingham's Plotting Closet in Thornbury Castle, Glos. It housed the ebony and ormolu cabinet (Farmington) designed by Edward Edwards to hold a set of seven "soot-water" illustrations of Walpole's strange incestuous play The Mysterious Mother (1768). They were painted by a neighbour Lady Diana Beauclerc who lived in Little Marble Hill, Twickenham. A copy of Reynolds' portrait of her holding a portfolio of her drawings also hung in the room. Diana Beauclerc was the daughter of the 2nd. Duke of Marlborough, had been married to Viscount Bolingbroke and was ex-Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Charlotte. In the closet was also a writing table containing a copy of the play. In this painting the small room, hung in India blue damask, is given the "gothic" atmosphere of the closet at the end of the Gallery in T

This was the first of my set of my Strawberry Hill paintings, produced before focusing on the motif of light and reflection. Walpole's idea of building a gallery had been with him since visiting the gallery at Chantilly on his Grand Tour. He had also seen a similar one in the Palazzo Reale in Genoa. Only the top sections of the windows were glazed with painted glass, so that he could look out over his gardens. The walls and alcoves opposite the windows were mirrored, and surprisingly the paintings were hung against the mirrors. Paintings were of ancestors and friends. The first painting on the left was a full length portrait of Henry Carey, Viscount Falkland. He wore a plumed hat and the painting suggested to Horace the fictional portrait of the usurped Duke Alfonso, in plumed helmet and armour, whose ghost stepped from the frame in The Castle of Otranto.

This was the second of the mirror paintings, acting as a study for the composition of the larger painting (8). The idea for the painting came from the stunning 1973 Alan Starkey Country Life black and white photograph of the Gallery. It influenced the idea of reproducing the whole building through its reflections and mirrors. The scale has been changed to reflect the High Gothic fan vaults of Westminster and King's College Chapel (Walpole's Cambridge college). The lightness of this oil sketch reflects the fineness of the papier-mâché of which the vault is made. The central portrait is of Horatio Walpole, Horace's uncle who was British envoy to the Hague. The canopies above the mirrors were based on an enlarged version of the canopies above Archbishop Bourcier's tomb from John Dart's History and Antiquities of the Cathedral Church of Canterbury 1726 (6c).

The fan vaulted ceiling was designed by Chute after Walpole rejected Bentley's design for a simple barrel vault. It is closely based on an area of the Henry VII Chapel ceiling in Westminster Abbey and the intricate papier-mâché work was expensive. Walpole had to cope with a "workmen's strike" for higher wages during its completion. The canopies were designed by a new member of Walpole's circle of designers, Thomas Pitt. The nearest portrait reflected in the mirror is of the poet Thomas Chatterton whose suicide was partly blamed by contemporaries on Walpole's exposure of his faked mediaeval poems. Horace defended himself in print against the allegation.

The Holbein Chamber was more of a spectacular show room than a practical bedroom and was very cold, as Thomas Gray found when he stayed in it. It is named after the twenty drawings of Hans Holbein which Walpole kept there, as well as thirty four tracings of those in the royal collection which Walpole attributed to George Vertue. On one side of the purple bed with white and purple plumes Walpole hung Cardinal Wolsey's red hat. Walpole liked to think of his connections with the Tudor age. The fireplace was designed by Richard Bentley based on the tomb of Archbishop Warham at Canterbury Cathedral from a book on Canterbury written by Dart. The design for the screen was based on the gates of the choir of Rouen Cathedral. Walpole said that the papier-mâché ceiling was modelled on that of the Queen's Dressing Room at Windsor, but this has been disputed.

Walpole was proud of his "ebonised chairs" which came from Esher Place and were thought to have belonged to Cardinal Wolsey, but they were Portuguese in origin, from Goa. One has recently been loaned to the house. Above the arch is the Crusader symbol of the Saracen which Walpole adopted. It refers to his pride in his ancestor Terry Robsart, who fought in the Crusades. Walpole had him portrayed on the ceiling of the Library. We cannot tell how close the papier-mâché ceiling of the Holbein Chamber is to that of the alleged model, the Queen's Dressing Room at Windsor, since the latter was rebuilt by Wyatt (Wyatville) c. 1804 & 1830.

The library ceiling was painted in 1754 by the French decorative artist Jean Francois Clermont who was in England doing work for Frederick, Prince of Wales, the Duke of MarIborough, Lord Strafford and Lord Radnor. It contains the figures of two of Walpole's ancestors from the times of the Crusades, Fitz Osbert and Robsart. The book cases were designed by his friend John Chute after Walpole rejected the designs by Bentley. They are based on an engraving after Hollar in Dugdale's History of St. Paul's Cathedral 1658. The glazed cases housed Walpole's rarer books as well as a group of erotic works. The statue in the centre was a terracotta model of an osprey, shot down on the estate of Lord Melbourne at Brocket Hall. It was sculpted by Walpole's cousin's daughter Anne Seymour Darner, who inherited Strawberry Hill after his death. In place of this mirror was once a painting of the Marriage of Henry VI.

This room was formed from the stairwell of the small original building which Walpole bought. It became an intimate, bright room in the new house, redesigned by Richard Bentley. The chimneypiece was modelled on Dart's engraving of the early 16th Century Tomb of Thomas Ruthall, Bishop of Durham in Westminster Abbey. The coat of arms on it is removable and shows Walpole's original coat of arms, over which he added his new arms when he became 4th Earl of Orford in 1791. Above the fireplace was the portrait of Horace's parents in a frame carved by Grinling Gibbons. The wallpaper is Pugin's "Wild Strawberry" paper. The room was originally papered with the then newly fashionable Gothic wallpaper in stone colour and pasted with Jackson's prints of Venice with pasted frames.

The alcove contained a bronze statue of an angel which is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The idea of having an oratory by the front entrance of his home added to the monastic atmosphere of Strawberry Hill. Behind it is the Little Cloister which held the goldfish cistern which inspired Thomas Gray's famous poem Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat.

The Chelsea Green Bird service included in the picture is the porcelain which was used in this room. The fireplace is the most Rococo in the building, designed from Richard Bentley's fantasy. After this Walpole seems to have become interested in being more historically accurate in the designs of his architectural features. The gothic chair is one of a set of eight, designed by Bentley with Walpole's help. One is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum: four are at Farmington. The walls were originally wallpaper in imitation of stucco. The mirror is in the position once occupied by Reynolds' celebrated picture of Walpole's nieces The Three Ladies Waldegrave (National Gallery of Scotland). Reflected is a Salvator Rosa Gothic landscape "Jacob's Separation from Laban " suggesting Walpole's intended atmosphere of "Gothic gloomth."

This was the first of my "mirror paintings", though the frame was deliberately not included. If you know the room it is disconcerting to see it in reverse and to see the reflection of the windows on the ceiling rather than on the floor, but it adds to the gothic strangeness of the architecture. The oriel window which casts the light reminds me of the one in The Castle of Otranto. The room has a pair of curved gothic shutters which screen off the oriel and retract into the walls. In this room Walpole used Sevres turquoise Chantilly porcelain. The design was created for Catherine the Great whose service was painted by Bett McKillop though I know of no personal connection! The portrait seen through the door is of Rab Butler, one time Minister of Education.

Robert Adam began work at Strawberry Hill in 1766, though many of his designs for the garden including a Gothic vaulted seat and a rustic cottage were unexecuted. The room was designed from motifs in Dugdale's History of St..Paul's and Dart's Westmonasterium. The marble chimneypiece is derived from the lower section of the shrine of Edward the Confessor, executed in 'scagliola.' The ceiling is the tracery pattern of the great rose window of Old St. Paul's simplified, and the bow window was based on the tomb of Eleanor of Castile in Westminster Abbey. This room was originally a sitting room but was later transformed into a print library. The picture hanging in the ante-room beyond the door is in reality of Rab Butler, but it has been transformed here into Eckhardt's portrait of Walpole, now in the National Portrait Gallery. On the mantelpiece is Carter's 1788 water-colour of the room in its original colour, crimson damask.

The painted wallpaper in the staircase and hall was designed by Richard Bentley and based on the screen of Prince Arthur's Tomb in Worcester Cathedral. (19a) It was originally painted in stone colour, with grey quatrefoil glass windows above. The coloured windows and starred roof are those replaced by Lady Waldegrave and the pink colour of the walls was chosen by the architect Sir Albert Richardson who restored the house in the 1950s.

This "gothic" reconstruction of the staircase as it might have felt to Walpole is based on recent research into the original colour scheme. The balustrade was designed by Richard Bentley. It was very loosely derived from the upper flights of the 15th Century Library Staircase at Rouen. Significantly Walpole's stairs also lead to his Library. In the absence of a mediaeval baronial entrance hall, Walpole made his stairwell into his gothic armoury. Some of the armour he said had been won by an ancestor, Sir Terry Robsart in the Holy Wars, but it was in fact from India and Persia. Recently some similar pieces have been replaced in the house through the generosity of a benefactor. The carved antelopes were the "supporters" of Walpole's coat of arms. The Gothic "tinned" or "Japanned" lanthorn was also designed by Bentley and originally hung much lower in the stairwell. It contained one candle and was the only illumination at night. The suit of armour on the left was thought by Walpol

This was the link between the original building and Walpole's later extensions. It was originally furnished with Welsh three-legged "bobbin frame" armchairs which Walpole believed to come from the age of the Bards, about which Thomas Gray had written. It also housed a mahogany cabinet containing coins and medals. On this was the stone head of Henry VII which Walpole believed to have been carved by Torreggiano as a model for the tomb in Westminster Abbey, the roof of which gave Walpole the model for his Gallery ceiling.

Originally known as the "Cabinet," this room was named the 'Tribune" after the room in the Uffizi Palace in Florence where the greatest treasures of the Medici collection were housed. (The famous painting of that room by Zoffany in the Royal Collection contained a portrait of Walpole's friend Sir Horace Mann.) Walpole called this Strawberry Hill room his "secular chapel" and it actually became a chapel for the Vincentian brothers from 1923-1992. The wooden vaults designed by Thomas Pitt were pre-fabricated and floated up the Thames. They were very loosely based on the Chapter House of York Minster. The room contained the rosewood and ivory "Walpole Cabinet" of enamels and miniatures now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The oval reflection on the wall is painted glass depicting Judith beheading Holofernes. The niches were designed by J. H. Muntz, Walpole's most scholarly architectural contributor who prepared a systematic treatise on the Gothic which Walpole was to write with

THE CHAPEL IN THE WOODS Oil on Canvas 91cms. x 71cms.