Today I went to Twickenham, about 14 miles southwest of us, to visit Strawberry Hill, home of Horace Walpole. Walpole was the youngest son of Britain's first prime minister. He was an author and is credited with writing the first Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto. 

Horace bought an old, small house in 1747 and proceeded to turn it into a castle, adding a library, great parlor, bedchamber and more. It is considered Britain's finest example of Gothic Revival architecture.

The interior architecture is fascinating. He borrowed from other Gothic buildings, including the Old St. Paul's, Westminster Abbey, and Rouen. From the intentionally gloomy entrance hall to the overly gilded gallery to the stained glass and fireplaces in almost every room, it is something to behold.

It fell into disrepair, and most of the collection of furniture, paintings, books, and decorative arts were sold in a huge sale in 1842. Oddly enough, much of the collection and thousands of Walpole's letters were gifted to Yale University by Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis and are housed in the Lewis Walpole Library in Farmington, Connecticut.

A £10.2 million restoration project was begun by the Strawberry Hill Trust in 2007 and completed in 2014, to bring it back to the time of Walpole's death in 1797.

The library was my favorite room.

Strawberry Hill closes for the winter and today was the last day they were open until the spring. I was glad I was able to visit.

I met Gord at the Carphone Warehouse to top up our SIM cards, but the guy in there today told Gord that we had to wait until tomorrow when the current coverage ends. We found an Indian restaurant for dinner. Good but not great.

Read: George Gissing's "Christopherson" (1906) and R Andom's "The Fetching of Susan" (1912) from London Stories