Horace Walpole, born as Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford, was an English Whig politician, writer, historian, and antiquarian. He was the youngest son of the first British Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, and became the 4th and last Earl of Orford of the second creation upon his nephew's death in 1791.

Walpole is renowned for building Strawberry Hill House in Twickenham, southwest London, reviving the Gothic style some decades before his Victorian successors. His literary reputation prominently rests on the first Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto (1764), and his extensive correspondence, which offers significant insights into the social and political life of his time. These letters have been published by Yale University Press across 48 volumes. In 2017, a volume of selected letters was published.