Strawberry Hill House

In May 1747, [[Horace Walpole]] took a lease on a small 17th-century house that was "little more than a cottage", with {{convert|5|acre|m2}} of land from a Mrs. Chenevix. The following year he purchased the house, which the original owner, a coachman, had named "Chopped Straw Hall". This was intolerable to Walpole; "his residence ought, he thought, to possess some distinctive appellation; of a very different character ..." Finding an old lease that described his land as "Strawberry Hill Shot", Walpole adopted this new name for his soon to be "elegant villa".{{harvnb|Calloway|Snodin|Wainwright|1980|pp=7–22}}{{harvnb|Warburton|1851|pp=11–28}} Walpole was under familial and political pressure to establish a country seat, especially a family castle, which was a fashionable practice during the period.{{cite journal |last=Lewis |first1=W. S. |date=August 1934 |title=The Genesis of Strawberry Hill |journal=Metropolitan Museum Studies |volume=5 |issue=1 |page=57 |doi=10.2307/1522817 |jstor=1522817 }}

In May 1747, [[Horace Walpole]] took a lease on a small 17th-century house that was "little more than a cottage", with {{convert|5|acre|m2}} of land from a Mrs. Chenevix. The following year he purchased the house, which the original owner, a coachman, had named "Chopped Straw Hall". This was intolerable to Walpole; "his residence ought, he thought, to possess some distinctive appellation; of a very different character ..." Finding an old lease that described his land as "Strawberry Hill Shot", Walpole adopted this new name for his soon to be "elegant villa".{{harvnb|Calloway|Snodin|Wainwright|1980|pp=7–22}}{{harvnb|Warburton|1851|pp=11–28}} Walpole was under familial and political pressure to establish a country seat, especially a family castle, which was a fashionable practice during the period.{{cite journal |last=Lewis |first1=W. S. |date=August 1934 |title=The Genesis of Strawberry Hill |journal=Metropolitan Museum Studies |volume=5 |issue=1 |page=57 |doi=10.2307/1522817 |jstor=1522817 }}

In stages, Walpole rebuilt the house to his own specifications, giving it a Gothic style and expanding the property to {{convert|46|acre|m2}} over the years. As Rosemary Hill notes, "Strawberry Hill was the first house without any existing medieval fabric to be [re]built from scratch in the Gothic style and the first to be based on actual historic examples, rather than an extrapolation of the Gothic vocabulary first developed by [[William of Kent]]. As such it has a claim to be the starting point of the Gothic Revival."Hill, Rosemary, [http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article7130418.ece "Welcome to Strawberry Hill: Chronology and Architecture at the Service of Horace Walpole"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110615095835/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article7130418.ece |date=15 June 2011}}. ''[[The Times Literary Supplement]]'', 19 May 2010.

In stages, Walpole rebuilt the house [[LGBTQ architectural contributions#Strawberry Hill's theatrical design|to his own specifications]], giving it a Gothic style and expanding the property to {{convert|46|acre|m2}} over the years. As Rosemary Hill notes, "Strawberry Hill was the first house without any existing medieval fabric to be [re]built from scratch in the Gothic style and the first to be based on actual historic examples, rather than an extrapolation of the Gothic vocabulary first developed by [[William of Kent]]. As such it has a claim to be the starting point of the Gothic Revival."Hill, Rosemary, [http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article7130418.ece "Welcome to Strawberry Hill: Chronology and Architecture at the Service of Horace Walpole"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110615095835/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article7130418.ece |date=15 June 2011}}. ''[[The Times Literary Supplement]]'', 19 May 2010.

Walpole and two friends, the connoisseur and amateur architect John Chute (1701–1776), and draughtsman and designer [[Richard Bentley (writer)|Richard Bentley]] (1708–1782), called themselves a "Committee of Taste" or "Strawberry Committee"{{sfn|Fothergill|1983|p=42}} formed to modify the architecture of the building. Bentley left the group abruptly after an argument in 1761. Chute had an "eclectic but rather dry style" and was in charge of designing most of the exterior of the house and some of the interior. To Walpole, he was an "oracle of taste". Walpole often disagreed with Bentley on some of his wayward schemes, but admired his talent for illustration.

Walpole and two friends, the connoisseur and amateur architect John Chute (1701–1776), and draughtsman and designer [[Richard Bentley (writer)|Richard Bentley]] (1708–1782), called themselves a "Committee of Taste" or "Strawberry Committee"{{sfn|Fothergill|1983|p=42}} formed to modify the architecture of the building. Bentley left the group abruptly after an argument in 1761. Chute had an "eclectic but rather dry style" and was in charge of designing most of the exterior of the house and some of the interior. To Walpole, he was an "oracle of taste". Walpole often disagreed with Bentley on some of his wayward schemes, but admired his talent for illustration.