Strawberry Hill

Horace Walpole assembled a large collection of over 450 pieces of stained glass at Strawberry Hill and was regarded as one of England’s first collectors, inspiring a craze among his contemporaries for the setting of ancient glass as a fashionable addition to one’s house. He glazed the upper parts of his windows with imported painted glass, much of which was Netherlandish roundels. He also included ancient heraldic blazons representing the achievements of his, and other great English families linked with the succession of the Tudor kingship. He commissioned new pieces from English glass painters such as William Price and William Peckitt, who were reviving what was then considered a lost art. This eclectic collection of stained glass is currently being extensively renovated and reset in accordance with Walpole’s original intentions, as part of the Strawberry Hill restoration project.