These two volumes of Horace Walpole's correspondence illustrate the breadth and variety of Walpole's friendships. The rakes, wits, and politicians of Volume 30 are the intimates of his younger days as an active member of the Young Club at White's and of Parliament, although correspondences with George Selwyn and Henry Fox continue until their deaths. Walpole's subjects in these letters are politics and gossip, occasionally dispensed with asperity and witty allusions to entertain Sir Charles Williams and Lord Lincoln. Volume 31 shows Walpole the attendant of wise and spirited dowagers and...