As if being a writer, a member of Parliament, and the coiner of the word "serendipity" weren't enough, Horace Walpole (1717-1797) ushered in Britain's Gothic Revival with his fanciful "castle" southwest of London, Strawberry Hill. Originally a modest cottage, Strawberry Hill gained battlements and turrets as Walpole expanded it, filling the mansion with a vast collection of antiquities, books, furniture, paintings, and arms and armor. The Yale Center for British Art reassembles 300 of those since-scattered objects-including this Johann Heinrich Muntz painting of the estate-for the first time in "Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill." Oct. 15 through Jan. 3. yale.edu/ycba
