Horace Walpole turns to the letters and argues that: Walpole's numerous letters are often used as a historical resource. In one, dating from 28 January 1754, he coined the word serendipity which he said was derived from a "silly fairy tale" he had read, "The Three Princes of Serendip". The oft-quoted epigram, "This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel", is from a letter of Walpole's to Anne, Countess of Ossory, on 16 August 1776. The original, fuller version appeared in a letter to Sir Horace Mann on 31 December 1769: "I have often said,
Thomas Walpole Thomas Walpole Thomas Walpole (6 October 1727 – March 1803), styled from 1756 The Hon. Thomas Walpole, was a British MP and banker in Paris. Thomas Walpole was born into a political family. The second son of the 1st Baron Walpole and his wife Mary, "nee" Lombard, he was the nephew of Sir Robert Walpole, the prime minister from 1721 to 1742. Walpole entered into partnership with the merchant Sir Joshua Vanneck, and married his daughter Elizabeth Vanneck on 14 November 1753. She died on 9 June 1760. He was MP for Sudbury from 1754 to 1761, and MP for