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 Ashburton from 1761 to 1768. In 1762 he was involved in efforts to engineer William Pitt the Elder into a "rapprochement" with the Duke of Newcastle. In 1768 he succeeded his cousin Horace Walpole as MP for Lynn, sitting until 1784, when he was succeeded by his nephew Horatio Walpole. From 1753 to 1754 he served as a Director of the East India Company. In the early 1770s Walpole led a group of investors, including Benjamin Franklin, to seek from the crown a land grant in Ohio. In 1787 he married his second wife, Jeanne-Marguerite Batailhe de Montval. From 1799