Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe

Letters from and to Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe Esq. - Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe Collection

This is Volume One of two volumes of Letters from and to the Scottish antiquary Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe (1781-1851), as first published in 1888. The material includes family letters, letters received by Sharpe from friends and society acquaintances, and his own correspondence as recorded in a note-book of 1810 to 1815. The earlier letters relate to Sharpe's fifteen years in Oxford and the ones after 1813 to his life in Edinburgh, where he devoted himself to literary, artistic and antiquarian pursuits. The editor, Allardyce, suggests that Sharpe's biography is written in his correspondence. Certainly the Letters both chronicle the development of his interests, particularly in Ballads, the Arts and Witchcraft, and furnish evidence of Sharpe's reputation for caricature and satire, a weakness for scandal, and an 'affection for archaism'. As well as his mother and sister, notable correspondents in this first volume include Walter Scott, Earl Gower, Keppel Craven, Elizabeth Craven, R. H Inglis, E. B. Impey and Lady Charlotte Campbell. The volume also contains a 'Memoir' which introduces the letters; notes on the correspondence with Lady Charlotte Bury; the 1803 satirical 'Address to the People of Dumfriesshire'; and an Index. The illustrations include several reproductions of Sharpe's own drawings and etchings.