Book Description

This is Volume Two 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 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'. This second volume opens in Hoddam Castle, 1812, in the period preceding CKS's move to Edinburgh, where he was to devote himself to a life of literary, artistic and antiquarian pursuits. Correspondence continues with the Lord Gower (later the Duke of Sutherland), Lady Gwydr, Lady Charlotte Bury, Walter Scott, Robert Chambers and many others - painting a vivid picture of intellectual, political and society life throughout Europe, as viewed from Edinburgh.All peppered with frequent references to the difficulties of travel, illness and household trivia. The volume closes in 1850, amid concerns for the great collection which CKS had by this time amassed. The illustrations include several reproductions of Sharpe's own drawings and etchings.