Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 51.djvu/429

Sharpe warm letter of congratulation, which led to a lifelong friendship; and to the second volume of the ‘Minstrelsy’ he contributed two ballads of his own. In 1807 he also published at Oxford ‘Metrical Legends and other Poems;’ but, as Scott remarks, ‘as a poet he has not a strong touch.’ As an artist he showed much greater talent. Scott affirmed ‘that had he made drawing a resource it might have raised him a large income;’ but he can scarcely be reckoned more than a skilful amateur. In drawing, his main forte was apparently satirical, or rather perhaps grotesque, caricature. His efforts were described by Scott as the ‘most fanciful and droll imaginable, a mixture between Hogarth and some of those foreign masters who painted temptations of St. Anthony and other grotesque subjects.’ Sharpe's frontispieces and other illustrations in the Bannatyne Club and similar antiquarian publications evince much antiquarian knowledge. He possessed an unrivalled collection of Scottish curios and antiques; and Sir Walter was frequently and much indebted to his proficiency in this and kindred branches of antiquarian lore. He was moreover specially learned in Scottish genealogy, especially in its scandalous aspect, having carefully gleaned and preserved every fact or anecdote of this character that he could discover in books, manuscripts, or tradition.

In 1817 Sharpe edited Kirkton's ‘Secret and True History of the Church of Scotland from the Restoration to the Year 1678, with an Account of the Murder of Archbishop Sharpe, by James Russell, an Actor therein.’ To the volume he supplied a large number of notes which, if they breathe rather the spirit of the partisan than the conscientious historian, display much learning. This was followed in 1820 by an edition of Law's ‘Memorialls; or the considerable Things that fell out within the Island of Great Britain from 1638 to 1684,’ containing much curious information regarding witchcraft and kindred subjects. In 1823 he published his ‘Ballad Book,’ which in 1880 was re-edited by David Laing, with some additions from Sharpe's manuscripts; the majority of the added ballads were of more or less questionable authenticity. Sharpe, though he dabbled a good deal in this species of literature, and collected printed chaps and broadsides, as well as manuscripts from ‘recitation,’ only possessed a fragmentary knowledge of the subject. To Laing's edition of Stenhouse's notes to Johnson's ‘Musical Museum,’ 1853, he made some contributions. In 1827 he edited ‘A Part of the Life of Lady Margaret Cunninghame, daughter of the Earl of Glencairn, that she had with her first Husband, the Earl of Evandale;’ in 1828 (for the Bannatyne Club), ‘The Letters of Archibald, Earl of Argyle;’ and in 1837, ‘Surgundo, or the Valiant Christian,’ a romanist ode of triumph for the victory of Glanrinnes in 1594; and the same year, ‘Minuets and Songs of Thomas, sixth Earl of Kellie.’ In 1833 he published a volume of etchings, under the title ‘Portraits of an Amateur,’ and his ‘Etchings, with Photographs from Original Drawings, Poetical and Prose Fragments,’ appeared posthumously at Edinburgh in 1869. The ‘Letters to and from C. K. Sharpe,’ edited by Alexander Allardyce, 1888, tend to corroborate the estimate of Scott, that ‘Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, with his oddities, tastes, satire, and high aristocratic feelings, resembles Horace Walpole—perhaps in his person, perhaps in a general way.’ Sharpe died unmarried, 17 March 1851. Two portraits, by John Irvine and Thomas Fraser respectively, are in the National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh; the latter was engraved in mezzotint by Thomas Dick in 1851.

[Gent. Mag. 1851, i. 557; Memoir prefixed to Sharpe's Etchings, 1869; Memoir by Rev. W. K. R. Bedford, prefixed to Letters, 1888; Lockhart's Life of Scott; Scott's Journal.]

 SHARPE, DANIEL (1806–1856), geologist, son of Sutton Sharpe (1756–1806), brewer, by his second wife, Maria, sister of the poet, Samuel Rogers [q. v.] Samuel Sharpe [q. v.] was an elder brother. Daniel was born at Nottingham Place, Marylebone, 6 April 1806. His mother died 22 April, and his father 26 Sept. 1806. But a half-sister took the place of a parent to the child, as well as to a sister and four brothers, and his early days were spent with her at Stoke Newington. He was educated, first there, then at Mr. Cogan's school, Walthamstow. At the age of sixteen he was placed with a Portuguese merchant named Van Zeller, and about 1830 lived for a year in Portugal. Then he became partner with his elder brother, Henry Sharpe, in the same line of business, and again resided in Portugal from 1835 to 1838. Fond of natural history as a boy, he devoted himself, on joining the Geological Society in 1827, to that science. In 1832, 1839, 1848, and 1849 he read papers to this society on the geology of Portugal, which were for a considerable time almost the only authorities on that subject. The second of these contains some important remarks on the way in which the effect of an earthquake shock is modified by the constitution of the strata; and the