tion, such as David Laing, Robert Chambers, and
Cosmo Innes. In his ? Diary? Scott writes of him
as ?a very remarkable man. He has infinite wit
and a great turn for antiquarian lore. His
drawings are the most fanciful and droll imaginable
-a mixture between Hogarth and some of those
foreign masters who painted ?Temptations of St.
Anthony ? and such grotesque subjects, My idea
is that Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, with his oddities,
tastes, satire, and high aristocratic feelings,
resembles Horace Walpole.?
THE EXCISE OFFICE, DRUMMOND PLACE
portraits, some on the walls, but many more on the
floor. A small room leading out of this one was
the place where Mr. Sharpe gave audiences. Its
diminutive space was stuffed full of old curiosities,
cases with family bijouterie, &c. One petty object
was strongly indicative of character, a calling card of
Lady Charlotte Campbell, the once adored beauty,
stuck into the frame of a picture. He must have
kept it, at that time, about thirty years.?
This lady, one of the celebrated Edinburgh
beauties, was the second daughter of John, Duke of
The resemblance in their abodes was more
strictly true. The house of Sharpe, No. 28 Drummond
Place, was one of the sights of Edinburgh to
the select few who found admittance there, with its
antique furniture, tapestries, paintings, and carvings
-its exquisite enamels, weapons, armour, bronzes,
bijouterie, ivories, old china, old books, and cabinets-
the mighty collection of a long life, and the
sale of which, at his death, occupied six long days
at the auction rooms in South Hanever Street.
Robert Chambers deseribes a visit he paid him
in Princes Street. ?? His servant conducted me to
the first floor, and showed me into what is called
amongst us the back drawing-room, which I found
carpeted with green cloth and full of old family
(From a Drawing Sy She&%?, #&shed in 1829.)
Argyle, who died in 1806, and the visit referred to
took place about 1824.
To Mr. Sharpe Sir Walter owed many of the
most graphic incidents which gave such inimitable
life to the productions of his pen ; and a writer in
the Gentleman?s Magazine justly remarked that
?his collection of antiquities is among the richest
which any private gentleman has ever accumulated
in the north. In Scottish literature he will be
always remembered as the editor of ?Law?s Memorials?
and of ? Kkkton?s History of the Kirk of
Scotland.? His taste in music was no less cultivated
than peculiar, and the ~ curious variety of
singular and obsolete musical instruments which
enriched his collection, showed how well t b ~
