The discovery at the Signet Library of a previously unrecorded manuscript written in the hand of the Scottish artist and antiquary Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe (1781-1851) promises to throw new light on Sharpe’s thinking on musical history and development. Sharpe was a famous eccentric of his day, who retained the clothing fashions of his youth long into his life. He was a friend and contemporary of Sir Walter Scott and contributed material Scott’s Border Minstrelsy and in 1823 published his own Ballad Book.
The new manuscript consists of eight leaves and presents a concise history of Scottish song from the earliest times until the late sixteenth century, along with notes and comments about other historical accounts including that of the Writer to the Signet William Tytler (d. 1792).
