Note 48 — CHARLES KIRKPATRICK SHARPE[46]

This is the “General Sharpe” from whom Carlyle’s father had a lease of his farm of Mainhill from 1815 onwards, and from whom Carlyle himself rented the house and grounds of Hoddam Hill for his one year’s experiment of farming-life in 1825–26. See the Reminiscences for the story of Carlyle’s quarrel, and then his father’s also, with their landlord, caused mainly by his “arbitrary high-handed temper, used to a rather prostrate style of obedience, and not finding it here.” Both father and son gave up their leases in 1826, the father protesting “We can live without Sharpe and the whole Sharpe creation,” and saying he would “rather go to Jerusalem seeking farms, and die without finding one,” than remain under such a landlord.