Excerpt from Letters From and to Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Vol. 1 of 2 In the selection and arrangement of the letters, very considerable difficulties had to be encountered. By far the greater number were undated, and many presented no references by which the dates might be accurately fixed. Not a few had found their way into covers evidently belonging to other letters, thereby increasing a confusion already chaotic. By exercising considerable pains, it is believed that the exact dates, or at least the closest approximation to them, have been fixed upon. It may be necessary to explain why so large a num ber of letters to Mr Sharpe has been included in the present volumes. Not only did it seem that these letters were of service as the best illustrations of Mr Sharpe's own letters, but that they added not less than those did to our knowledge of him. Living as he did so much in isolation, Mr Sharpe's biography is written in his correspondence, and the interest of most of the letters addressed to him supersedes any need of an apology. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.