Robert Charles Hope

Robert Charles Hope was a British antiquarian writer whose surviving bibliographic record places him in the years 1855–1926. The works readily linked to him show a strong interest in folklore, language, religious sites, and medieval life, and several of those books remain accessible in major public-domain collections.

Among the titles associated with him are A Glossary of Dialectal Place-Nomenclature (1883), The Leper in England: with some account of English lazar-houses, The Legendary Lore of the Holy Wells of England (1893), Mediaeval Music: An Historical Sketch, and The Temple and Shrines of Nikko, Japan. Taken together, they suggest a writer who enjoyed careful research and liked to explore subjects that sat just off the main road of conventional history.

The title pages of his books also show that he used the post-nominals F.S.A. and F.R.S.L., and one edition describes him as connected with Peterhouse, Cambridge, Lincoln's Inn, and the East Riding of Yorkshire Antiquarian Society. Beyond those printed attributions, easily confirmable biographical details appear limited, so the clearest picture of him comes from the books themselves: a diligent compiler of historical oddities and forgotten traditions.