statements like that serving as adequate proof of a reactionary condescension so obnoxious it beggars belief

It seems to me that you are forgetting when that was written. It was written roughly 100 years ago in a society that is very different from today. You also don't seem to realise that what Sharpe was doing was actually quite radical for its day. (And if you do realise it, you certainly don't show it).

I found it an interesting description of some of way in which Sharpe had to go about collecting a tune.

hearken to my old-vashioned zongs Have you never tried to capture someone's dialect in written form? Read Woak Hill or Linden Lea. The author, William Barnes, has tried to capture his own dialect in similar form. How is that "reactionary condescension"?

I believe it was L P Hartley who wrote "The past is another country, they do things differently there." We do well to remember that when criticising the early folk song collectors.