CUNNINGHAM, ALLAN, was born at Blackwood in Dumfries shire, in 1785, of parents in humble circumstances, though not of humble descent,-as one of his ancestors lost the family patrimony in Ayrshire by taking the side of Montroee in the time of the Common wealth. " His father," says Allan Cunningham, "was a man fond of collecting all that was characteristic of his country ;" an inquiry which the eon appears to have prosecuted, if not with more zeal, at least with more effect. Young Allan was taken away from school at the early age of eleven, and was bound to a stonomaaon. Hogg gives us some account of Allan's appearance and (diameter in early life in his 'Reminiscences of Former Days.' He describes him at the age of eighteen as dark ungainly youth, with a broadly frame for his age, and strongly-marked manly features, the very model of Burns, and exactly such a man." Hogg continues, that young as Allan Cunning ham then was, he had heard of the name, and he thought he had seen one or two of his juvenile pieces.
In 1810 he came to London, and his name first appeared in print at the same time, as a contributor in the collection of Cromek's 'Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song.' This collection, purporting to be the Nithsdale and Galloway relics, was entirely recast and much of it written by Allan Cunningham ; and Hogg atates that when he first saw the book he perceived at once the strains of Allan Cunningham, especially in the 'Mermaid of Galloway,' from the peculiarity of his style, which he had already noticed, and he adds that "Allan Cunning ham was the author of all that was beautiful in the work." For some time after his arrival in London, Allan Cunningham maintained himself by reporting for newspapers, and contributing to periodicals, especially the 'London Magazine,' to which he was one of the principal supports. At a later period, the situation which he obtained in Chantrey'a studio, as foreman or principal assistant in working the marble, and,for many years the confidential manager of his extensive statuary establishment, enabled him to prosecute his literary taste without hazard. The following are his chief works:— `Sir Marmaduke Maxwell,' a drama ; 'Paul Jones' and 'Sir Michael Scot,' novels; 'Songs of Scotland, ancient and modern, with Intro duction and Notes, Historical and Critical, and Characters of the Lyric Poets,' 4 vols. Svo, 1825; The Lives of the most eminent British Painters, Sculptors, and Architects,' in Murray's 'Family Library,' 6 vols. 12mo, 1829.33; the Literary Illustrations to Major's Cabinet
Gallery of Pictures,' 1833.34; The Maid of Elver,' a poem; 'Lord Bolden,' a romance ; ' The Life of Burns ;' and The Life of Sir David Wilkie,' 3 vole. Svo, 1843, a posthumous publication. Allan Cunningham died on the 5th of November 1842, aged fifty-seven.
Allan Cunningham was highly valued by his literary contemporaries, and especially so by Sir Walter Scott. Hogg, after recounting his first meeting with him, says, "I never missed an opportunity of meeting with Allan when it was in my power to do so. I was astonished at the luxuriousness of his fancy. It was boundless; but it was the luxury of a rich garden overrun with rampant weeds. He was likewise then a great mannerist in expression, and uo man could mistake his verses for those of any other man. I remember seeing some imitations of Oasinn by him, which I thought exceedingly good ; and it atruck me that that style of composition was peculiarly fitted for his vast and fervent imagination." His "style of poetry is greatly changed of late for the better. I have never seen any style improved ao much. It is free of all that crudeness and mannerism that once marked it so decidedly. He is now uniformly lively, serious, descrip tive, or pathetic, as he changes his subject ; but formerly he jumbled all these together, as iu a boiling cauldron, and when once he began it was impossible to calculate where or when be was going to end." Allan Cunningham's 'Lives of the Painters' was a very popular work. It contains memoirs of Hogarth, Wilson, Reynolds, Gains borough, West, Barry, Blake, Opie, Morland, Bird, Fuseli, Jamesone, Ramsay, Romney, itunciman, Copley, Mortimer, Raeburn, Hoppner, Owen, Harlow, Bonington, Cosway, Allan, Northeote, Sir G. Beau mont, Lawrence, Jackson, Livereeege, and James Burnet, painters; of Gibbons, Cibber, Roubiliac, Wilton, Banks, Nollekens, Bacon, Mrs. Darner, and Flaxman, sculptors; and of William of Wykeham, Inigo Jones, Wren, Vanbrugh, Gibbs, Kent, Earl of Burlington, and Sir W.
Chambers, architects. It is written in an easy, fluent, and forcible style. The lass satisfactory lives are those of West, Blake, Bird, Fuseli, Jamesone, Coaway, Northcote, Wilton, and Bacon ; in some of these there is the occasional appearance of a spirit of critical severity, remarkable in a man of great kindness of disposition.