CUNNINGHAM, ALLAN (1784-1842), a Scottish poet and prose writer, was born at Blackwood, in Dumfriesshire, Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song; but, instead of London, where he•supported himself partly by working in the studio of Bubb the statuary, and partly as a newspaper reporter, till 1814, when he obtained the situation of clerk of the works in the studio of Francis Chantrey, in which he continued till the sculptor's death in 1841. He meanever, from their brightness, vigour, and warmth of feeling, hold a high place in our lyrical literature.

His chief works are Lives of the Most Eminent British. Painters, Sculptors, and Arekiteets (1829-1833), Sir Marmnaduke Maxwell, a dramatic poem, Traditionary Tales of the Peasantry, several novels (Paul Jones, Sir Michael Scott, Lord Roldan), the Maid of Elwar, a sort of epic romance, the Songs of Scotland (1825), Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the Last Fifty Years (1833), an edition of The Works of Robert Burns, with notes and a life containing a good deal of new material (1834), Biographical and Critical Dissertations affixed to Major's Cabinet Gallery of Pictures, and Life, Journals, and Correspondence of Sir David Wilkie, finished two days before his own decease, and published in 1843. An edition of his Poems and Songs was issued by Ifs son, Peter Cunningham, in 1847.