studio, and wrote in the evening. He contributed a series of stories called ‘Recollections of Mark Macrabin, the Cameronian,’ to ‘Blackwood's Magazine,’ 1819–21. He gave up ‘Blackwood’ for the ‘London Magazine.’ In 1820 he submitted a drama called ‘Sir Marmaduke Maxwell’ to Sir Walter Scott, whose personal acquaintance he had made when Scott was sitting to Chantrey. Scott thought it unfit for the stage, though praising its poetry. He pays it a compliment in the preface to the ‘Fortunes of Nigel.’ It was published in 1822 with some other pieces. In 1822 appeared also two volumes of ‘Traditional Tales of the English and Scottish Peasantry,’ and in 1825 four volumes of ‘The Songs of Scotland, Ancient and Modern.’ This includes ‘A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea,’ which though written by a landsman is one of our best sea songs. In the following years he tried romances, now forgotten, ‘Paul Jones,’ 1826, ‘Sir Michael Scott,’ 1828, ‘Maid of Elvar,’ poem in 12 parts, 1833, and the ‘Lord Roldan,’ 1836. He adopted a fashion of the day by bringing out the ‘Anniversary’ for 1829 and 1830, an annual with contributions from Southey, Wilson, Lockhart, Hogg, Croker, Procter, and others. From 1829 to 1833 appeared his ‘Lives of the most Eminent British Painters, Sculptors, and Architects,’ 6 vols., forming part of Murray's ‘Family Library.’ It is well and pleasantly written, and had a large sale. His knowledge of contemporary artists gives it some permanent value. An edition in three volumes, edited by Mrs. Charles Heaton, appeared in Bohn's ‘Standard Library’ in 1879. A meritorious edition of Burns in eight volumes, which appeared in 1834, was the last work of importance during his life. He corrected the last proofs of a life of Sir David Wilkie just before his death, and it appeared posthumously.
Cunningham's domestic life was happy. His letters to his mother show that his filial affection was as enduring as Carlyle's. A poem to his wife, first printed in Alaric Watts's ‘Literary Souvenir’ for 1824, gives a pleasing and obviously sincere account of his lifelong devotion. They had five sons and a daughter. Scott in 1828 obtained cadetships for two sons, Alexander and Joseph [q. v.], in the Indian service. Both did well. Peter [q. v.] became clerk in the audit office, and was the well-known antiquary. Francis [q. v.] also entered the Indian army. In 1831 Cunningham visited Nithsdale, was presented with the freedom of Dumfries, and entertained at a public dinner, whither Carlyle came from Craigenputtock and made a cordial speech in his honour. Carlyle afterwards met Cunningham in London. He admired the ‘stalwart healthy figure and ways’ of the ‘solid Dumfries stonemason’ (Reminiscences, ii. 211), and exempted him as a pleasant Naturmensch from his general condemnation of London scribblers. He was generally known as ‘honest Allan Cunningham,’ and was a stalwart, hearty, and kindly man, with a tag of rusticity to the last.
Chantrey died in 1841, leaving an annuity of 100l. to Cunningham, with a reversion to Mrs. Cunningham. Cunningham had already had a paralytic attack, and he died on 30 Oct. 1842, the day after a second attack. He was buried at Kensal Green. His widow died in September 1864.
[David Hogg's Life of Cunningham, 1875; Lockhart's Scott (1 vol. ed.), pp. 425, 440, 447, 457, 646, 685; Froude's Carlyle, i. 220, 293, ii. 186, 208, 441, 448; S. C. Hall's Memories of Great Men of the Age, pp. 422–30 (with passages from an unpublished autobiography); same in Art Journal for 1866, p. 369; preface by Peter Cunningham to A. Cunningham's Songs and Poems, 1847; James Hogg's Reminiscences in Works (1838–40), vol. v. pp. cix–cxiii; John Holland's Memorials of Chantrey (1856), p. 263; Mrs. Fletcher's Autobiography (1875), p. 122; memoir by Mrs. Henton prefixed to British Painters (1879); Fraser's Magazine for September 1832, with a portrait.]
CUNNINGHAM, Sir CHARLES (1755–1834), rear-admiral, a native of Eye in Suffolk, entered the navy, from the merchant service, in 1775, as a midshipman of the Æolus frigate. In 1776 the Æolus went to the West Indies, where Cunningham was transferred to the Bristol, carrying the flag of Sir Peter Parker. In June 1779 he received an acting order as lieutenant, and towards the end of the year was for a short time first lieutenant of the Hinchingbroke with Captain Horatio Nelson. Continuing on the same station he was, in September 1782, appointed to command the Admiral Barrington brig, and sent by Sir Joshua Rowley to cruise for the protection of Turk's Island, to the north of St. Domingo; but during the brig's absence at Jamaica for provisions the French occupied Turk's Island, and repelled an attempt to regain it, made by Captain Nelson in the Albemarle (Nelson Despatches, i. 73). The Admiral Barrington was paid off at Jamaica in May 1783, and Cunningham returned to England in the Tremendous. In 1788 he went to the East Indies in the Crown with Commodore Cornwallis, by whom he was made commander into the Ariel sloop on 28 Oct. 1790. On the declaration of war with France in February 1793, Cunningham, then in command of the Speedy brig, went out to the
