Cunning ham, Allan

poet and man of letters, born in the parish of Keir, Dumfrie hire; bred to the mason craft, but devoted his leisure hours to study and the composition of Scottish ballads, which, when published, gained him the notice of Sir Walter Scott; in 1810 he went to London, where he wrote for periodicals, and obtained employment as a istant to Chantrey the sculptor, in which post he found leisure to cultivate his literary proclivities, collating and editing tales and songs, editing Burns with a Life, and writing the Lives of famous artists, and died in London; "a pliant, Naturmensch ," Carlyle found him to be, "with no principles or creed that he could see, but excellent old habits of character" (1784-1842).