The Sun.
London, England, 1842-11-02 00:00:00

THE LATE ALLAN CUNNINGHAM.

" He sang
Old songs, the product of his native hills :
A skilful distribution of sweet sounds,
Opening from land to land an easy way,
By melody, and by the charm of Terse."

This remarkable man was, as the public is well
aware, bred a mason, and it may, therefore, be natu-
rally supposed that many of the works that proceeded
from his pen on the subjects of sculpture and archi-
tecture, would in such cases abound in many shrewd
practical hints, technical observations, and apprecia-
tive criticisms on those subjects, worthy of universal
attention. To all his views on these points, perhaps,
many men would not wholly subscribe, but the sym-
pathy with which he recorded the fortunes and fates
of such men as \Vvkeham, Jones, Wren, and Van-
brugh—the diligence of his r4earches, the generous
character of his sentiments, the unaffected ease and
clearness, and here and there the picturesque strength
and eloquence of his language, must obtain the ap-
probation of every impartial judge.
It will always remain one of the most remarkable
and delightful facts in the history of letters, that the
" Lives of British Architects," a publication conveying
so much valuable knowledge in a style so unaffectedly
attractive—so imbued throughout, not only with
lively sensibility, amiable feelings, honesty and can-
dour, but mature and liberal taste, was produced by a
man who, some twenty years before, earned his
daily bread as a common stone mason in Nithsdale.
`° Honest Allan !" so the great minstrel was accus-
tomed to call him, began to be known early in life,
although it was perhaps a good many years before
he began to be familiar to the public. " Mark
Macrabin," or " The Covenanter," a prose tale of
great power, was one of the first of his productions,
which appeared in Blackwood, and was then highly
appreciated; so also was a series of tales and tradi-
tions which he published in the London Magazine,
and afterwards in a separate form in two volumes.
The songs and ballads of his own composition
which accompanied the former of these dramas, and
which Mr. Cunningham published in his early days,
he confessed to have taken almost at random from a
mass of verse, which the leisure or idleness of many
winter evenings accumulated. Several of them ap-
peared at different times printed in various lyrical
publications. To many of them, which our readers
must know are remarkable for their beauty of melody
and exquisite simplicity of manner and expression, he
owned that he was indebted for some of the best
friendships of his life. One of them we remember, in
particular, which obtained so much celebrity, entitled
the " Mermaid of Galloway," that Mr. Hilton, 8.A.,
painted it, and it now hangs in the galleryof Sir John
Leicester.
Mr. Cunningham's four volumes of " Scottish Song"
were published in 1825. His wish in this work was
to amend, renovate, and illustrate each of them with
characteristic notices, and he executed his labour wc'll.
The finest songs of Scotland can be found nowhere
else in the same perfect state ; to many old verses of
pathos, or of mirth, he gave suitable companions, and
added besides many matters, critical and traditional,
unknown to any other collection. While upon this
labour he gave his eulogy to the songs of his long-
tried and excellent friend, Sir Walter Scott, who has
adorned his novels with little pieces of poetry often
surpassing the best stanzas of his more finished poeti-
cal works.

In 1831, appeared Mr. Cunningham's " Lives of the
British Architects" which was at that time published
in the " Family Library." It was a work calculated
to gratify a large circle. It is a volume full of in-
struction and amusement—not only containing lively
sketches of the lives of the most eminent architects of
our country, but conveying, in an unpretending fashion,
views concerning the history and progress of the art,
such as were calculated to at once gratify general
curiosity, and reward critical examination.
In 1832 Mr. Cunningham published his " Maid of
Elvar." It is unnecessary to enter into a review of
this work, which is one of our British classics, and is
in the library of every reader of poetry. The cha-
racters of Sir Ralph Latoun, the Cumberland Chief—
of the fair and heroic Sybil Lesley, the Maid of Elvar
—of Eustace Grxine, the wooer—together with its
rural imageries, delicate fancies, and heartfelt sensi-
bilities, are fresh in one's memory. It is a poem that
beats with a fine, free, healthful spirit—beautiful with
love, and glowing with imagination.
Indeed, considering the character of Mr. Cunning-
ham altogether, there needs no testimony from us
either to his intellectual accomplishments or his moral
worth ; nor, thanks to his own virtuous diligence, did
he need any patronage. He was fortunate enough to
secure a respectable establishment in the studio of a
great artist, who was not less good than great, and
was even thus excellently in the eve of the world,
even had his literary talents been less industriously
exercised than they were.
- -

Mr. Cunningham married, we believe, in the year
181 1, a lady of Dumfries, and by her he has several
children. Entertaining for her always the most ar-
dent affection, he has made the close of his poem of
the " Maid of Elvar" immortalize her memory in the
last stanza :

" My song is ended ; it was dear to me
As light to morn—as morn to Solway• brine—
As showers to corn—as blossom to the bee ;
And dearer, since, dear wife, 'twas pleasant unto thee."

STATUE OF THE QUEEN.—On Tuesday an immense
block of freestone was brought to town from Binny
Quarry. It is the last of a number of huge blocks
supplied by Mr. ',hind, tacksman of the quarry, for the
erection of a colossal statue of her Majesty Queen
Victoria, now being executed by Mr. Steell, sculptor,
and which is to be placed in the north front of the
Royal Institution, Prince's-street. This stone is
upwards of 22 tons weight, and was brought to town
on a waggon drawn by 16 powerful horses, assisted at
certain difficult parts of the road by a number of Mr.
Lhind's men. It was safely lodged in a large wooden
building, Bread-street, where Mr. Steell is already
far advanced in the formation of this gigantic struc-
ture, and which, when completed, will weigh altoge-
ther upwards of 90 tons. From the well known
talents of the artist, the beauty and solidity of the
Binny stone, and the commanding situation it is to
occupy, this statue of our beloved Sovereign cannot
fail to be an object of great attraction and will com-
plete the beauty of the splendid building which it is
intended to adorn. On the morning of the Queen's
arrival in Edinburgh, and when proceeding down
Hanover-street, Prince Albert pointed out to his
Royal Consort the proposed site of the statue (his
Royal Highness having previously been made aware
of what was intended), and we are informed that her
Majesty afterwards expressed herself highly gratified
by this mark of loyalty and attachment to her person
on the part of the Directors of the Royal Institution.
Caledonian Mercury.
DEER STALKING.—If fox-hunting and steeple-
chasing, with their hairbreadth escapes, make men
courageous, there is nothing more calculated to add
patience and perseverance than following a herd of
deer. Suppose, as often happens, the sportsman has
to lie for hours in a corri, not only must he creep
with " stealthy pace towards his design," but he must
be aware of putting the very crows on wing, or
throwing a glance of the sun from his rifle, either of
which rouses the attention of the wary tenants of the
forest ; when up they start, and, tossing their
"beamed frontlets to the sky," are soon beyond the
reach of the deadly bullet. There must be something
very exciting in this kind of sport, else what could
tempt the noblest in the land to leave the busy haunts
of men, and retire for months among the solitudes of
the highlands ? To possess fine specimens of
horned heads is the deer-stalker's ambition. These
are preserved, and ranged in the hall or gun- '
room, with the date and place where the animal was
captured. Stags with wide-spreading royal horns
are moat prized. The largest we have seen had a
clear space of three feet between the horns, each of
which measured the same, following the curve from
the head to the tip. Parts of the horns of wapiti, a
gigantic species of red deer, now extinct in Scotland,
are occasionally found imbedded in mosses and on the
beach. A pair of these, nearly perfect, are in this
town. The beam measures in circumference eight
inches, with antlers from sixteen to nineteen inches in
length.' The annual shedding and reproduction of
these firm masses of bone has engaged much attention
from anatomists and naturalists. That the old horns
should be separated from the head, and new ones
formed in the course of ten weeks, is a wonderful
phenomenon of nature ; at first they are encased with
a fine velvet-like covering to protect them from cold,
and when completely formed, the animal feels
his power's by rubbing off the decaying
velvet on
trees. Then it is that the noble creature. comes
forth armed, and conscious of his strength, disputes his
forest rights with the other animals. We have at
various times given notice of some feats of that noble
sport, deer-stalking ; and, as the season is now over,
we give some of the last few days' work in the forest.
At Pock-a-Buy Lodge, Sir St. George Gore, Bart.,
killed 11 stags m eight days, four of them in one day,
and three of tliem at one stalking. At Culnakyle,
Mr. R. Winsloe killed two large stags, one of them
with a splendid head. At Erchless Castle two were
shot, one with very wide-spreading 10-antlered horns.
At Achnaclairoch Mr. Collingwood got a fine stag;
and on the west coast Mr. R. G. Cumming secured
two large ones. Mr. H. Hyett, at Balmacarra, one
oneh stag with
stag. Mr. H. C. Raven, at Guernsey,
10, and another with 11 branches on the horns. Dur-
ingatf'ororri lodge, killed
the season, Mr. F. Macneil,
stags,
heardur of them for his
29 deer, 25 of which were stag
that Captain
last day's shooting. We have
Inge, at Locharren, got five stags.—lnvernessA sharp contest is likely to ake placeT
of surgeon to the Surrey CountK Gaol, occasioned by
the death of Mr. Malcolm
dates in the field--Mr. enre
sarmeitthl:reeof candi-
dates
Marl-
borough-place ; Mr. C. Waterwort.th of the Kent-
' Pad and M.r. C. Menlo% of Stainford.fotreet.