Cromek
urged him to collect the elder minstrelsy of Nithsdale and Galloway as
an exercise more profitable than the composition of verses. On returning
to London, Cromek received from his young friend packets of "old songs,"
which called forth his warmest encomiums. He entreated him to come to
London to push his fortune,--an invitation which was readily accepted.
For some time Cunningham was an inmate of Cromek's house, when he was
entrusted with passing through the press the materials which he had
transmitted, with others collected from different sources; and which,
formed into a volume, under the title of "Remains of Nithsdale and
Galloway Song," were published in 1810 by Messrs Cadell and Davies. The
work excited no inconsiderable attention, though most of the readers
perceived, what Cromek had not even suspected, that the greater part of
the ballads were of modern origin. Cromek did not survive to be made
cognizant of the amusing imposition which had been practised on his
credulity.

Fortune did not smile on Cunningham's first entrance into business in
London. He was compelled to resume his former occupation as a mason, and
is said to have laid pavement in Newgate Street. From this humble
position he rose to a situation in the studio of Bubb, the sculptor; and
through the counsel of Eugenius Roche, the former editor of the
"Literary Recreations," and then the conductor of _The Day_ newspaper,
he was induced to lay aside the trowel and undertake the duties of
reporter to that journal. _The Day_ soon falling into the hands of other
proprietors, Cunningham felt his situation uncomfortable, and returned
to his original vocation, attaching himself to Francis Chantrey, then a
young sculptor just commencing business. Chantrey soon rose, and
ultimately attained the summit of professional reputation; Cunningham
continued by him as the superintendent of his establishment till the
period of his death, long afterwards.

Devoted to business, and not unfrequently occupied in the studio from
eight o'clock morning till six o'clock evening, Cunningham perseveringly
followed the career of a poet and man of letters. In 1813, he published
a volume of lyrics, entitled "Songs, chiefly in the Rural Language of
Scotland." After an interval of nine years, sedulously improved by an
ample course of reading, he produced in 1822 "Sir Marmaduke Maxwell, a
Dramatic Poem." In this work, which is much commended by Sir Walter
Scott in the preface t