University of Virginia Library

The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake, Newly Revised ed., ed. David V. Erdman (1982), pp. 504, 509.

The information related to these two disputes may be conveniently reviewed in G. E. Bentley, Jr., Blake Records (1969), pp. 166-174, 179-210, and 215-222. See also Bentley's "Blake and Cromek: The Wheat and the Tares," Modern Philology, 71 (1974), 366-367 and my "Cromek's Provincial Advertisements for Blake's Grave," Notes & Queries, N. S. 27 (1980), 73-76. A third project involving Cromek which angered Blake is discussed in my "The Context of Blake's 'Public Address': Cromek and the Chalcographic Society," Philological Quarterly, 60 (1981), 69-86.

Letter in the Berg Collection, New York Public Library, quoted with permission. This apparently is not George Thomson, who published six volumes of Scottish song between 1793 and 1841.

For a full account of Cromek's work on this volume, see my "Practicing 'The Necessity of Purification': Cromek, Roscoe, and Reliques of Burns," Studies in Bibliography, 35 (1982), 306-319.

Poems and Songs by Allan Cunningham (1847), pp. xi-xii. Further references to this work will be included parenthetically in the text.

Cromek mentions the three most successful collections of songs and ballads: Bishop Thomas Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry: consisting of old heroic ballads, songs, and other pieces of our earlier poets, . . . together with some few of a later date, 3 vols. (1765); Joseph Ritson's The Caledonian Muse: a chronological selection of Scotish [sic] poetry from the earliest times (1785); and Walter Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border: consisting of historical and romantic ballads, collected in the southern counties of Scotland . . . , 3 vols. (1802).

Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, ed. R. H. Cromek (1810), p. 13n. Subsequent references to this edition will be included parenthetically in the text.

I have not been able to determine which song Cromek is emending.

Editor of the Edinburgh Review. Jeffrey had reviewed Cromek's Reliques of Burns favorably in the January 1809 number. The review is reprinted in Robert Burns: The Critical Heritage, ed. Donald A. Low (1974), pp. 178-195.

Letter in the National Library of Scotland (670/367); reprinted in David Hogg, Life of Allan Cunningham (1875), p. 72.

Quoted by Thomas Hartley Cromek in his MS "Memorials of R. H. Cromek" (1864), in the possession of Mr. Paul Warrington.

Letter in the possession of Mr. Paul Warrington. James Gray (1770-1830), at this time the master of the high school in Edinburgh, had met Cromek during his first trip to Edinburgh in 1807. See DNB. Allan Cunningham wrote Thomas Cromek on July 19, 1833, "The last time almost I had a conversation with Mr. Cromek he felt a little angry with the world for not perceiving the merits of the Vol. [Remains] and talked of publishing the letters, with the opinions of the cleverest men of the age, only, he said, to show the public what an ass it was" (quoted in "Memorials"). Cunningham's recollection is curious, since his authorship of most of what was in Remains was well known by the time he wrote Cromek's son.

Quoted in James Bowyer Nichols, Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century (1848), VII, 215.

Letters of Sir Walter Scott, ed. H. J. C. Grierson (1932), II, 409.

Pages 315-316. Much of this passage is quoted in Poems and Songs by Allan Cunningham, p. xxx.

Allan Cunningham, Life of Sir Walter Scott (1833), p. 57. Originally published in the October 6, 1832, Athenaeum.

Letter in the National Library of Scotland, quoted with permission. Mrs. Fletcher provides an abridged account of her friendship with Cunningham and mentions his confession to her in her Autobiography, 3rd ed. (1876), pp. 145-148.