Cromek, Cunningham, and
Remains of
Nithsdale and Galloway Song: A Case of
Literary Duplicity
by
Dennis M. Read
Robert Hartley Cromek (1770-1812) is best known today as the
subject of sardonic rhymes and phrases in the Notebook of William Blake.
Blake renamed Cromek "Bob Screwmuch" in one verse and called him "A
Petty sneaking Knave" in another. In a couplet elsewhere in his Notebook,
Blake proclaimed: "Cr[omek] loves artists as he loves his Meat, | He loves
the Art, but 'tis the Art to cheat."[1]
Blake's angry words resulted from several disputes between the two men.
The first occurred in 1805, when Cromek promised Blake the lucrative job
of engraving his designs for Blair's Grave, then reneged,
hiring
the more fashionable engraver Louis Schiavonetti instead. The second
occurred in 1807, when Cromek engaged Thomas Stothard to paint a
Procession of Chaucer's Pilgrims to Canterbury and
Schiavonetti to engrave Stothard's painting, both of which competed with
Blake's own. In each enterprise, Blake believed Cromek a double-dealer.[2]
In a later enterprise, however, Cromek was himself the victim of
double-dealing. In 1810, Cromek edited a collection of ballads purportedly
composed by natives of two southern counties of Scotland, Remains
of Nithsdale and Galloway Song (London: Cadell & Davies).
Most
of those verses, however, were actually composed by the ambitious and
enterprising young Scottish poet, Allan Cunningham (1784-1842), a fact
which was not broached publicly until 1819, seven years after Cromek's
death. Investigating the nature and extent of this duplicity shows the means,
the motive, and the opportunity involved in this literary crime and
illuminates the rock-ribbed antipathy of Scottish literati toward their
southern brethren.
On April 12, 1809, Cunningham, then a seventeen-year-old Dumfries
stone mason and aspiring poet, wrote to Mrs. Eliza Fletcher (1770-1858)
of Edinburgh, "There has been lately a volume added to the Posthumous
works of Mr. Burns which I am well aware Madam you will have
perused—I mention
this that I may tell you there are in the Possession of --- Thomson Esq. of
Dumfries a large collection of unpublished letters Poems &c. of Burn's
[sic] as many as would form a volume and more."
[3] Cunningham is referring to
Reliques
of Robert Burns, a collection of Burns poems, songs, and letters
collected and edited by Cromek and published by Cadell & Davies late
in 1808.
[4] Cunningham apparently
did not know that Mrs. Fletcher had met Cromek in the summer of 1807
during his first trip to Edinburgh and in fact had helped Cromek find some
Burns materials and meet some acquaintances and enthusiasts of
Burns.
Less than six months after Cunningham wrote Mrs. Fletcher, in early
August 1809, the two men met in Dumfries, when Cromek arrived with the
artist Thomas Stothard; Cromek to find more Burns materials, and Stothard
to draw the locales of Burns songs and poems and surviving friends and
relatives of Burns for a new and illustrated edition of Burns's works.
Cromek carried with him a letter of introduction from Mrs. Fletcher to
Cunningham, who was quite pleased to present some samples of his poetry
to this London editor. Cunningham's son, Peter Cunningham, later
recounted Cromek's verdict on the poetry: ". . . he observed, as I have
heard my father tell with great good humour, imitating Cromek's manner
all the while, 'Why, Sir, your verses are well, very well; but no one should
try to write Songs after Robert Burns unless he could either write like him
or some of the old minstrels.'"[5]
Cromek's harsh verdict provoked Cunningham. Thus, when Cromek
expressed interest in collecting previously unpublished Scottish songs and
ballads, Cunningham, acting perhaps more on impulse than malice, asserted
that he knew of many. "Gad, Sir!," Cromek responded; "if we could but
make a volume—Gad, Sir!—see what Percy has done, and
Ritson, and
Mr. Scott more recently with his border Minstrelsy" (Poems and
Songs, p. xii).[6] Encouraged
by Cromek's enthusiastic outburst, Cunningham presented him with a
number of songs on succeeding days, each of them freshly composed the
night before. He did not tell Cromek that the songs were his own, however,
and Cromek, intent on gathering enough "authentic" compositions to make
a volume, did not question Cunningham closely about their origin. On
September 18, 1809, shortly before leaving Dumfries, Cromek gave
Cunningham
a blank book, inscribing specific instructions on its cover: "When this book
is
filled with old unpublished songs and ballads, and with
remarks on them historical and critical, by
Allan
Cunningham,
it must be sent to
R. H. Cromek, 64, Newman Street,
London.
[P] The writer of this knows enough of the last-mentioned gentleman to
warrant him in
assuring Mr. Cunningham, that his exertions
will not only be gratefully acknowledged, but, when an opportunity occurs,
kindly returned" (
Poems and Songs, p. xiii).
Leaving Cunningham with this encouragement and pledge, Cromek
returned to London. From his home there he wrote periodically to
Cunningham in Dumfries to spur Cunningham's progress. "How are you
getting on with your collection?" he wrote on October 9. "I think between
us we shall make a most interesting book" (Poems and Songs,
p. xiii). On the back of this letter Cunningham began composing "Bonnie
Lady Anne," which Cromek included in Remains, along with
Cunningham's letter about its supposed author, Miss Catherine Macartney
of Hacket Leaths, Galloway: "You will be pleased to note down this old
song to the muse of Nithsdale and Galloway. She is a gude, sonsie, sweet
an' kindlie quean; and tho' she may gang a wee thin 'high kilted' at times,
she's gawcie an' modest for a' that, an' winna disgrace your southern
gudeness."[7]
If Cromek was at all suspicious about the authenticity of the songs
Cunningham was sending him, he gave no sign of it in his letters to
Cunningham. Perhaps, however, authenticity was less of a concern for him
than an appearance of native purity, and he was not above tampering with
lyrics in order to achieve this appearance. In his letter of October 27, 1809
to Cunningham, for instance, Cromek objected to a word in a song
Cunningham had recently sent to him: "The epithet 'Fell' is a word almost
exclusively used by mere cold-blooded classic
poets,
not by the poets of Nature, and it certainly has crept into the present song
through the ignorance of reciters. We must remove it, and its
removal must not be mentioned. We'll bury it 'in the family
vault of all the Capulets'" (Poems and Songs, p. xiv).[8]
This private decision, however, is quite at odds with Cromek's public
declaration in the note to "Lassie, Lie Near Me" he published in
Remains:
It has been suggested that this song would look better
if
it were printed Wifie, lie near me. . . . Had not the editor
thought that these songs, in their present garb, were worthy of all
acceptation, he certainly would not have brought them before the public. He
is conscious that he cannot by any attempt at this sort of squeamish delicacy
atone for presumption. Who would pardon even Dr. Johnson and his
brother commentators, if, instead of illustrating, they had dared to garble
the works of the immortal Shakespeare? A licence of this sort, if once
assumed, would lead to mischief of incalculable extent; every puny critic
would be correcting and altering, until the original text of an author would
no longer be known (pp. 190-191n.).
Cromek's eloquent espousal of fidelity to the text clearly is a principal he
employed only at his convenience.
At first Cromek planned to include the songs Cunningham "collected"
in a volume also containing a group of Scottish songs accompanied by
remarks by Burns and a selection of twenty-five or thirty of the best songs
and ballads from Johnson's Musical Museum. Cunningham,
however, proved to be so successful in enlarging his inventory of songs and
in composing notes to them that Cromek decided to publish the Burns
materials separately as Select Scotish Songs, Ancient and
Modern; with critical observations and biographical notices by
Robert
Burns. The work was published in two octavo volumes by Cadell and
Davies in 1810. On February 8, 1810, Cromek wrote Cunningham his plans
for their volume:
I have now a clear ken of a curious book, on which we
can pride ourselves, notwithstanding much criticism, which
I
plainly see it will get. I have got a famous motto for the
book—Remains
of Nithsdale and Galloway Song: with
Historical and
Traditional Notices relative to the Manners and Customs of the Peasantry,
now first published by R. H. Cromek.
"We marked each memorable scene,
And held poetic talk between;
Nor hill, nor brook, we paced along,
But had its LEGEND or its SONG:
All silent now." (Poems and Songs, pp. xx-xxi)
The motto, which ends in more truth than Cromek knew, was not used; the
full title was retained. Cromek does not explain why he expects the volume
to be criticized, or why he calls it a "
curious book." Perhaps
he
worried that it was too remote from the interests of the English reading
public. Perhaps he thought it might be compared unfavorably with Ritson's
or Scott's editions. Or perhaps he wondered if readers would find the songs
too rude or rough. Whatever his reasons for his unease, however, he
continued to encourage Cunningham's work on it.
Mrs. Fletcher expressed her own concerns to Cromek about
Cunningham's work on the volume. In a letter dated January 25, 1810, she
wrote: "I am very glad you have some favourable prospects for Allan
Cunningham.—I believe him to be an excellent young
man—but I fear
his admiration of ancient ballads will injure his taste. It seems the faculty
which he has most need to cultivate[.] His conceptions are often refined but
his language is sometimes vulgar.—and he is apt to mistake this for
simplicity than which nothing can be more erroneous" (Letter in the
National Library of Scotland (2617/65), quoted with permission). Mrs.
Fletcher's sensibilities seem more English than Scottish in her concern over
the vulgarity of Cunningham's language. Whether or not Cromek shared
these sensibilities, he no doubt placed the progress of the volume before the
risk of damaging Cunningham's poetic talent.
Because Cunningham had sent a sufficient number of songs to
Cromek by early 1810, Cromek began encouraging him to come to London,
so that the two of them could complete work on the volume together. In his
letter of January 27, 1810, Cromek suggested that Cunningham plan to
arrive by the beginning of April (Poems and Songs, pp.
xviii-xix). His letters of March 22 and March 28 repeat this encouragement,
the last letter including such
fatherly advice about the journey as avoiding Edinburgh (except to call on
Mrs. Fletcher), finding a room in an inn at Leith, and staying in the
principal cabin of the ship (
Poems and Songs, p. xxiii). When
Cunningham arrived in London early in April, he was Cromek's guest at
his home, where they worked on the final version of
Remains.
On June 13, Cromek wrote to the Edinburgh publisher Archibald Constable
that the task was nearly at its end:
You will rejoice with me that my volume of Nithsdale Ballads is on
the verge of publication. I wish you had had it, because it should have
issued from a Scotch house, and because it is a most curious and original
book, and will most certainly have a very wide circulation. I have so high
an opinion of it myself, that I think Mr. Jeffrey
[9] will and must say it is the most
valuable
collection that ever yet appeared. I have now given—what I think
was
never given—the real history of the Scottish Peasantry and as far as
relates to the twin districts of Nithsdale and Galloway, I have ventured to
describe at some length their manners, attachments, games, superstitions,
their traditional history of fairies, witchcraft, &c., &c., taken
down
from the lips of old cottars.
[10]
Cromek's Introduction to Remains included an
explanation
for publishing the collection of songs: "It has been the work of the present
collector to redeem some of those fine old ballads and songs, overshadowed
by the genius of BURNS; such especially as have never before been
published, and are floating in the breath of popular tradition. . . . To those
who wish to know how the peasantry think and feel, these
Remains will be acceptable. They may be considered as so
many unhewn altars raised to rural love, and local humour and opinion, by
the GENIUS of unlettered rusticity" (pp. ii-xxvi). Cromek's
acknowledgment of Cunningham, however, is limited to a single paragraph
in his Introduction: "To Mr. Allan Cunningham, who, in the humble and
laborious profession of a mason, has devoted his leisure hours to the
cultivation of a genius naturally of the first order, I cannot sufficiently
express my obligations. He entered into my design with the enthusiasm of
a poet; and was my
guide through the rural haunts of Nithsdale and Galloway; where his
variously interesting and animated conversation beguiled the tediousness of
the toil; while his local knowledge, his refined taste, and his indefatigable
industry, drew from obscurity many pieces which adorn this collection, and
which, without his aid, would have eluded my research" (pp.
xxx-xxxi).
Of the fifty-six songs in the volume, Cunningham later acknowledged
writing twenty-five, nearly half the total number. He probably wrote many
of the others, but perhaps he did not believe they were worth retrieving
from the maws of anonymity. He also wrote, in his words, "every article
but two little scraps" in the Appendix, which contains eight essays relating
to Scottish history and tradition (Hogg, Life, p. 79).
Cunningham disguised his authorship of the songs in two ways. The
first was to assert that the source of the song was someone else.
Cunningham attributed seven of the songs he wrote to "a young girl, in the
parish of Kirk-bean, in Galloway," Jean Walker, whom, some years later,
Cunningham married. Cromek included in
Remains
quotations
from two alleged letters of hers, including a pithy and dialect-tinged defense
of "The Mermaid of Galloway": "How will your old fashioned taste, and
the new fangledness of the public's agree about these old
Songs?—But
tell me, can a song become old when the ideas and imagery it contains are
drawn from nature? While gowans grow on our braes, and lilies on our
burn-banks, so long will natural imagery and natural sentiment flourish
green in song" (p. 247). Cromek knew of Jean Walker only through
Cunningham. Another of the seven songs Cunningham attributes to her,
"Durwentwater," Cromek has trouble authenticating: "The Editor cannot
find any tradition on which this ballad is founded; . . . He has searched for
it
carefully through all the collections he could meet with, but it is not to be
found" (p. 128). In spite of this dearth of collaborative evidence, Cromek
published "Durwentwater" as a genuine Scottish folk ballad, as well as the
six others supposedly transmitted by Jean Walker.
Another important supposed contributor of songs to
Remains is Mrs. Copland of Dalbeattie, Galloway. Cromek
knew her and in fact dedicated the volume to her. "Mrs. Copland's
exquisite taste has rescued from oblivion many fine remains of Song; and
has illustrated them by remarks equally curious and valuable," Cromek
wrote in his Introduction (p. xxix). Nevertheless, the six songs which are
attributed to her, "The Lord's Marie," "Kenmure's on an' Awa, Willie,"
"Awa, Whigs, Awa!," "Carlisle Yetts," "The Waes O'Scotland," and "The
Young Maxwell," were actually composed by Cunningham. It is worth
noting that Cunningham's father had been a factor to Mrs. Copland's
husband in 1784.
Mrs. Copland's niece, Miss Macartney, is listed as the source for two
songs in fact composed by Cunningham, "Bonnie Lady Ann" and "The
Sun's Bright in France." Two other songs attributed to Miss Macartney
were never acknowledged by Cunningham as his own; likewise three others
of Mrs. Copland and two others of Jean Walker. Perhaps they are genuine
folk ballads, or perhaps Cunningham did not think they were good enough
to claim.
Cunningham therefore attributed to these three people many songs
which he had composed. The most involved manipulation of this
modus operandi may have occured in constructing the song,
"There's Nane O'Them A'Like My Bonnie Lassie." Cromek's note to the
song states: "This old song cost much pains in collecting. The first, second,
third, and fifth verses are from the young girl who recited 'Derwent-water'
[Jean Walker]. The fourth verse, and part of the sixth, are from Mrs.
Copland; the last verses are restored [?by Cunningham] from those
ewe-bughting and trysting singings once so common in Nithsdale and
Galloway" (p. 92). Although Cunningham never claimed authorship of this
song, one wonders if so many people were actively involved in this
collaboration and if the "pains" were so great.
The second way that Cunningham disguised his authorship was to
claim a certain ancestry for it. For instance, Cromek writes of
Cunningham's "The Ewe-Bughts,": "This song was communicated to the
Editor by his friend Allan Cunningham, who learned it when a boy, from
a servant-girl belonging to his father, an honest, cultivated farmer, and
acquaintance and neighbor of Burns, when he lived at Ellisland. He never
heard any one sing it but herself" (p. 63). Another song Cunningham later
admitted was composed by him, "The Gray Cock," Cromek states in
Remains Cunningham learned from his father.
The remaining songs in the volume either are derived from authentic
Scottish songs or contain whole stanzas of songs which had been published
in Scots Musical Museum or Ritson's Collection of
Scottish Songs. Practically everything in the collection is a result of
Cunningham's efforts, but Cromek gives Cunningham scarcely any
acknowledgment and poses throughout the volume as the industrious
collector, the careful researcher, the scrupulous editor, and the eminent
authority of Scottish song. He was in fact a Yorkshireman who had visited
Scotland twice in his life. It is no wonder that Cunningham was able to
beguile him so completely.
Early in October, 1810, Cromek sent pre-publication copies of
Remains to two close associates, the Rev. James Graham of
Durham, author of "The Sabbath," and James Montgomery of Sheffield,
editor of the Sheffield Iris and a well known poet.
Montgomery's response to the volume is not known, but Graham's is the
kind that Cromek feared. On October 6 Graham answered that the volume
contained many pieces which were without merit and which lacked suitable
piety. "The book is replenished with gems curiously, fantastically, and often
clumsily set," he wrote to Cromek. "Your own part of the work [the
Introduction and notes] is spirited and eloquent."[11] This blunted praise no doubt did
little to
build Cromek's confidence about the public reception of the volume on the
eve of its publication.
Remains was published simultaneously with
Select
Scotish Songs in mid-December 1810. Advertisements for both of
them appear in the December 13 Morning Chronicle of
London.
Cromek immediately began sending copies to his important acquaintances.
On December 22 he sent one to William Roscoe of Liverpool with a letter
mentioning Mrs. Copland, sister of Dr. Macartney of Liverpool. Roscoe,
an intimate friend of Burns's first biographer and editor, Dr. James Currie,
was acquainted with friends and relatives of Burns and many other Scots,
especially those residing in Liverpool. Cromek acknowledged to Roscoe the
assistance of Cunningham, who "In making the Collections . . . has served
me throughout the whole with the Zeal & Enthusiasm of a true Poet.
.
. . he has combined the industry of the Winged Mercury with the Genius
of Apollo" (Liverpool Public Libraries, quoted with permission). Roscoe
playfully answered Cromek in a letter dated January 21, 1811: ". . . where
in the name of all that's strange did you get together such a mass of odd
matter? So old and so new, and so bawdy and so devout, and so
Jacobinical and so pathetic, and in short, so piquant altogether, that one
knows not how to get the book out of one's hands till one has laughed, and
cried, and wondered what strange sort of a fellow the author, or rather the
collector of it (for it does not seem very clear where these two characters
separate) can be. . . . if you escape being hanged, drawn, and quartered,
for a traitor, the public will, I hope, make you amends for the risk you
have run" (Letter in the possession of Mr. Paul Warrington, quoted with
permission).
Cromek also sent a letter to the wood-engraver Thomas Bewick of
Newcastle, dated December 24, 1810, along with the title-page of
Remains, "containing," Cromek wrote, "a great deal of
valuable
traditional Poetry, collected by me while I was last in Scotland, from the
mouths of old women, and Country girls in the romantic districts of
Nithsdale, and Galloway" (Paul Warrington).
In fact the public reception to Remains was good and
the
reviews complimentary. The January 1811 Universal
Magazine
describes the volume in glowing terms:
The contents of this volume form a subject more than usually
interesting to the philosopher and the critic. They are not the matured
efforts of labour, study and learning; they are not the offspring of
refinement, nor are they executed from any prescribed model: they are the
simple, natural, and heart-warm effusions of rustic feeling: they describe
those passions which nature plants, nourishes, and expands: they have been
written with no expectations of renown; they have floated upon the breath
of tradition: the very names of their authors are unknown: and just when
the period had arrived that they would probably have died with their
possessors, Mr. Cromek has arrested them in their fleeting progress, and
has given them a "a [sic] local habitation and a name" (p.
37).
The January 27, 1811, National Register also reviewed
Remains favorably. Even some Scottish readers had praise for
the volume. Lord Wood-houselee (Alexander Fraser Tytler) wrote to
Cromek on March 2, 1811 that "The Nithsdale Ballads are a valuable
present to the public. They open to us a species of Scottish Song of its own
peculiar fabric, and with which we, in this part of the country [Edinburgh],
are very little acquainted. I mean that which exhibits an intimate union of
Love and Religion" (Paul Warrington). And Burns's friend James Gray
wrote Cromek on June 3, 1811: "I have read the Nithsdale and Galloway
Ballads, with no common interest. Some of them are extremely beautiful.
'The Mermaid' is a production of very high genius, and several of the
shorter pieces delight me exceedingly. All of them are in a vein of exquisite
poetry. Is it not wonderful that pieces of such uncommon merit should have
been doomed so long to obscurity, and that an Englishman should have
had the honour of bringing them to light? [¶] Your own share of the
work is highly creditable to you. The writing displays all that elegant
simplicity that characterises your style in The 'Reliques.' [¶] You are,
I think, even improving in style."[12]
Other Scottish readers, however, especially those who knew the
ballad tradition well, were suspicious of the volume in various ways. The
editor Robert Anderson wrote to Bishop Percy on June 22, 1811, "Mr.
Cromek has been very successful in his illustrations of popular antiquities
and manners; but the genuineness of some of his traditional songs may be
reasonably doubted; 'The Mermaid [of Galloway]' particularly, one of the
best."[13] Indeed, the song had been
composed by Cunningham. Earlier, on December 3, 1810, Walter Scott had
written to John Murray, editor of the Quarterly Review, of
Cromek: "In his Nithsdale &c. sketches he has I think had the
assistance
of a Mr. Mounsey Cunningham that used to correspond with Mr.
Constable[']s Scottish Magazine under the signature T. M. C. I wish you
would learn how this stands for he is a man of some genius and I would
like to treat him civilly whereas Cromek is a perfect Brain-sucker living
upon the
labours of others[.]"[14] Scott confuses
Cunningham, whom he would not meet until 1820, with his older brother,
Thomas Mounsey Cunningham (1776-1834), a poet who had published
some pieces in Scots Magazine in 1806. He later corrected
himself on which Cunningham Cromek was exploiting; in his letter to John
Bell dated March 7, 1816, he wrote, "There are some good Jacobite songs
. . . in a book called Nithsdale and Galloway Minstrelsay [sic] published
by one Cromek—the words which are very pretty are by Allan
Cunningham as I believe" (Letters, IV, 191).
Other Scottish authorities on native song, and especially those who
knew something of Cunningham's work, also suspected the authenticity of
many pieces in Remains, although they hesitated from saying
so in print. Thus, when Cromek died in 1812, he still may not have known
that Cunningham had composed many of the songs in
Remains—or at least he believed that the true author
of the
volume was still secret. The charade was maintained by Cunningham in the
"Biographical Sketch of Robert Hartley Cromek" published in the 1813
Grave. At the beginning of his eulogy Cunningham states of
Cromek, "Perhaps no Englishman was so well qualified for editing, and
particularly for appreciating the curious excellences of Scotish
poetry."
Seven years after Cromek's death, in 1819, James Hogg finally stated
his suspicions publicly in his Jacobite Relics of Scotland
(1819).
He wrote of "The Waes of Scotland": "This song is copied from Cromek's
work, where it first appeared. I am afraid it is not very ancient, as it bears
strong marks of the hand of the ingenious Allan Cunninghame, one of the
brightest poetical geniuses that ever Scotland bred. . ." (p. 292). Hogg
suggested elsewhere in Jacobite Relics that Cunningham also
wrote "Lochman Gate" and "Hame,
Hame, Hame"; indeed he is correct about all three songs. Later that year,
in the December 1819
Blackwood's Magazine, Professor John
Wilson wrote directly and at length about Cunningham's role in
Remains. Professor Wilson asserted that while "[t]he late Mr
Cromek was a man of considerable enthusiasm and ability, . . . he knew
little about poetry, and absolutely nothing about the poetry of Scotland. He
was precisely that kind of person to believe every thing he was told on that
subject—and having a vague notion, that the traditional songs of
Scotland
were pathetic and beautiful, he was ready to accept, as such, all verses
written in the Scottish dialect, that breathed the sentiments and passions of
lowly and rural life." Professor Wilson argued of the appendix, "no person
of ordinary penetration can for a moment doubt, that as a whole it was
fairly composed and written out by the hand of Allan Cunningham."
Likewise, "the best of the poetry, too, belongs to Allan
Cunningham." And Professor Wilson concluded resoundingly, "can the
most credulous person believe, that Mr Cromek, an Englishman, an utter
stranger in Scotland, should have been able, during a few days['] walk
through Nithsdale and Galloway, to collect, not a few broken fragments of
poetry only, but a number of finished and perfect poems, of whose
existence none of the inquisitive literary men or women of Scotland had
ever before heard?"
[15]
Wilson's article forcefully claims the form and extent of
Cunningham's involvement in Remains. Early in 1820,
Cunningham heard a similar claim from Walter Scott when they finally met
in London. Scott, Cunningham later wrote, "turned the conversation upon
song, and said, he had long wished to know me, on account of some songs
which were reckoned old, but which he was assured were mine; 'at all
events,' said he, 'they are not old—they are far too good to be old:
I dare
say you know what songs I mean.'"[16]
Shortly thereafter, while Scott sat for Chantrey, who was sculpting a bust
of him, Cunningham, Chantrey's secretary since 1814, told Scott the whole
story. Later in 1820, Cunningham also wrote to Mrs. Fletcher in Edinburgh
confessing his duplicity and asking her advice. She answered in a letter
dated November 2, 1820: ". . . I was more amused and interested than
[?upset] by your information about the Nithsdale Ballads. It is as curious
a
literary fact as I ever met with, and I think you owe it to yourself to give
it publicity. . . you should simply narrate the feeling that prompted you to
this piece of literary imposition—and the less severe you are upon
Cromek (who cannot now defend himself) the more readily the public will
sympathise with your irritated pride and forgive the harmless
manner in which you resented such a provocation."[17]
Cunningham published no such admission or explanation as she had
advised, but what had previously been suspected about
Remains
henceforth was translated into received knowledge. When Hogg published
the second volume of his
Jacobite Relics in 1821, his notes
about the authorship of specific songs in
Remains were much
more blunt: "["The old Man's Lament"] is likewise from Cromek, and very
like what my friend, Allan Cunninghame, might write at a venture" (p.
355). "["The Lovely Lass from Inverness"] is from Cromek. Who can
doubt that it is by Cunninghame or suppose that such a song really
remained in Nithsdale unknown to Burns?" (p. 356). "["Carlisle Yetts"] is
from Cromek; and if it is not Allan Cunninghame's, is very like his style"
(p. 371). The following year, in 1832, Hogg asserted in his
Altrive
Tales (1832) not only that Cunningham had composed most of the
contents of
Remains, but also that he (Hogg) was among the
first to realize this fact:
When Cromek's "Nithsdale and Galloway Relics" came to my hand
[in 1810], I at once discerned the strains of my friend [Cunningham], and
I cannot describe with what sensations of delight I first heard Mr. Morrison
read the "Mermaid of Galloway," while at every verse I kept naming the
author. . . .
I continued my asseverations to all my intimate friends, that
Allan Cunningham was the author of all that was beautiful in the
work. Gray, who had an attachment to Cromek, denied it positively
on his friend's authority. Grieve joined him. Morrison, I saw, had strong
lurking suspicions; but then he stickled for the ancient genius of Galloway.
When I went to Sir Walter Scott (then Mr. Scott,) I found him decidedly
of the same opinion as myself; and he said he wished to God we had that
valuable and original young man fairly out of Cromek's hands again.
I next wrote a review of the work, in which I laid the saddle on the
right horse, and sent it to Mr. Jeffrey [of the Edinburgh
Review]; but, after retaining it for some time, he returned it with
a
note, saying, that he had read over the article, and was convinced of the
fraud which had been attempted to be played off on the public, but he did
not think it worthy of exposure. I have the article, and card, by me to this
day (pp. cxxxiv-cxxxv).
After such strong assertions had been advanced by Wilson and Hogg in
print, and by Scott in letters and conversation, Cunningham apparently
believed that there was no need for him to present in print the true version
of the composition of Remains. Rather, he seems to have
regarded the matter as settled by 1825, when, in The Songs of
Scotland, he simply attributed to himself without comment six songs
which first appeared in Remains: "The [Lovely] Lass of
Preston
Mill," "The Lord's Marie," "Bonnie Lady Ann," "Thou Hast Vow'd by thy
Faith, My Jeanie," "The Broken Heart of Annie," and "The Return of
Spring." Cunningham included two other songs of his from
Remains in his Songs of Scotland, appending
to each
of them notes which at least indicate his recognition that an explanation was
in order. In his note to "The Young Maxwell," Cunningham wrote,
"Instead of saying why or when I wrote this song, or telling the reasons that
induced me to imitate the
natural ballad style of the north, I will tell a little touching story which has
long been popular in my native place" (III, 211). Cunningham's story
explains why the Scots have such an abiding hatred for the Duke of
Cumberland and his soldiers, the theme of "The Young Maxwell." And in
his
note to "The waes of Scotland," Cunningham wrote: "This song is copied
from Cromek's Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, where it first
appeared; it has since found its way into many collections. Mr. Hogg
admitted it into the Jacobite Relics, accompanied by such praise of the
author as I would rather allude to than quote. It would be uncandid to say
such praise is unwelcome; for the praise of a man of original genius will
always be considered by the world as an acceptable thing, and I am willing
to acknowledge its value" (III, 244).
Curiously, however, Cunningham did not attach his name to twelve
other songs in Songs of Scotland which originally appeared
in
Remains: "Stars, dinna peep in," "Awa, whigs, awa," "The
Wee Wee German Lairdie," "John Cameron," "Carlisle Yetts,"
"Derwentwater," "Lament for the Lord Maxwell," "Kenmure's on and
awa," "Merry may the keel rowe," "Lassie, lie near me," "Young Airly,"
and "Galloway Tam." Yet when Cunningham's son, Peter Cunningham,
collected his father's verses for Poems and Songs by Allan
Cunningham in 1847, he included five of this dozen ("The Wee Wee
German Lairdie," "Carlisle Yetts," "Derwentwater," "Lament for the Lord
Maxwell," and "Young Airly") in the volume.
In his introduction to these Poems and Songs, Peter
Cunningham finally presented the true story of the making of
Remains. He does not, however, follow Mrs. Fletcher's
admonition to his father to be charitable to Cromek. Cunningham's only
compensation for his long and sustained labors, according to his son's
account, was a copy of the volume and a promise of something more in the
future, along with some personal introductions to artists. They visited first
John Charles Rossi, then Chantrey, then Charles Bubb, who engaged
Cunningham for twenty-six shillings a week. Cunningham remained in
Cromek's home for about eight months until nearly the end of 1810, when
he was financially able to establish his own separate residence.
Cromek therefore unwittingly acted as the perfect dupe for
Cunningham, who knew that the editor of Remains could not
discern between real Scottish songs and modern imitations of them. In his
ignorance, his pomposity, and his brash exploitation of the services and
talents of young Allan Cunningham, Cromek served to confirm the notions
the Scottish held generally about the English. Cunningham certainly must
have believed that his forgeries of Scottish ballads were not nearly so
blameworthy as Cromek's wholesale acceptance of them. Cromek had told
Cunningham, as he had told Blake about his Grave designs,
that
he would be richly rewarded for his efforts. When Cunningham wound up
with nothing more than a volume of his imitations and a servile position in
London, he must have felt he was the victim of his own deception and
Cromek the victor.
In fact, Cunningham could not have emerged a winner in his scheme.
If he had hoped that Cromek would be exposed as a bogus expert on
Scottish song, he would have needed to depend upon critics publicly
pointing out the fraudulent dimensions of Remains. Instead,
English reviewers seem to have been taken in as much as Cromek, and
Scottish reviewers (or, in the case of
the
Edinburgh Review, a Scottish editor) refrained from
questioning the authenticity of the volume. In a letter to his brother, James,
dated September 8, 1810, Cunningham wrote that Cromek's example
showed that "a man may talk about the thing he does not understand, and
be reckoned a wise fellow too" (Hogg,
Life, pp. 79-80). It
remained for Cunningham to establish himself as a poet, biographer, and
journalist of the fine arts in other, more conventional ways.
Notes