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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
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
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:
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:
"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)
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
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
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
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 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,
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
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
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
Notes
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.
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.
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