Old Photograph Blackwood House Auldgirth Scotland

Old photograph of Blackwood house by Auldgirth, a village on the A76 road in the Civil Parish of Closeburn in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The Blackwood estate on the west side of the Nith above the Auldgirth bridges was the birthplace in 1784 of the stonemason turned poet and author Allan Cunningham, born 7 December 1784, died 30 October 1842. His father John, an estate factor at Blackwood, became acquainted with Robert Burns after moving to the nearby Dalswinton estate owned by the poet's landlord Patrick Miller. Cunningham was apprenticed to a stonemason, but gave his leisure to reading and writing imitations of old Scottish ballads. In 1810 Cunningham went to London, England, where he worked as a parliamentary reporter and journalist till 1814, when he became clerk of the works in the studio of the sculptor, Francis Chantrey, a post he kept until Chantrey's death in 1841. Cunningham was married to Jean Walker, who had been servant in a house where he lived, and they had five sons and one daughter, all of whom rose to important positions, and inherited in some degree his literary gifts. Among them were Joseph Davey Cunningham, Alexander Cunningham, Peter Cunningham and Francis Cunningham.



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