THIS IS ONE OF SEVERAL AUTOGRAPH PIECES WHICH I CURRENTLY HAVE FOR SALE FROM A COLLECTION RELATING TO THE REVEREND CHARLES SWAINSON, MASTER OF CHRIST'S COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE. MANY OF THESE WERE ADDRESSED TO SWAINSON THOUGH OTHERS WERE COLLECTED BY HIM. A SCARCE AUTOGRAPH LETTER BY THE SCOTTISH POET ALLAN CUNNINGHAM (1784-1842). DATED 1829 AND 5 LINES LONG, IT IS ADDRESSED TO MRS DILKE - PROBABLY THE WIFE OF CHARLES WENTWORTH DILKE - REGARDING HIS WIFE AND HER KIND INVITATION. A LITTLE CREASED OR WRINKLED, WITH TRACES OF MOUNTING TO THE REAR. Allan Cunningham (7 December 1784 – 30 October 1842) was a Scottish poet and author He was born at Keir, near Dalswinton, Dumfries and Galloway, and first worked as a stonemason's apprentice. His father was a neighbour of Robert Burns at Ellisland, and Allan with his brother James visited James Hogg, the "Ettrick shepherd", who became a friend to both. Cunningham's other brothers were the naval surgeon Peter Miller Cunningham (1789–1864) and the poet, Thomas Mounsey Cunningham (1776–1834). Cunningham was apprenticed to a stonemason, but gave his leisure to reading and writing imitations of old Scottish ballads. In 1809 he collected old ballads for Robert Hartley Cromek's Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song; he sent in, however, poems of his own, which the editor inserted, even though he may have suspected their real authorship. It gained for him the friendship of Walter Scott and Hogg. In 1810 Cunningham went to London, 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. **** Charles Anthony Swainson (1820–1887) was an English theologian, Norrisian and subsequently Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity,Master of Christ's College, Cambridge and a canon of Chichester.[1][a] His published works deal mainly with the Eastern Liturgies and the Creeds.