Cunningham, PETER

Cunningham, PETER, son of Allan Cunningham the poet, was born in Pimlico, April 1, 1816. He was educated at Christ's Hospital, London, entered the Audit Office through Peel's influence in 1834, and ultimately became chief clerk. He retired in 1860, and died at St Albans, 18th May 1869. His name is chiefly remembered by his Handbook of London (1849), a book stored with out-of-the-way facts, and informed with true literary flavour. He contributed largely to the literary journals, edited books for both the Shakespeare and the Percy Societies, as well as Horace Walpole's Letters (1857), Drummond of Hawthornden, Goldsmith, Johnson's Lives of the Poets, and Pope. Other books are Modern London (1851) and the Story of Nell Gwynn (1852).