Cunningham learned nothing of grammar or composition but eventually made up these deficiencies by private study. He read extensively, as did his four brothers and four sisters. His eldest brother, James, born in 1775, later wrote for newspapers and magazines and maintained a correspondence with the Romantic poet and novelist James Hogg, the "Ettrick Shepherd." Another brother, Thomas Mounsey, born in 1776, would contribute poems to Scottish magazines and would also become a friend of Hogg. The youngest brother, Peter Miller, born in 1789, would be the best-educated member of the family, studying medicine at Edinburgh University and becoming a naval surgeon; his two-volume account of his experiences in New South Wales would be published in 1827.
During Cunningham's childhood Burns was for three years a neighbor across the river Nith at Ellisland; he was a good friend of John Cunningham and a regular visitor to the Cunningham home.
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