Neil Gow

Neil Gow, the famous violinist, was a native of Inver, near Dunkeld, where he continued to reside under the patronage of the Duke of Atholl, his hereditary chief. Though Gow was often present at the most refined gatherings of his day, he retained the native simplicity and homeliness of his speech and manners, which were not onty toIerated but enjoyed by his patrons.

One day he was summoned to Dunkeld House to listen to the piano-playing of Lady Charlotte Drummon, one of the Duke’s daughters, who had just funshed her education.
After hearing her play, Neil remarked cheerfully to the Duchess, “That lassie of yours, my Lady, has a good ear.”

“ Neil,” said one of the gentlemen present, in a tone of surprise, “do you call her Grace’s daughter a lassie ?“

“What, would I call her?” answered the minstrel ; “she’s not a laddie.”

The Duke made himself very familiar with Gow. Walking with the Duchess one day on Stanley Hill, near Dunkeld, Neil chanced to appear. The Duke, who was in a merry mood, took hold of him and sportively engaged him in a wrestling match. Neil was a stalwart fellow, but he got the worst of it, and, missing his footing, rolled down the hill. The Duchess hurried down to him, and expressed the
hope that he was not hurt.

“ Nothing to speak of,” replied Neil; “I was the bigger idiot to wrestle with such a fool.”

Neil Gow’s weakness was his fondness for his glass, often a glass out of the second bottle! It was long before he bid his “ farewell to whisky.” The celebrated Duchess of Gordon, on one occasion, paid Neil a visit in his cottage. in the course of talk, her Grace complained to him of suffering from giddiness and swimming in her head.

“ I know the complaint well,” said the fiddler. “When I’ve had a wee drink the night before, I’ve thought as if a hive of bees was buzzing in my head the next morning.”

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