A Biographical Dictionary of Fiddlers di A. Mason Clarke
Biographical Dictionary of Fiddlers. 1.09
Niel Gow was born in Strathband, Perthshire,* of humble but honest parents, in the year 1727. His taste for music was early decided. At the age of nine he began to play, and was, it is said, self-taught, till about his thirteenth year, when he received some instruction of John Cameron, an attendant of Sir George Stewart of Grandtully. The following anecdote of a competition, which happened a few years after this, deserves to be related, not only as a proof of natural genius assuming its station at an early period, but on account of the circumstance with which it concludes, and which was perhaps the first acknowledgment of that peculiar professional ability to which he afterwards owed his fame. A trial qf skill having been proposed amongst a few of the best performers in the country, young Neil for some time declined contest, believing himself to be no match for such masters in the art. At last, however, he was prevailed on to enter the lists, and one of the minstrels who was blind, being made the umpire, the prize was adjudged to Neil Gow by a sentence, in the justice of which the other competitors cheerfully acquiesced. On this occasion, in giving his decision, the judge said that he could
* Some writers say he was born at Inver, near unkeld, March 22, 1727.
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Dictionary Fiddlers Niel Gow Strathband Perthshire John Cameron Sir George Stewart Grandtully Neil Neil Gow Inver March His The
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