> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Nigel Gatherer
> > It's Peter Milne's 178th birthday!
Ted Hastings responded:
> Is he having a party?
You mean you didn't get your invite? Perhaps it was sent to your old
address. Or something.
I recently found a book I bought in a junk shop years ago, "The Fiddle
in Scotland" by Alexander G Murdoch (n.d.); a curious collection of
anecdotes and stories about various Scots fiddlers. It includes this
account of the meeting of Burns and Niel Gow:
.............................
Arriving at Dunkeld, [Burns]...put up at the principal inn...[He] was
fortunate in making the acquaintance of Dr Stewart, an enthusiastic
amateur violin player. At the dinner table he quoted to his guests the
well-known local ditty-
Dunkeld it is a little toon,
An' lies intil a howe;
An' if ye want a fiddler loon,
Spier ye for Niel Gow.
Burns expressed much delight at the proposal...a visit was at once
agreed to.
The greeting was a cordial one on both sides, and the meeting of Burns
and Gow - both geniuses of the first order in their respective lines -
was mutually worthy of each other. The magician of the bow gave them a
selection of north-country airs mostly of his own spirited composition.
The first tune was "Loch Erroch Side" which greatly delighted the poet,
who long afterwards wrote for the same melody his touching lyric "Oh,
stay, sweet warbling woodlark, stay!"
At Burns's request, Niel next gave them his pathetic "Lament for
Abercairney" and afterwards one of the best-known compositions in the
Highlands, "McIntosh's Lament". "Tullochgorum" was also duly honoured,
after which the whole party adjourned to the little old-fashioned inn
at Inver, where there was a famous deoch, or parting friendly drink.
.............................
The above is supposed to have been recounted by Peter Stewart, who
accompanied Gow on bass on the occasion.
--
Nigel Gatherer, Crieff, Scotland
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/gatherer/
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