Craigvinean's long sloping range is easily ascended from various points off Wade’s road, and offers grand views of Dunkeld and its Bridge with the valley of the Tay from north to south.

Although but a mere handful of houses at the present day, Inver was of importance before Dunkeld Bridge was built or the railway opened. The Wester Ferry crossed the Tay at this point, and the currents being more favourable than at the Easter Ferry, it was the one generally used, especially by travellers to and from the north. It boasted Inns; a goodly number of skilled tradesmen, including weavers, plied their callings, and it had besides a Meal Mill, a dyer’s work and a lint Mill, the latter being converted into a Saw Mill said to be the second of its kind in Scotland, the first being in Leith. In still remoter times, it possessed a chaplain, and emerges from obscurity in connection with the Cathedral. Bishop Lawder, who died in 1481, appointed a chaplain and chorister for Inver. When Bishop Brown died in 1514 the chaplain of Inver was the Prebendary of Ferdischawe, Mr John Stevenson, organist and music-master. Canon Myln thus speaks of him:- "He was a good man; he repaired the old house near St. George’s Church, the offices of the Manse he built handsomely from the ground, and tho’ he had been often absent from Matins, when he was Chaplain of Inver, by the indulgence of the Chapter for his age, yet when he became Canon he was seldom away.

The chaplainry of Inver was charged with payment of £10 towards the support of a schoolmaster, which charge is mentioned in the Charter of the Royal School, Dunkeld. Before the Reformation this sum, along with others from various prebends was applied to the support of certain boys called "blew freiris" who served in the choir of the Cathedral.

It is curious and rather interesting to note this connection of Inver in pre-Reformation times with music, for to this day it retains a reputation in that line, and has also been rendered famous by the fact that Niel Gow, generally regarded as the best exponent on the violin of Scotland’s music, lived and died there.

"Old, famous Niel, still many a story runs

Of his great wit and worth and jokes and puns."

Niel Gow’s Cottage, Niel Gow’s Stone, Niel Gow’s Tree - these are yet preserved and pointed out. Niel Gow was born in 1727. Strathbraan claims to have been his birthplace, but at a very early age, the family must have removed to Inver, where his father followed the avocation of plaid weaver, and there he died in the little cottage on the brow of the knoll overlooking the village. The cottage is in good repair, slated instead of thatched, as in his days, and yet inhabited. At the back, formerly the front, is a large flat stone on which he often sat, meditating, with the fiddle on his knee, composing or playing. Residenters have told of the alarm caused some years ago when certain officials, unaware of the historic and sentimental value of the stone, decreed its reduction to road metal. Fortunately the clamour which arose put an end to the project and saved it from destruction. Not far away, on the banks of the Tay, is a huge, old gnarled oak tree, under the shadow of which he often wielded his bow, the gentle breeze wafting the sweet strains across the river, where sat listening his friend and patron, the Duke of Atholl. This tree adjoined Niel’s croft, and of this croft a story is told.

One day, whilst working, the Duke accosted him. Your croft is small, Niel. Do you get enough from it?

Yes, yes, your Grace. The auld meal’s no oot o’ the girnel ere the new’s in."

The old man who was wont to relate this anecdote would say in conclusion,

"Ma mither’s croft wis the next ane. Niel kent if he but said the word he micht hae got mair land, but it wad likely be ta’en aff his neebor’s."

When quite a child, the future fiddler showed signs of aptitude at music, which his father encouraged, and several hints or lessons were received from one, John Cameron, a retainer of the laird of Grandtully. He soon made his mark. At the age of I8, he was first in a musical contest and also had the honour of playing at an entertainment given to Prince Charlie at Dunkeld House by the Marquis of Tullibardine. He even joined the Prince’s army, marching with them as far as Stirling, at which point he left, never, however, losing his Jacobite leanings, as evinced in several of his compositions.

Of Niel Gow ‘s abilities as a violinist, succeeding generations can scarcely form a judgment, but can only harken to those that have floated down the tide of time; yet all agree that his rendering of Scottish music was marvellous. One description by a hearer is thus recorded: "Some men try to give spirit to dance music by short, jerking strokes with a strong descending bow and a weak ascending, but his was a continuous stream of gorgeous sounds, like an organ at full gallop." A special shout which he gave when changing from strathspey to reel is said to have given new life and energy to the most tired of dancers. His playing soon won him popularity, and so peculiar was his style that no contrivance could avert recognition. A blind man was on one occasion made judge when Gow entered into competition with nine others. The precaution was useless. "I wad ken his bow hand amang a hundred players," the blind man declared as Niel was proclaimed the winner.

He held his chin on the inner side of the tailpiece, as the portrait by Sir Henry Rachurn, in the County Buildings, Perth, shows. This was common at that period, even in other countries

His playing won for him entrance into mansion and cottage, and his orchestra was always in eager requisition far and near. Baroness Nairne, Scotland’s sweet singer, often tripped lightly to his bow. Lord Lynedoch, the Duke of Atholl, and other noblemen, felt no gathering complete without his music. Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, would not have considered his sojourn at Kinnaird House, a few miles north of Inver, complete without a night with the "Highland Orpheus." Burns was taken to visit him, and round the details of this visit controversy has raged.

Sir Walter Scott, in St. Ronan’s Well," includes Niel’s son, Nathaniel, in his encomium. The occasion is an "entertainment and masquerade at Shaw’s Castle. The audience are becoming impatient when the touch of Gow’s fiddle suddenly burst from a neighbouring hedge, behind which he had established his little orchestra. All were of course silent, `as through his dear Strathspeys he bore with Highland rage,’ and when he changed his strain to an adagio and suffered his music to die away in the plaintive notes of Roslin Castle, the echoes of the old walls were, after a long slumber, awakened by that enthusiastic burst of applause with which the Scots usually received and rewarded their country’s gifted minstrel.

`He is his father’s own son,’ said Touchwood. `It is many a long year since I listened to old Niel at Inver, and to say truth, spent a night with him over pancakes and Athole brose, and I never expected to hear his match again in my lifetime.’ "

An Englishman’s opinion of the Scottish fiddler’s playing is also worthy of quotation.

Dr Garnett, whose "Tour in the Highlands" was published in 1798, thus describes him :- After dinner at Dunkeld we were favoured with a visit from Niel Gow, a singular and well-known character, and a celebrated performer on the violin. His only music is that of his native country, which he has acquired solely by ear, being entirely self-taught, but he plays the Scotch airs with a spirit and an enthusiasm peculiar to himself. He is now in his 72nd year and has played publicly at Assemblies on his instrument for more than half-a-century. He has acquired by tuning his lyre what he considers an independence and which is therefore truly such. He favoured us with several pieces of Scotch music. He excels most in the Strathspeys, which are jigs played with peculiar spirit and life, but he executes the laments or funeral music with a great deal of pathos. . . . in the evening there was a dancing school ball at the Inn, to which we were invited, and where we had an opportunity of again hearing Niel Gow and to observe the superiority of the Highlanders to our countrymen in dancing. Some of the children whom we saw dance this evening would have cut no disgraceful figure on the stage."

Niel Gow was composer as well as performer, though well over fifty before his first collection was published. Good examples of his composition are "Miss Drummond of Perth," "Athole Volunteers," and "Lament for the Death of Abercairney" but in this branch he was certainly excelled by his son Nathaniel. The latter’s most famous composition is "Caller Herrin'," composed for Lady Nairne’s song, and is a blending of the Newhaven fishwives’ Cries with St. Andrew’s, Church Chimes.

There are various Gow Collections of Reels, Marches and Strathspeys, but many are not original, Nathaniel and his father being "tune-snatchers," often using old tunes, which they modified, altered, improved, and then re-christened. Altogether there are six Gow Collections, the last two volumes appearing after Niel’s death, and four "Repositories of Original Scots Tunes," published by Niel Gow and Sons, of whom there were four. Besides these, there were other volumes, one of which, "The Vocal Melodies of Scotland,"Nathaniel dedicated to Sir Walter Scott in 1825. Nathaniel removed to Edinburgh, where his Band, in which were one or two Inver men, soon became popular. It is narrated that at a fashionable ball in honour of George the Fourth’s visit, the King exclaimed, "Gow, you would make the very horses dance." The gift of music descended at least to the third generation. Nathaniel’s son died young, but shortly after his death appeared a "Collection of Airs, Reels and Strathspeys," "being the posthumous compositions of the late Niel Gow, jun." In these Collections the old man generally spelt his name Niel," seldom "Neil."

Niel Gow had also a reputation for wit, and tales of his pawky rejoinders are numerous, "As Niel Gow said," being long a common expression in the neighbourhood.

It wasna the length o’ the road, but the breadth o’t," was his excuse when he once put in a tardy appearance, and what borrower would not sympathise with his retort when asked if he had forgotten the pound he had borrowed? I’d be the last tae mind o’t," said he.

One day he was in the boat along with the Duke of Atholl when the latter caught a fine salmon.

"If you caught a fine salmon like that, Niel, what would you do with it?"

I wad juist send it to the Duke of Atholl with my compliments," came the ready answer. His Grace took the hint and the salmon found its way to Niel’s larder.

One of his last utterances was characteristic. Not long before he died, he had sent for and received from his son Nathaniel a new violin. This he allowed a favourite pupil to try. After hearing him play, he said, "Tak’ care o’t, laddie, tak’ care o’t. It’s as weel worth the money as the thief’s worth the wuddie." That pupil cherished the gift to his dying day.

Many of his proverbial sayings are to be found in Drummond’s "Perthshire in By-gone Days."

A copy of Raeburn’s portrait of him was reproduced as a Frontispiece to the "Scots Magazine," 1809, and there is also an interesting portrait introduced into the design of the title page of the rare work, "Corri's Scots Songs."

He was married twice, and left behind him the reputation of a good husband, father and neighbour. He died on the 1st March, 1807, and was buried in Little Dunkeld Churchyard, where a plain, marble-faced stone marks his last resting place. It was erected by John and Nathaniel, the only sons of Niel Gow and Margaret Wiseman, who survived them.

In the Scots Magazine," of July, 1812, a couplet appears as an epitaph.

"Gow and Time are even now,

Gow beat time; now Time’s beat Gow."

Dunkeld an Ancient City
Elizabeth Stewart
Dunkeld, 1926

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