Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/146

492 before himself, but not before two of his sons, William and Andrew, had acquired a reputation as violin-players, worthy of the name they bore; the former having succeeded M'Glashan as leader of the fashionable bands at Edinburgh, .and the latter having acquired some wealth in London in prosecuting his profession, lie was kind and affectionate to all his children, and during the last illness of his son Andrew, he brought him from London. On this subject lie wrote, " If the spring were a little advanced and warmer, I would have Andrew come down by sea, and I will come to Edinburgh or Dundee to conduct him home. We will have milk which he can get warm from the cow, or fresh butter, or whey, or chickens. He shall not want for any thing." Andrew's eyes were closed by his father under the roof where he was born. Neil Gow took as his second wife Margaret Urquhart, by whom he had no family, and who predeceased himself a few years. He retained his faculties to the last, and continued to play till within a year or two of his death. About two years before that event, he seemed to feel the decay of his powers, and wrote to his son Nathaniel "I received your kind invitation to come over to you, but I think I will stay where I am. It will not be long, for I am very sore failed." He died at Inver, where he was born, on the 1st of March, 1807, in the 80th year of his age, after acquiring a competence, which was divided among his children. He left behind him two sons and a daughter: John, who settled in London as leader of the fashionable Scottish bands, and died in 1827, after acquiring a large fortune; Nathaniel, who settled in Edinburgh, and of whom we have given a brief memoir; and Margaret, now the only surviving child, who is at present living in Edinburgh. Neil Gow was buried in Little Dunkeld church, where a marble tablet has been raised to his memory by his sons, John and Nathaniel.

GRAHAM,, the rhyming chronicler of the last rebellion, Mas probably born early in the seventeenth century. Unfortunately, none of the works we have met with give any account of his parentage or early life. It has been said that he was engaged in the rebellion of 1745-46, but without sufficient authority. He had, to use his own words, "been an eye-witness to most of the movements of the armies, from the rebels' first crossing the ford of Frew, to their final defeat at Culloden;" but it would seem from this expression, as well as from the recollections of some of his acquaintances, that it was only in the capacity of a follower, who supplied the troops with small wares. But Dougal's aspiring mind aimed at a higher and nobler employment, the cultivation of the muse; and no sooner was the rebellion terminated by the battle of Culloden, than he determined to write a history of it "in vulgar rhyme." Accordingly, the Glasgow Courant of September 29, 1746, contains the following advertisement: "That there is to be sold by James Dunan, printer in Glasgow, in the Salt-Mercat, the second shop below Gibson's Wynd, a book entitled, A full, particular, and true account of the late rebellion in the years 1745 and 1746, beginning with the Pretender's embarking for Scotland, and then an account of every battle, siege, and skirmish that has happened in either Scotland or England: to which is added, several addresses and epistles to the pope, pagans, poets, and pretender, all in metre, price fourpence. But any booksellers or packmen may have them easier from the said James Duncan, or the author, D. Graham. The like," the advertisement concludes, "has not been done in Scotland since the days of Sir David Lindsay!" This edition is now to be procured nee prece nee pecunia; the eighth edition, however, contains a preface by the author, in which he thus states his reasons for undertaking so arduous a task. "First, then, I have an itch for scribbling, and having wrote the following for my pleasure, I had an ambition to have this child