The Hardie Boys

This very finely carved memorial is to be found in Greyfriars Kirkyaird, Edinburgh. Nathaniel Gow is said to be buried in the same place, beside his son Niel. I understand that there is no memorial to Nathaniel.

Hardie-Plaque

Some further notes on the Niel Gow images

John Glen’s Collection of the Dance Music of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1895), Vol. 2 notes that Raeburn painted portraits of Niel Gow for:

  • County Hall, Perth (1st)
  • The Duke of Athole
  • Hon. Mr Maule of Panmure
  • The Gow Family

The Dictionary of National Biography (London, 1968) Vol VIII, p. 294 quotes P. R. Drummond Perthshire in Bygone Days (1879) who states that the 1816 mezzotint by Say was called ‘the perfection of likeness’.

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery oil painting would appear not to be one of the above mentioned but one which had been in the painter’s family. Duncan Thomson Raeburn (Edinburgh, 1997), p. 106.