Colonel Hamilton of Pencaitland's Welcome Home

 COLONEL HAMILTON OF PENCAITLAND'S WELCOME HOME. Scottish, Air (9/8 time). B Flat Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. Composed by Nathaniel Gow (1763-1831), son of the famous Dunkeld, Perthshire, fiddler-composer Niel, who also composed "Colonel Hamilton of Pencaitland's Strathspey." Colonel John Hamilton of Pencaitland (1751-1804) was "a country gentleman, much beloved by all who knew him, and whose hospitalities were so great as to render (his) house remarkable in the country" (Tait's Edinburgh Magazine, 1849). Hamilton did much to improve his estates, planting woods and gardens, and establishing farms and coalmines. He also has a historical footnote as the owner of an ox of enormous dimensions, sold at the end of the 18th century to a Shropshire butcher. The animal was reportedly 16ft long and stood more than 5ft 8in tall. Printed source: Gow (Fourth Collection of Strathspey Dances), 2nd ed., originally 1800; p. 32.

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