“A house-painter to trade, and a poet by chance, Peter Agnew was a native of Perth, and lived in the South Street in 1793. Very early in life he gave evidence of being possessed of rare musical talent, and learned to play on the violin, an instrument over which he soon obtained an almost complete mastery, and with which he lived to charm the ills of many a luckless day. On the completion of his 'prentice time Agnew went to Glasgow, and from thence, in a few years, to London, from whence he again, after a few more years, returned to the commercial capital of his native Caledonia, where he wore out the bulk of his after-lease. His life appears to have been a somewhat chequered one, the grim visage of poverty frequently staring him in the face, and, if not actually sconcing herself at his fireside, being represented there on an occasion by her foster-friend, the beagle. An excellent violinist, a fair landscape painter, a capital singer of songs, a pleasing writer of verses, and an entertaining story-teller, perhaps Peter Agnew had too many accomplishments to be eminently successful in any.”  – Robert Ford, *The Harp of Perthshire* (1893)