d by his son, Walter Olyfaunt, who married a
daughter of King Robert the Bruce, and, "having resigned the lands of
Gask into the hands of his brother-in-law, David II., obtained, in
1364, a new charter confirming them to the said Walter and his spouse
Elizabeth, our beloved sister, on a peculiar tenure for the reddendum
of a chaplet of white roses at the feast of the nativity of St. John
the Baptist at the manor place of Gask." This incident has been
happily expressed in a poem by Miss Ethel Blair Oliphant, now Mrs
Maxtone Graham, who inherits much of the poetic genius of her
great-grand-aunt, Lady Nairne.

THE TRIBUTE OF GASK

Now ken ye the gift Gask has brought to the King?
'Tis an off'ring sae royal, sae perfect, and fair,
Than jewels o' siller more dainty and rare,
A crown for a maid or a monarch to wear.
The courtier's tribute is but a poor thing,
For what can he offer and what can he bring,
Than the crown of White Roses from Gask to the King?

Now ken ye the service Gask does for the King?
All for his sake, in the bloom of the year,
In the gardens of Gask the white blossoms appear--
The Royal White Roses to Scotland sae dear.
Then far o'er Stralhearn let the praise of them ring,
Let them live once again in the song that we sing,
The crown of White Roses from Gask to the King.

Now ken ye what Gask will yet do for the King?
In the days that may come, when the roses are dead,
When the pledge is forgotten, the vows left unsaid;
What then shall lie found for an off'ring instead?
Oh! then at his feet his heart he will fling.
Truth, Honour, Devotion, as tribute will bring
For the crown of White Roses from Gask to the King!

This charter, which has always been highly prized by the Gask family,
had a rather singular history during the last century. In 1746 the
Duke of Cumberland sent out Sir Joseph York from Perth to search the
House of Gask, when he took away a box containing the charter, and it
was not till forty years after that it was traced to its hiding-place,
restored to its rightful owners, and safely deposited in the Gask
charter chest. The Oliphants obtained large estates in different parts
of Scotland, and were raised to the Peerage by James II., in 1450, by
the title of Lord Oliphant. The fifth Lord, styled in the Gask papers
"ane base and unworthy man," squandered away the large estates he
inherited not only in Perthshire, but also i