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 in Forfarshire, Kincardine, Caithness, and Haddington. One of the younger branches of the Oliphant family purchased from his spendthrift cousin the lands of Gask, which have ever since continued in the same family. Laurence Oliphant was, in the year 1650, knighted by Charles II., when that monarch was at Scone. He for a capricious reason disinherited his eldest son, Patrick, and gave the lands of Gask to his second son and his heirs. About fifty years thereafter the estate of Gask, from the failure of heirs in the younger branch, came into the possession of James, the eldest son of the disinherited Patrick. While James Oliphant resided at Williamston, before he succeeded to Gask, he devised and carried out a great practical improvement in that locality. He along with some others applied to the Scotch Parliament in 1690 for an Act to compel all the adjoining proprietors to contribute their share towards the expense of cutting a channel sufficiently deep and broad to carry off the water, which at that time must have frequently flooded the fields, and thus reclaimed much valuable land. About forty years ago a considerable sum was expended in still further deepening and broadening the Pow, and that stream never overflows its banks now unless in very rainy seasons. As the estate of Gask is bounded by the Pow on the north side, it shared in the benefits resulting from that improvement. Mr Oliphant succeeded to Gask in 1705, and would doubtless display the same practical sagacity in carrying out improvements on the estate which then came into his possession. He probably planted some of those noble trees which still surround the mansion-house, and which are undoubtedly of great age.