at him in one of her songs--
"M'Leish's ae daughter o' Claverse-ha' Lee,"
In his latter days, Mr M'Leish was in a very infirm state, and unable
to discharge his ministerial duties. During the two last years of his
life there was only public worship in Gask Church once a month. The
days on which divine service was held, and the names of the ministers
who officiated, are still to be seen in our Session records. During
his long illness it is interesting to read of the tender sympathy which
Mr Oliphant expressed for him, and the Christian spirit of forgiveness
which he manifested towards him. He wrote from the Continent:--"I'm
sorry to hear that Mr M'Leish has been so much distressed in his
health. It will perhaps be agreeable to him, and let him know that I
do heartyly forgive him all the injurys he has done me undeservidly....
I shall mention no other particulars of the way he has treated me, but
as I have sincerly forgiven, I pray our commune Father to forgive him,
which I hope he will be earnest to obtain." There is no record that Mr
M'Leish ever felt or expressed regret at the unkind way in which he had
treated his benefactor.
The Oliphants, after making their escape from this country to the
Continent in 1746, continued to reside in different places there for
seventeen years. And during that long period they sent home to their
friends in this country a great many letters giving a detailed account
of their movements, and of their meeting with other exiles suffering
with them in the same cause and for maintaining the same principles of
loyalty. And these papers and letters, preserved in the Gask
charter-room, have been turned to excellent account by the present Mr
Oliphant in the very interesting volume he compiled entitled _The
Jacobite Lairds of Gask_.
As both father and son took part in the Rebellion, the estate of Gask
was forfeited. But it was re-purchased from the Government in 1753 by
Mr Oliphant of Condie, who was understood to be acting for the Gask
family, at the sum of L17,800. The estate was, however, larger then
than it is now, including both Cowgask and Williamston. The two latter
were afterwards sold to pay part of the purchase money for Gask. It
was at one time proposed to sell the Ross and Newmiln, but Mr Oliphant
objected to this, as he considered these two farms the most improvable
part of the estate. We are told in _The Jacobite Lairds of Gask_ that
few lost more than the Oliphants by the "Rising" of 1745. If we reckon
the seven years in which the estate was withheld from them, and the
large sum for which it was bought back from Government, these losses
would come to about L60,000 of our money.
The Oliphants returned to Gask after an absence of seventeen years, in
November, 1763. As Mr M'Leish died on the 24th March of the same year,
the laird and the minister never met again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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