[34] That Sir Oliver impaired his paternal estates by entertaining James I. is very certain. It is probable that the king was a frequent visitor to the hospitable knight, inasmuch as Royston, his Majesty’s hunting seat, was in the neighbourhood. The king’s first visit, in 1603, on his progress to take possession of the English throne, was a costly one. “His Highnesse and his followers,” according to Stow, “with all comers, had such entertainment as was not the like in any place before; there was such plentie and varietis of meates and diversitie of wines, and the sellars open at any man’s pleasure.” It is stated, indeed, that Sir Oliver’s entertainment was “a greater feast than had ever been given to a king by a subject”--a fact to which his Majesty himself testified; for on parting from the brave old knight, he is reported to have addressed him, “Merry mon, thou hast treated me better than ony ane syn I left Edinbro.” [35] The present master of the school is the Rev. Mr. Fell, an accomplished scholar, and an enlightened gentleman, by whom we were guided about the various objects of interest in and around the venerable Town, and whose courtesies and attentions it is our pleasant duty to acknowledge. [36] Upon a similar occasion, it is related that he paid a visit to his godfather-uncle at Ramsay; the sturdy old Royalist was firm to the monarchy; and although his nephew treated him with so much respect as to decline wearing his hat in his presence, he seized all his plate for the public service, and afterwards compelled him to give forty saddle-horses, “by way of fine.” Subsequently, however, when the whole estates of Sir Oliver were sequestrated by the Parliament, the remnant was restored to him by the intervention of Oliver--“for whose sake the sequestration was taken off.” Notwithstanding, the aged knight died in extreme poverty, in 1655, at the age of 93, and, it is said, was buried by night, “to prevent the seizure of his body by his creditors.”