ng the course of
the night he was startled by the "blowing of horns mingled with
frightful yells, proceeding apparently from a rising ground in the
immediate neighbourhood." Scouts were sent out from time to time, but
all failing to return, the patriot was at last left alone. He wandered
about till morning, killing two of the English whom he encountered, one
of whom was Sir John Butler, and then hastened with all speed to
Torwood, near Dunipace, where his uncle was parish priest.

At an early period the lands now comprehended in this parish belonged
to the Earl of Strathearn, the great landowner in this district at that
time. It is said that he possessed all the lands lying between the
Cross of Macduff, near Newburgh, and the west end of Balquhidder in
length, and between the Ochils and the Grampians in breadth. It was
out of his lands of Nether Gask that he granted liberty to quarry
stones for building the Abbey of Inchaffray, along with two acres of
ground on which to erect workshops.

The lands of Gask have now been in the possession of the Oliphant
family for nearly six hundred years. The name was originally written
Olifard, then Olyfaunt, and now Oliphant. Sir William Olyfaunt was the
first of that name on whom these lands were bestowed by King Robert the
Bruce. Sir William occupied a prominent position in the early history
of our country. He was Governor of Stirling Castle, and when summoned
in the name of Edward I. to surrender it, made the noble reply, "I have
never sworn fealty to Edward, but I have sworn to keep the Castle, and
must wait the order of my constituent." And when the Castle was
besieged by Edward and his army he defended it for three months, and
only capitulated from the scarcity of provisions. He was a member of
the Parliament held at Aberbrothock in 1320, and subscribed along with
some other Scottish Barons the famous letter to the Pope, which so
nobly asserted the independence of Scotland. To that document were
affixed the seals of Sir William Olyfaunt and Malise, Earl of
Strathearn. He died in 1329, and was buried in the Church of
Aberdalgie, where a monument of black marble was erected to his memory.
When the present Church of Aberdalgie was built in 1773 the site was
changed, and the monument to Sir William Olyfaunt was left in the open
churchyard. In 1780, Mr Oliphant of Gask erected a stone covering over
it to protect it from injury by the weather.

Sir William was succeede