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.

After all the dangers to which they had been exposed on the field of
battle, and all the hardships they had to encounter during the long
period they were in hiding on the Continent, they were at last
permitted to return in safety to their native land, to spend the
evening of their days in their "Ain dear wee Auld House."

The elder Jacobite laird died in 1767, and was gathered to his fathers
in the old Kirk of Gask. He was succeeded by his only son, the younger
Jacobite laird. He continued to adhere with the most unshaken
steadfastness to the cause of the Prince, for whom he had done and
suffered so much, and brought up his family in the strictest principles
of loyalty to the King over the water. When his family read the
newspapers to him after his eyesight became impaired, if the names King
or Queen occurred, they must only indicate this by employing the
initials K. or Q., otherwise he sharply reproved them.

When Prince Charles died in 1788, leaving an only brother, Cardinal
York, many of the Jacobites transferred their allegiance to George
III., and most of the Scotch Episcopalian clergy began to pray for the
reigning family, which they had not hitherto done. Among these was Mr
Cruickshanks, Episcopal minister at Muthill, who occasionally
officiated at Gask. When Mr Oliphant heard this, he at once wrote to
Mr Cruickshanks that, as he had now disqualified hi