succeeded in the title by his only
son, William, sixth Lord. Lady Nairne felt deeply her bereavement, but
was sustained under it by the comforts and consolations of religion.
She henceforth devoted all her efforts to the mental culture and moral
and religious training of her only child. She removed to different
parts of the country for the benefit of his health. But with all her
maternal care he sickened and died at Brussels in 1837. By the death
of her son the ties which bound her to the world were in a great
measure severed, and her thoughts and affections were raised to that
higher and holier state on which those who were nearest and dearest to
her had now entered. She returned to Gask in 1845, and spent the last
two years of her life within a few yards of the spot where she was
born. She had received early religious impressions when on a visit to
Murthly Castle, and these were greatly deepened by the successive
trials and bereavements wherewith she was visited. She still continued
to take a great delight in doing good and in contributing to advance
the cause of religion in the world. Having a sum of money at her
disposal, she consulted Dr. Chalmers as to the most useful and
charitable purposes to which it might be applied. And it was at this
time that she contributed L300 to Dr. Chalmers' West Port Mission, on
the condition that he should never reveal the name of the donor. She
was as careful to conceal her good deeds as she had been to conceal the
authorship of the beautiful songs she composed. She gradually became
weaker and weaker, but as the "outward man decayed the inward man was
renewed day by day." In her song of the "Auld House" she beautifully
describes how, at the evening of the day,

"The setting sun, the setting sun,
How glorious it gae'd doon."

So in the evening of the day of her life her sun went gloriously down
to rise and shine in a fairer land--"The Land o' the Leal." She was
buried in Gask Chapel, which is erected on the site of the old Parish
Church, and to the building of which she contributed. A few years ago
a granite cross of beautiful design and workmanship was erected to her
memory by Mr Oliphant in the grounds of Gask. It bears the appropriate
inscription:--

CARMINA MORTE CARENT
CAROLINA OLIPHANT
BARONESS NAIRNE
BORN AT GASK, 1766
DIED AT GASK, 1845

If superior poetical genius, great moral worth, and high Christian
character deserve to be held i