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STORIES OF
phant, much indeed could be said, for her early life in particular was full of interest, and passed amid much political and poetical excitement. She was christened Carolina in honour of Charles Edward, whose health was a standing toast in the auld house at Gask, where she was born in 1766. From her most youthful days " Carolina's imagination must have been aroused by narra-tives of the varied adventures of her father and others of her kinsfolk during the * Forty Five/ when Lawrence Oliphant the younger, then a youth of nineteen, had supped with the Prince at the outset of the Rebellion, had galloped to Edinburgh with the news of Prestonpans, after fighting single-handed with Sir John Cope's runaway dragoons; had discovered the enemy's movements after the battle of Falkirk, had ex-changed a few words with the Prince at Cullo-den, after all was lost, and had escaped from Scotland by sea and landed in Sweden, a beggar in all but honour," as Sir George Douglas re-lates in "Minor Scottish Poets." No doubt she saw Prince Charlie many a time, and often heard the Jacobite ballad " Charlie is my Dar-ling," which everyone was singing. Carolina grew up to be such a fascinating and beautiful girl that she was called " The flower of Strath-earn." She wrote early and constantly, and her
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