NAIRNE, Caroline Oliphant, Baroness (1766— 1845), the authoress of many fine Scotch songs, was born in the “auld hoose” of Cask, Perthshire, 16th August 1766. She was descended from an old family which had settled in Perthshire in the 13 th century, and which could boast of kinship with the royal race of Scotland. Her father, Laurence Oliphant, was one of the foremost supporters of the Jacobite cause, and she was named Caroline in memory of Prince Charlie. In early childhood her health was extremely delicate, but a certain refined sensibility was the only trace of this which she retained in after years. In the schoolroom she was known as “pretty Miss Car,” and afterwards her striking beauty and pleasing manners earned for her the name of the “Flower of Strathearn.” Miss Oliphant was one of the earliest admirers of Robert Burns, and induced her brother Laurence to enter his name as subscriber to the first edition of his poems. It was the attempts of Burns in the Scots Musical Museum to adapt words of a more refined character to the old Scotch airs that suggested to her to undertake a similar enterprise. Her first effort was a new version of the “Pleughman,” which her brother introduced at an entertainment to the Gask tenantry, and which soon met with great popularity throughout central Scotland. In June 1800 she married William Murray Nairne, whose rank as fifth Lord Nairne was in abeyance on account of attainder. He was then assistant inspector-general of barracks in Scotland. At the instigation of the Misses Hume, daughters of Baron Hume, she some time after her marriage undertook to bring out a collection of national airs set to appropriate words. To the collection she contributed a large number of original songs, adopting the ...