Sunday, August 16, 2009

Carolina Oliphant, Lady Nairne

Another entry, another birthday. Carolina Oliphant was born on August 16, 1766; five years before Scott. The "flower of Streatearn", so named because of her beauty, collected folk songs, a la Robert Burns and James Hogg, putting her own words to them.

Carolina was born into a strongly Jacobite family. Both her father and grandfather fought with Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1745. She was born in Gask, in Perthshire.

Gask (or Findogask, after St. Findoc) is not far from Perth, the setting for Scott's "Fair Maid of Perth". On September 11, 1745, Prince Charles Edward Stuart breakfasted in Gask on his way south from Perth.

Carolina became Lady Nairne in 1824, largely due to Scott's efforts to have peerages and titles that had been forfeited due to the Jacobite uprising restored.

In 1846, her collected songs "Lays of Streathearn" was published. One arrangement was done by Finlay Dun.

Sources: Wikipaedia, Rampant Scotland

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