Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-06-04
A GBEFNA GREEN STORY.
the Case Of Lord and Lady DundOnald
Il Romantic Episode.

| the newspapers cOnLenuS Llab Lne Dtst gets
overlooked. No one seems to find out the
magic flower garden, which is romance |;
while every one discovers the enormous
gooseberry, in which there is no romance
at all, though there may be much that is
remarkable.
There is some real romance to be found
in a book which is virtually a blue-boOk,
in connection with Lord Dundonald, to
whom they are erecting monument in
Chill. In the year 1851, the case Of the
Dundonald peerage was before the House
of Lords, and the old beverage Lady DuE-
donald was examined as witness upon
the claim of her son. She was sixty-four
years of age, and was treated with great IN
diligence. She was not tied down to the
ordinary rule of eyideAce, but allowed
to ramble and expatiate just as she pleased;
and, indeed, it would probably have been
found impossible to get much out of her
if she had been strictly dealt with upon the
ordinary principles fo- conducting an ex-
amination-in-chief. She shall tell the story
of the courtship in her own words. There
were apparently many obstacles to begin
with:
"He proposed to my aunt. he did not
propose TO me. he had once named the
subject to me, and l refused all sorts of
things of the kind, and at length he made
the proposal to my aunt"
Then she was asked the question: "He
was In love with your ladyship, suppose"
"The world said 50. suppose it was
so. Il was an unlucky marriage for him,
poor man. Then there was another per-
son who had q large property, and he
thought that not marrying the lady that
he was wished to marry (and certainly be
was not wished to marry me), he should
avoid by secret marriage painful position
TO himself and this fortune going away
from him; and that by keeping my
marriage a secret, it should never in
terfere with that arrangements of his uncle's.
That was given to me as the object, and
had no right, and had no reason, to doubt
the word of the most honorable man / have
ever known. l loved him. He had once
named the subject to me and refused him.
l refused ali sorts of things of the kind, and
at length he made the proposal to my aunt.
Dear me, men in love are very foolish"
Lady Dundonald appears to have been
very much worried by the sequel of her
elopement; and there is something truly
and deeply comic in her feeling so puzzled
W hllOH WHY oBC NC uAdlAICu 81
many times. When Dundonald persuades
her to 90 off to Gretna with him she has
nice time of it, travelling all day and all
night, with four. horses, and all that. She
says:
"Iwas very worn, and we went rolling
on; and l slept, and so did he. At one
part of the road know it was not Gretna
GTeen-he said, well, thank God, we are
all right he used to call me sort OF a pet
name of his own, and he said, 1t is all right,
Mouse-we are all right now. Moxham,
mind you get a comfortable room for Lady
Cochrane at the Queensberry Arms. We
shall soon be there and he said nothing
more"
T did not know it was all
right. He said, Mouse, we are over the
border, now, and nothing but God can sep
arate u.s. l think he said at the same
time, 'You are mine now, and you are
mine for ever;' and he snapped his fingers
in that way, as ,Scotchmen do when they
are pleased.
"When l arrived at Queens
berry arms, he was very joyous; suppose
men in love are. He said, 1T is all right;
it is all right and he seated himself at the
table in the room; he sat himself down as
any gentleman might, and he wrote away,
and wrote something, and then he said, q
want Dick;' he used to call his servant
Dick"
CATER the paper was signed, and the SER
wants gone away, he began to dance the
Sailors Horn-pipe, very unusual thing for
him, and he put up bis hands in that sort Of
way, and SAID, Now you are mine, Mouse,
mine forever said, 4 do not know, l
have had no parsOn here, and no church. Is
this the way you marry in Scotland" ooh
yes he said, syou are mine, sure enough;
YOU cannot get away and then he said, Il
have no time TO spare; have no time to
lose, for must be back on the 10th to my
uncle's marriage; he is going to be married,
and he will be married on the 18th, or the
18th, have not moments time to lose,
and therefore l must leave you as fast as
can. / have given all my instructions to
Dick, and he will bring you back as soon
as he cam He kissed me; he did not go in
my room, and he went off as he came. |
never saw him again until the 18th or the
18th, when we met in Bryanston street,
Portman square,"
Some relative of the lady insisted upon
the marriage being repeated in the South:
"They were old-fashioned, excellent peo-
pie, and they wished to have this marriage
made in England; and it was made, and |
was married by license by the Rev. Thomas
Knox, of Tunbridge Town. He was the
chaplain Of my cousin, Mr.. Simpson, and
held the living of Shipbourne from his Civ
ing"
She goes on:
"Dundonald said, Marry her! would
marry her in hundred churches. l would
marry ter all over the world; but there is
no marriage, my dear, so binding as the
marriage which has been already executed
in Scotland. She was from that hour my
lawful wife. However, to give you salts
faction, am ready to marry her in every
church in London He said, Il would do
it thousand times.'"
Then followed these questions an an
sWers
81 was married again; in short, there
was no end of marrying me-" 81
was married the third time when he came
home from Brazil; was married again."
"Where was your ladyship married the
third timer"
aIwas married the third time in Edin-
burgh; was so tired of being married"
"According to the forms of the Scotch
Church,"
eyes; then was married in church, and
domiciled. In short, l was bothered all to
pieces with the marrying; was asked IN
church. was married at Mr.. Strahan, the
lawyers, and married by Parson Richie;
there was no marriage at all, he just joinei
the hands, Parson Richie did, and said
something or other, and Sod bless YOU
| and that was the marriage in Scotland. 1t
| was not bit more like marriage than
the AMMAN marriage. l was asked on the
| bans and domiciliated and everything.
There was no end of marrying me. l was
so tired of being married. was bothered
to pieces with the marrying"
Here are a few more touches, the first
from the lady's evidence, and others from
Lord Dundonald's appended to it:
"My husband was Scotchman, and
proud of being Scotehman; he would
not have given up that birth of his for a
crown in heaven. He gloried in being
! Seotchman; he said it was the pride of his
life, and he used, after his dinner, when
he was drinking his wine, and so on,
to bring in something about Scotland, his
dear Scotland, the days of his youth-the
happy days with his grandmother. 1t is a
sad case; such sad "reminiscences; such a
noble mani"