Morning journal and courier., 1890-09-06
MIR. wAKEMAN,s JOURNEyINGs.

Tramp over the Mail Road From
 CarlysIe to GIasgow-ssThe Bishop
 of Grctna.,-Where Joseph Paisley
 Is Buried-RamshackI Houses of
 SprIngfield-The Annual Traffic of
 Gretna and SpringfieId-Succes
 of Paisley.
 GRETNA GREEN, Scotland, Aug. l.
 To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 had tramped over the once great mail road from Carlysle to Glasgow, from Ec- clefechan, where Thomas Carlisle was born and lies buried, towards the border to Gretna Green. So far us human eyes could discern, not soul had housing with in it's half dozen ruinous habitations. Not a youthful or wrinkled face pressed against tiny window-pane as I passed. No dirty children skulked like grouse in and out of the pleasant hedges. Not even the snarl of a watchful cur contributed to the fact of arrival or conveyed sense of welcome. I kicked bravely at q few doors without even awakening an echo. Where echo is dead it is silent indeed, reflected, as broke into the old kirk-y yard. I could not force the door of the kirk itself. Then l prowled about the ivy-covered manse be- hind. Here lived, I knew, one of those remnants of a half-dead and altogether breathless ecclesiastic system-the estab- lished church of Scotland. expiring from transfusion of religious blood and life into the vigorous young Free church-a parish minister; but evidently he. too, was past awakening. Then I sauntered among the graves There was at least interest, if not life, here That extraordinary priest of Hymen, the first ''Bishop of Gretna," he who had defed bulls of popes, bully ings of lord-chancellors, and edicts of kings, fat old brandy -guzzling Joseph Pais- ley, lies here, and the path to his humble grave-stone is worn deeper than to that of purest life, or of highest title, who is com moner in the same last mold. His sue cessors as "priests' of the irregular Gret- ma marriages are buried near; and their head-stones are also shrines for the curi- ous. I could not but reflect that could all | the couples, or the descendants of all the thousands of couples, in England and | Scotland, that these three men joined to | gether, unite in visiting the graves oi those to whom they owed their connubia | joys or miseries, what wonderful pil | grimage it would be. Why, the old coach road would be massed with folk. a SCOT, abreast, away back over the Sark and Esl 1 to Carlisle. There would be lords ant earls and real bishops, and even prelate | among them, tool
 Eoitering outside the wall for a fina | glimpse of the drear and grass-growl | place, I at last became conscious of pres ence. Turning, saw a nose of wondrou proportions with man of no proportion l at all behind it. The man stood motion less, but the nose seemed possessed of life It gently swayed pendulum-like in the Au | gust breeze, as if in compensation of al else dead and still at Gretna. The mal
 was old and bumped, and was clad in tha
 beautiful curtailed garb of the Britisl postman, with the skirts at the waist, tn
 waist at the shoulders and the cuffs at tn
 elbows, with a straight-visored cap like
 truncated dunce's cap, and the whol
 wrinkling and concentrating skyward; as
 authority had the British postman eternal
 ly in grip at the nape of the neck to accel
 crate the action of his neither extremities | lue udIluS OI lue Olu man QOvereQ aDOu
 his wrists, suggesting chilly weather; an,
 his two green little eyes, brighter in thei green for the red and rheum of their lash
 es, seemed peering over and around hi
 mighty nose, as if the intellect behin,
 were having hard time of it settling tn
 exact status of the stranger If I coul,
 not have anywhere recognized the cd,
 tumble of clothing and figure as belongin | to British postman, the environment, tn
 recent kirk-yard musings, and the un
 earthly silence at Gretna, would have con
 jured the fellow as some gnome on posta
 service from another world; and the frs
 impulse of the situation was to hold ou
 my hand. for the forthcoming message
 But restraining that, I fell in beside hir
 with civil greeting, and we trudged on tc J gether down the long street into Spring
 field The old fellow seemed still in dee study. He would not walk beside me. ] ) crowded close upon him at one side would suddenly fall behind, bring up i . the rear, and batter along there in silenc, : or hug the hedge at the other side of u fwsyi but always when ! could set