Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1893-09-28

way rHbh. lney were upset by storm
and a fierce incoming tide, whose vio-
lence drowned ono of their pursuers
and caueed the others to abandon the
chase. Tho couple themselves barely
escaped with their lives; and bedraggled
IN brine and sand, they finally made
their way on foot from the shoreside
village of Greenhouses to Gretna, where
they were married by Joseph Paisley,
who for this sort OF thing became the
most notorious man OF his time in
scotland, as well as the most excrated
single individual known to the annals
OF English social anathema.
At this time, Gretna, perhaps a half
mile from the Sark, along the highway
towards Glasgow, comprised not more
than half dozen houses. There were
simply a few rude buildings clustered
about an old matched kirk and the
olden farmstead of Meg's.hill. The
larmstead was the lard of the lands
residence. There, were also the little
1lanse behind the kirk and a vile little
shop in which the fellow Paisley-not a
blacksmith as all Gretna literature has
it--sold tea, tobacco and snuff as well
as struggled whisky to the "muckle
night sort" The exploiting of the
Edgar-Scott marriage; paisley's de-
lance OF English and Scotch authori-
ties and his cunning in securing the
highest Scottish legal advice, enabling
him TO settle the form of procedure &C.
cording to law by attesting marriages
simply as witness; with the conse.
quent establishing of the absolute
legality OF these marriages and the uni
versal notorlety thus given; completed
the essentials for acquainting every
soul in England with the extraordinary
opportunities offered for evading Eng
fish law. Paisley became the seIf.con-
stituted "Bishop of Gretna;" and the
Maxwell residence was transformed
into commodious inn.
This hostelry proving inadequate for
accommodation, Sir William Maxwell,
the laird, built an entire village in the
half mile distance between Gretna and
the Sark, which he called Springfield,
and which included two inns, the Kings
Arms and Maxwell Arms; and these BY
the beginning Of the present century be-
came the most noted posting establish.
ments in the two kingdoms. From Pals
ley's marriage of the Cumberland cou-
pie in I'LL, to the time of his death in
1914, it is computed that this irregular
marriage traffic brought annually to
Gretna and Springfield 100000 in fees;
expenses OF those who pursued runaway
English couples; outlay of barristers
who visited the places to establish
proof OF marriage; other barristers
who came for clients who hoped to find
lack of proof; from the curious who
were attracted by the extraordinary
character Of the place; and from the
general recklessness and extravaganza
on every hand where marriage fees
from runaway English common folk,
gentry and nobility ranged from five to
one hundred guineas, as they did, with
any amount of the "yellow stuff" for
hordes of witnesses" handy-men and
satraps who lived permanently at the
inns, filled the rude cottages or swarmed
like harpies about the then busy stable-
yards.
The present hereditary line of
Bishops of Gretna" was established
just before the death of Joseph Paisley,
who, mass of fat and corruption,
went his ways" in 1914. He was ter
rible drinker of Cognac, and his advance
ing age with his physical joys and afflic-
tons compelled him to delegate his Office
to other and younger hands in the per-
son of one David Laing, an Ulster Irish
pack peddler. His vile was Paisley's
granddaughter; and besides, he pos
sessed so hard character and fists that
none disputed the legitimacy Of the sue
cession. He died in 1927. The third
"Bishop" was his son, Simon Laing,
NUhn faffanaH tho stnrr tt.oA IL,
until 1866, when something of a check
was given Gretna Green marriages by
the passage of tue act before alluded to
requiring one of the contracting parties
to nave Scottish residence for 81 days
Immediately preceding marriage. This
Simon Laing died in 1871. The fourth
and present Bishop of Gretna" is
William Laing, Her Majesty's postman
at Springfield and Gretna, little mite
of an old man II years OF age, weaz-
ened, shriveled and canny; uniting all
the bibulous proves of his predecessors
with an appalling cunning Of the lowest
order; a tiny ogre in blue and red when
on his official rounds as postman; q
vicious and ruminative Grandfather
Smallweed," when Officiating" or
mumbling over his oaken chest of
records in his tiny, tumbledown cottage
beside the impetuous Sark.
The old moss-grown Gretna kirk is
still standing, surrounded by crumbling
headstones of Gretna Bishops" and
other worthless, at the northern end of
the long, dreary street. The Kings
Arms and the Maxwell Arms, midway
to the Sark, are ruinous and decayed,
and remain but filthy dens where
drunken kinds and brawling tramps
hold common orgy. The struggling
street is overgrown with rank grass and
weeds. Old women with bloodless faces
and barbaric barns with dirty faces leer
and boot at you as you pass. Down at
the edge of the brae forming the last
vestige Of Scottish land beside the Sark,
in the third cottage from the stream live
William LGing and his half imbecile old
wife; the latter now deaf for more than
40 years and with a pinched white face
winter than the trembling white frills
Of her "mutch" cap upon her poor
palsied head. EDGAR L. WAKEMAN.