The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-08-04
hold out my hand tor the forthcoming

street and half highway Into the mod ern but woebegone Gretna village local ly known as the hamlet of Springfield.
 The old fellow still seemed in deep study. He would not walk beside me. If crowded close upon him at one side of the highway he would suddenly fall behind. bring up in the rear, and batter along there In silence. or hug the hedge at the other side of the way; and when ever could get glimpse of his wicked little eyes, they seemed fastened on me with a glitter of intense calculation and venality.
 AS we reached the edge of the dreary hamlet a remarkable spectacle of pow erty, bestiality. ruin and decay was pre- sented. The Kings Arms and Maxwell Arms, standing midway between Gret- ma kirk and the river Sark-once the most noted posting establishment in the two kingdoms and the resort of barristers, handy-men, witnesses" and satraps who lived permanently at the inns, filled the rude cottages, or swarmed like harpies about the then busy stable-yards-now seemingly re- mained but filthy dens where drunken minds and brawling tramps held com mon orgie.
 The struggling street was overgrown with grass and weeds. Drink-stupid men with blood-shot faces, old women with bloodless faces and barbaric bairns with dirty faces. first eyeing the old man and then myself, indulged in shruggings and derisive smiles, or leered and footed at us as we passed.
 chose the Maxwell Arms at my com- panion's suggestion and as 1t was first reached. Its proprietor was veritable ground floor of her inn, chiefly given over to drunken brawlers and reeking with filth, was crowded with plowmen, herdsmen and vagabonds of the road. in various stages of stupor or elation.
 All of these seemed to regard my companion and myself in the light of such hilariously fortunate arrivals, that not until IShad paid reckoning for nearly two score thirsty Scotch gull lets, could I avoid sundry demonstra- tions savoring of hustling and finally secure the seclusion of a musty, dark and vermin-infested apartment. Turn ing to close the door, the f1uttering, fumbling hands and the ogre-like face of the old man still confronted me.
 "wor ye seekin' tn meenister?" he
 "The minister?"
 "Oh, ay. tn meenister; tn bishop O Gretna." ~
 No; was not seeking that worthy; was Joking only for the dead; man. aged to explain.
 "Wor ye seekin' perteeklar ains?" he urged with cunning insistence.
 "Oh, those 1t will not be difficult to find account of" I answered tempori- zingly.
 "Oh, ay;" he muttered with trem- bling, deprecatory jerk of his head.
 Then, long pause with that hateful glitter of calculation flashing from the little green eyes; and suddenly, while his shriveled old hands rubbed greedily together:
 ''Its lang road frae London to Gret- ma. Ye cud na come for naught, ye ken; wad ye noo?"
 "Gentlemen often travel for pleas ure:'' L parried. ,4 ,4. 4 lr,
 Nicer tae Gretna; ne'er tae Gretna;" he retorted with impatience. And then wheedlingly: "Ye cud na be seekin tn records?"
 I subsequently understood the old wretch's meaning. At that moment did not. But it occurred to me that he was a very old man; a postman; had probably always lived at Gretna; though almost unbearably repulsive and offensive to me, he might some how be serviceable in my investiga- tions, and I asked him plainly if he could be. t,
 He regarded me for a time with look of incredulity, suspicious cunning and positively piteous greed; when he solemnly asserted that he was the only soul living who could give any one of an inquiring turn of mind complete in- formation upon the subject of Gretna past and present. This he would reveal to me on the morrow, at his own cottage, the'third one north of the Sark bridge-If there's siller ahint it"' he almost savagely concluded.
 I assured him there was a reasonable amount "of silver behind" whatever he could do for me; whereupon the old man fumbled and fluttered out of the room into the dark hallway, stumped down the creaking stairs, and went his way
 Before visiting my strange acquaint- ance I had discovered curious facts re- garding Gretna marriages and the | hamlet's line of self-appointed "Bish- | ops."
 Before the decease of the first "Bish- | op" of Gretna, old Joseph Paisley, which occurred in 1914, he delegated his | office to one David Laing, the husband l of his granddaughter. This Bishop" Laing died in 1927. The third Bishop" | was his son, Simon Laing, who fattened | upon the traffic until 1886, when some l thing of 8 check was given to Gretna l by parliamentary enact- | ment imposing the slight condition upon the Scottish civil-contract mar riage, that one of the contracting par ties shall have been a resident of Scot land for a period of but twenty -one days preceding such marriage.
 This Simon Laing died in 1873. In- uuiry disclosed that his son, one Will liam Laing, had succeeded to his office and emolument; was still living; that Gretna was almost as much resorted to then and still is. for irregular" mar riage ceremony as 1t was one hundred years ago; though the fine color and great clamor of the old coaching days, when the Carlisle and Glasgow road .esounded with ringing hoofs and the shouts of pursued and pursuers, are simply eliminated by the use of the
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