The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-12-07
GRETNA GREEN MARRIAGES,

! Famous Scottish Border Town. 1 How many novels have been set to 1 the oIdtune beaten out by horses hoofs i on the road to Gratna Green? Hun dreds, no doubt,and yet Gretna Green 1 and all that it implies is not wholly
 romantic, say T. P.'s Weekly. There was sometimes a good deal of squalid tragedy under the mask of romance
 and black care jogged along with the
 post boys. But there were fine possi-
 bilities about Gretna Green that lift it's
 marriages above those performed in the
 Fleet. for as least it was long way
 north and the dashing adventurer was
 often empty of pocket.
 A writer who disguises himself under | the pseudonym "ClaverhOuse" has col-
 lected much information concerning
 this place of many weddings. Banns, 1 it should be noted, were first published
 Ill England in 1900, but it was not unti.
 1863 that the consent of the Church be- came necessary, and even then, that ordination being enacted by the Coun-
 cil of Trent, it did not hold in this country, where the civil law continued
 to regulate marriages until 1754.
 In that year in the teeth of strong
 opposition, Lord Hardwick's act was
 passed which enacted that "any person
 solemnizing matrimony in any other
 place than a church of public chapel,
 without banns or other license, should,
 on conviction, be adjudged guilty of
 felony, and be transported for fourteen
 years, and that all such marriages
 should be void" This put an end to
 the scandal of the Fleet weddings, | though up to the last they continued
 to increase. It Is reported that in one register week alone PIT marriages were 1 celebrated at the Fleet on the day be- fore the act referred to came into force | In lucky week Fleet parson might
 make as much as e20, the fees, like
 those at Gretna, depending upon the
 means or generosity of the contracting
 parties.
 One of the so-ca1led Gretna priests
 was worthy named Gordon, who be-
 ing an old soldier performed his duties l in full reglmentals, with sword and cooked hat A less reputable predeces- sor was Joseph Prisley, a drunken free booter, who began to marry just about the time of the passign of Lord Hard wicke's bill. The first recorded elope- | ment marriage at Gretna was the cele'
 brated Edgar-Scott affair, which drew 1 the atenttion of the whole country to a place hitherto insignificant John Edgar and Jean Scott, being followed by relatives who objected to their mar riage, evaded their pursuers by taking boat across the Solway.
 A violent storm upset the boat and one of the unhappy relatives was drowned by the inf1owing tide; but the couple escaped to the Scottish side and were married by Paisley, who took the trouble to have the validity of the cere- mony fully proved. Then trade became brisk and the drunken old rascal did a thriving business. On one occasion he married the wrong couples in a hurry, but the mistake did not perturb him. "Aweel," he said, jest sort yersels." Paisley was a man of terrific personal strength; he could bend poker across his arm and straighten cold horse shoe with his hands, and 1t is said that in fits of anger he would, by grasp, squeeze the blood from the finger end Of those who had offended him.
 Prisley, who lived to be an octoge- marian, and at his death weighed twen- ty-five stone, was succeeded by Robert Elliot, wh ohad married Paisleys grand daughter. Elliot left his memoirs, in which are recorded some curious cases of runaway matches, one of the most celebrated being that of Miss Child and the Earl of Westmoreland. Miss Child was the daughter of rich walker who disapproved of the earl's suit. "Your blood, my lord, is good" he said, "but money is better" The lady, however, preferring the earl to the money, they left London at midnight for Gretna in 1 a chaise and four horses, having ar- ranged that relays of horses should be ready on the road. Says Elliot:
 ''Mr. Child, soon hearing of their de- parture, as quickly followed them, and having, through numbers of horses and | great rewards to the post boys, gained | ground considerably, at the last came | up with them while changing horses at l Hesgeth, in the forest, half way be- tween Carlisle and Penrith. Mr. Child, | in 8 fury, jumped out of the carriage | and shot one of the leading horses of | the earls carriage;- one of the earl's | servants at the same time ran behind | MT. Child's carriage, and cut the Ieath- 1 CT which suspends the body of the car riage to the springs, unobserved. The | earl proceeded with three horses, leav- ing the fourth dying, MT. Child, start i! ing soon after, had not gone far before | the body of the carriage fell upon the | frame, which entirely stopped him, and l he was compelled to wait until he could get post chaise to proceed with; consequently the earl and the 1 lady arrived at Gretna, and were unit ed long before the arrival of MT. Child.'
 Another remarkable story is that of 1 Lord Chief Justice Erskine, who arriv. | at Gretna In the usual chaise dressed in wOman's clothes, accompanied by an 1 elderly lady and four children. "When | I first saw them," says Elliot, 'T took the elderly lady for the mother of the children and the learned Lord for the grandmother" But the sight of a waistcoat button through the opening of a neckerchief revealed Erskine's sci and he was married to the lady. Later he attempted to get a divorce, but the marriage being legal he thought better of the affair, and, abandoning the suit, lived contentedly with the lady ever al .qo r