Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1919-11-20
STRANGE FACTS THAT
FEW PEOPLE KNOW

"Gretna Green seems about to revert
once more to figure of speech" says
bulletin OF the National Geographic
Society. commenting upon the London
dispatches which tell of the closing
down of the vast cordite plants built
there early in the World war.
ITO most Americans the words may
never have meant much more than a
nickname for any rendezvous of elop-
ing couples, but there is a real Gretna
Oh cen. Twice has it been conspicu-
GUS among English towns, once when
its chief industry was matrimony and
again when, as a wag remarked, it
started making new kind of high
explosive.
Now, like Hopewell, Virg.. 1t is
ABOUT to sink into obscurity, with the
end of its war contracts, which repre-
sented an investment of some $60,-
100000 in our money, and the employ
ment of more than 5000 workers
"Gretna Green is a village in Scot
land, tiny except for its munitions
boom, less than a mile from the River
Sark, which marks the England Scot
land boundary line in that vicinity,
near the Solway Firth, and about nine
miles northwest of Carlisle. Upon its
Proximity to the border line rests its
first claim TO fame, for the English
marriage laws sent clipping couples to
Scotland just as the divorce laws of
some A of our states make Reno de-
sirable for would be Divorces
Before 1854, Fleet Prison was the
figurative 'Gretna Green of England
Until that time the English law rec
ognized marriages as valid so long as
they were performed by clergymen of
any denomination but it imposed a
fine upon clergymen who would per-
form the ceremony for couples who
had not proclaimed their intentions
either by bans or license
Such fines had no terrors, of course.
for clergymen imprisoned in Fleet for
debt, and some of them undertook to
marry couples who wished to avoid
the expense of the customary public
ceremony Less scrupulous persons
soon took advantage of this example,
and tavern keepers fitted up places
where they brought couples to be mar
ried by the Fleet parsons and in some
cases young women of means were
brought there forcibly by soldiers of
fortune, and women of the under world
lured men there for marriage as an
easy means of compelling their hus-
rand victims to pay their debts.
These abuses were checked by the
famous Hardwicke act of 1754 which
made unauthorized marriages voidable
and thereupon Gretna Green became
the roman spot of the British Isles All
the Scotch law required was that two
persons should declare their intention
to be married in the presence of wit
nesses; and the British law then as
now, recognized marriages as legal so
long as they conformed to the laws in
the places they were contaminated
"At Gretna Green, as in Fleet Prison,
" ere persons who exercised cupidity at
the expense of cupid: and innlxeepers,
ferrymen and dollhouse tenders ex-
plotted the couples who fled to Gretna
Green. Any witnesses would have
served. but the professional witnesses
there, like the marrying parsons of
some American towns, engaged 'touts'
to bring couples to them, and when
the railroad from Glasgow to Carlisle
started running, the station platform
at Gretna Green thronged with these
commission men,
"A pioneer of this unique industry
was John Linton, formerly valet to
Sir John Gresham, described as a man
of fine presence and manners and
another. a Mr.. Beattie was a person
able adventurer. But later traffickers
were ne'er- do wells and town drunk
ards.
According to popular legend, black
smith shops were favorite meccas for
couples. but authority is lack !
Ing for the stories of smithies who
would pause while shoeing horses to |
hel lpegalize marriages. Many famous
Englishmen We're married at Gretna |
Green, among them Lord Elton ana
Lord Brougham, both of whom later
became Lord Chancell 1r, and Iord IT.
sktne, while he was chancellor; Charlie.
Manners Sutton. who aftsrward ws
Of Canterbury, and I.ord
and Miss Child, the lat