Show WAKEMANS wanderings GRETNA SCOTLAND sept 7 1893 tramping in in many portions of every shire of scotland where I 1 have not found beauty or grandeur in scenery there has always been winsome antiquarian qu arian historic or personal interest M only y one spot has proven repulsive squalid and forlorn to such degree that its very beggarliness is startling its venality ferocious and its miserable folk and history so uncanny and infamous that place folk and history are weirdly fascinating alone from their woebegone vicious and outrageous character such a place such a folk and such a history remain in the ancient noted and still notorious scottish court of hymen gretna green in what may be termed the lous romantic literature of britain no other place has occupied such scandalous and even worldwide world wide notoriety it has for nearly ilso years years trailed through every form of of romance and story infested every manner of newspaper travesty burdened much of popular ballad and rhyme obtruded itself into noble as well as lowly society stalked across the stage in tragedy and comedy engaged the pen of as great a poet and satirist as to tom m hood in his well known elegy to david laing the closing lines of which are had I 1 command thou should st have gone thy ways in chaise and pair and lain in pere la chaise and it has even entered without reverence the presence of grave chancellors to pursue its course of dishonor and disquiet in the highest courts of the three kingdoms in fact in the entire english speaking world the name ot of gretna green and the notion of gretna green marriages are as familiar to all classes as is the commonest nursery rhyme yet you will not find a score of f people either in america or in britain who can tell you any more than they can give the origin of the commonest nursery rhyme what originally really made the place camous famous or infamous the conditions continuing its notoriety whether these conditions have been removed or whether gretna green itself is a real place with wih geographical limitations or an interesting myth growing out of the vagaries and witticisms of marital literature illustrative of this was the indignant assertion made to me a short time since by a most eminent clergyman of glasgow that gretna green marriages were abolished ty by law a half century agnand ago and that probably nota not a hundred couples were ever married at gretna as alleged by popular tradition on the contrary nearer couples have been married at gretna green gretna green marriages of the alden sort with very slight modification are constantly being solemnized at the present time and as I 1 shall show I 1 hold a certificate of marriage of my own issued by the present bishop of gretna william laing postman 9 no single clear and concise account can be found in iii the books comprising the conditions and incidents leading to the establishment of the ancient gotori ous marriage mecca of gretna its origin primarily was due to the rigors of english marital law about the middle of the eighteenth century ancient english laws held that marriage was legal by civil contract in the presence of db two witnesses rendering the services of the priest merely a matter of sentiment or religion decisions under this law influenced by powerful ecclesiasticism led to serious legal entanglements entangle ments A civil contract marriage was valid to a degree in the matter of descent of re real al property to the offspring of such marriage it was held to be invalid rebellion against the inexorability of the clerical influence in the courts rather than the law itself resulted in the clandestine marriages celebrated by unprincipled clerics in orders known as fleet marriages and their consequent scandals a century and a quarter ago in in london to end this was passed the english marriage act of lord chan bellor hardwicke in 1754 this prohibited all clandes tnie and so called irregular or civil contract marria marriages es and made it compulsory on all eng english sh subjects except quakers and jews to be married according to the rites of the church of england so un unjust j a measure was certain to an fn meet beet wi with th evasion opportunity for this was found in the necessarily unchangeable rule in the english courts that and marriage validly performed in the country in which it had been contracted must be held valid for all purposes in england rebellious spirits and secretly panting hearts naturally turned towards the nearest country offering relief this one was scotland at the time of the reformation scotland as well as england refused to accept the provision of the council of trent which rendered the solemnize solem niza tion of marriage by a priest necessary Scot lands ancient marriage law was the same as that ol of ancient england from time immemorial all that has been requisite for a valid marriage in scotland has been an interchange of real and ac actual consent constituting at the time div given en an undeniable intention and determination mi to enter the relation of husband and wife with either incontestable written evidences of that fact or evidences of witnesses before whom the same is declared this was ancient scottish law it was scottish law when gretna began to acquire notoriety as a marriage resort re sort for runaway english couples and it is scottish law today to day there has never been in scotland nor is there today any bar to this form of marriage save that of public sentiment the people of scotland including a large proportion of the clergy ever sturdily withstood the enactment of laws by the scottish parliament which might annul this form of marriage or tend to cloud under it it strictest conditions of registration have always been imposed and scottish law has alwa s prescribed certain ceremonials for celebration of regular marriages such as the publication of banns and the officiating by a clergyman but the irregular marriage by witnessed civil contract has never been successfully assailed and has never been subject to but one slight modification through deference to english appeals for a check upon the gretna and marriages of english people for the border village of coldstream Cold stream in berwick shire once possessed almost as unenviable a reputation as gretna in 1856 by permission of scottish representatives an act was passed by the british parliament imposing the condition upon scottish civil contract marriages that one of the contracting parties shall have been a resident of lp i for a period of twenty one days immediately preceding in such marriage in tn other words any cici chiv il contract marriage in scotland for hundreds of years has been and now is a valid one the requisites for marriage at gretna t to day are precisely the same as they always were with the exception of sub sequent registration and the trifling condition ot of brief residence of one of d the contracting parties and within the past twenty three years the present bishop of gretna has married between goo and 1000 couples chiefly runaway english men and women or nearly one tenth of the entire number so married at gretna green since its first scandalous marriage of record it is almost as much resorted to at present for irregular marriage ceremony as it was a hundred years ago though the fine color and great clamor of the old coaching days when the old carlisle and glasgow road re sounded with rin ringing hoofs and the shouts of pursued pursue cl gian an and S pursuers are eliminated by the ra railways and every mail to gretna brings bishop laing letters of eager in inquiry one of which is truly copied barring the signature in the following keighley england aug 20 iao DEAR SIR could you kindly inform me what length of residence is necessary in scot land for parties going to be married by bv you at gretna does it require both bride and bridegroom to be ascertain a certain length in scotland or only the bride do you require any certificate as to the reside residence nc e in scotland if so front from whom should it be from the minister solicitor or register what time lime of day dav do you require parties to be there kir for marriage are you to be readily found and on any day do you marry sunday what fee the is your you parties I 1 w write F ite for are respectable people but no not t able to pay a high lee fee say from one to two pounds an early reply will very much oblige P S if we come you will know me ale by my carrying a stick with a carved ivory head also by a bit of green itt in my hat hatband band it is possible the bride may not have hardly anything on as she will wid have to cut stick to participate H how w will we know you gretna was originally chosen as ax an objective point of safety for both flying debtors and runaway couples fro from m E england sit solely on account of of its fa favorable location the great olden coach roads of england still stil fits its finest highways the abe eastern one coming north through leeds york boroughbridge Borough bridge catterick and ancient Bow esthe scene of dickens Dothe boys hall in nicholas 1 and thence over dreary Stan emoor and the western one leading from liverpool through lancashire and the northwest ern english shires joined at the city of carlisle from carlisle the single broad stone highway passed over the esk and sark rivers between which lay the his debatable land into scotland it should be borne in mind that the dis tance from carlisle to gretna just beyond the sark is only about twelve miles that gretna was the first coach relay station north of carlisle that the sark stream was the unquestioned boundary line between england and scotland and that whatever legal ot or moral vexations vexatious might in the olden times or now lurk in the debatable land between the esk and the sark whenever debtors or lovers flying from the inexorable harassment of english statute once crossed the middle of the sark they were instantly safe from pursuers beneath the ever welcoming aegis of scottish law though gretna had been a favorite haven of safety for absconding debtors from the middle of the seventeenth century its first irregular marriage of which there is is record did not occur until 1771 seventeen years subsequent subsequent to the alsage of lord chancellor Hard ard wickes bassage gated abed english marriage aft act but the circumstances of this affair were so interesting and so widely heralded that oletna green at once became hymens metropolis for hunted haunted runaway lovers this first marriage was of john edgar st marys parish and jean scott of the parish of He therel both of the english county of cum berland tradition has it that the e two instead of coming by coach and four foul over the post route from carlisle escaped their opposing relatives by boat across th the e solway firth irth the they y were upset by storm and a fierce erce ing tide whose violence drowned one of their pursuers and caused the others to aban abandon don the chase the couple them s selves selve elve 9 barely escaped with their lives stud and bedraggled in brine and sand they finally made their way on foot from the village of Brew houses to gretna where they were married by joseph paisley who lor for this sort ot of thin thing became the most notorious man of his 15 tune lime in scotland as well as the most execrated single individual known to the annals of english social anathema C at this time gretna perhaps a half i mile from the sark along the highway towards glasgow comprised not more ithan a halt dozen houses there were slimily a few rude buildings clustered sa about an old thatched kirk and the olden farmstead of megs hill the farmstead was the laird ot of the lands residence there were also the little manse behind the kirk and a vile little h hop pin io which the fellow paisley not a black 6 smi as all gretna literature has lt jt sold tea tobacco and snuff as well 1 as struggled whiskey to the sort the exploiting of the arscott ar scott marriage paisleys Pai defiance of f anglish engelh and an scotch authorities and his cunning in in securing the highest A scottish ettish St tish legal advice enabling him to settle the form of procedure according tb law by attesting marriages simply as a witness with the consequent establish WS ol of the absolute legality of these marriages and the universal notoriety thus given completed the essentials for acquainting t qua inting every soul in england with loah the e extraordinary opportunities offered for evading english law paisley became came the self constituted bishop of gretna Or etna and the haxwell residence was transformed into a commodious inn this hostelry proving inadequate for accommodation sir wil william I 1 i am maxwell the laird built an entire village in the realf 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 abe lh beginning of the present century became the most noted posting establishments in the two kingdoms from pais leys ays eys maeria marriage ge of Cumberland the couple in 2771 1771 to the time of his death in 1814 it is computed that this irregular marriage traffic brought annually to gretna and springfield in tees fees expenses of those who pursued runaway english couples outlay of barristers bar who visited the places to establish proof of marriage other barristers bar 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 extravagance on every hand where marriage fees from runaway english common folk gentry and nobility ranged from five to one hundred guine guineas asas as they did with any amount of the yellow stuff for hordes of wit nesses handymen handy men and ana satraps who lived permanently at the inns filled the rude cot cottages tags 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 a mass of fat and went his ways in 1814 he was a terrible drinker of cognac and his advancing age with his physical joys and afflictions compelled him to delegate his office to other and younger hands in the person of one david laing an ulster irish pack ped adlar his wife was paisleys Pai grand daughter and besides he possessed so hard a character and fists that none disputed the legitimacy of the succession he died in 1827 the third bishop was his son simon laing who ho fattened upon the increasing graec traffic until 1856 when something of a check was given gretna green marriages by the passage of the act before alluded to requiring one of the contracting parties to have scottish residence for twenty one days irn immediately mediately preceding ma marriage this simon laing died in 1871 the fourth and present bishop of gretna is wi iam laing her Maje postman at springfield and gretna a little mite of an old man seventy one years of a age ge shriveled and canny uniting all ane bibulous prowess 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 a vicious and ruminative grandfather Small weed when officiating or mumbling over his oaken chest of records in his tiny tumbledown tumble down cottage beside the impetuous sark the old moss grown gretna kirk is still standing surrounded by crumbling headstones of gretna bishops and other worthies at the northern end of the long dreary street the kings arms agals and the maxwell arms bidwa midway to the sark are ruinous and decay decayed ey and remain but filthy dens where drunken hinds and brawling tramps hold common orgie the straggling street is overgrown with rank grass and weeds webs old women with bloodless faces and barbaric baarns with dirty faces leer and hoot at you as you pass down at the edge of the brae forming the last vestige of scottish land beside the sark in the |