: Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature Science and Art fifth series no. 117 vol. III March 27 1886 by Various - Periodicals

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GRETNA GREEN AND ITS MARRIAGES.

A few miles beyond the walls of 'merrie Carlisle,' and only just across the Border on the Scottish side, is a lonely old-world little village, whither, in days not yet remote, frequent couples, in life's bright golden time, hurriedly resorted; no less eager to cross the bridge spanning the river Sark, which here forms the boundary of the two kingdoms, than, with blind trust in the future, to undertake the all-untried responsibilities of forbidden wedlock. The village itself consists of a long straight street of cleanly whitewashed houses, beyond which stretches the solitary tract of Solway moss, scene of many a Border foray, and of one miserable 'rout' in the days of the Scottish Jameses; while, towards England, the landscape is bounded by the 'skyey heads' of the Cumberland mountains, clad in such hues of grayish green as nature uses to modify her distant tints. Curious to view a spot so far renowned, albeit without design of invoking aid from any chance survivor of the 'high-priests of Gretna Green,' we alighted on the platform of its roadside station on the Glasgow and South-Western Railway one summer afternoon, and pursuing our way towards the village in company with a not uncommunicative policeman, quickly found many illusions dispelled, by no means least the widespread legend as to the officiating blacksmith. Our attention was ere long called to the figure of a middle-aged, by no means clerical-looking man, at the time engaged in filling his pipe by the wayside, with whom we entered into conversation. Nowise anxious to magnify his apostleship, our new friend somewhat deprecatingly acknowledged that the priestly mantle had descended upon his too unworthy shoulders, and that, indeed, but a few days prior to our visit, he had been called on to exercise the weighty functions of his office.

This man, by trade a mason, spoke, not without regret, of the good old days when fugitive lovers crowded to the Border village, the poorer sort being most often united at the tollhouse just across the bridge, while the more well-to-do betook themselves to the hotel, which, though no longer devoted to uses hymeneal, still stands at the entrance of the village street. The priestly office, it was said, had been filled, more or less worthily, by many, who, claiming no unbroken descent, had in a somewhat casual sort of way succeeded to it; and amongst others concerned in what certainly appeared to have been the staple trade of the place, the local postman was indicated as custodian of registers reaching back into the palmy days of Border marriage, and containing names no less remarkable for nobility of birth than for the possession of wealth and acres.

Not very long since, a faithless swain, weary prematurely of vows exchanged at Gretna Green, and doubting somewhat, it may be, of the holiness of the estate inaugurated by rites so maimed, betook himself, in the company of another and, to him, doubtless fairer bride, to a Roman Catholic priest in a southern Scottish burgh, who all unwittingly solemnised a marriage between them, destined to work no small evil to the fickle bridegroom; for mark how well the sequel hangs together. The deceiver, a sadder and perchance wiser man, torn from the arms of his too credulous bride, a Niobe all tears, was hauled before the outraged majesty of law, and compelled to undergo the penalties, not trivial, awarded to crimes of perjury and bigamy.

Whatever peculiar popularity as a marriage-resort may have been enjoyed by Gretna Green is doubtless due to the convenience and accessibility of its situation on the Great North Road; for here is no instance of especial virtue residing in local fountains, but merely of such virtue--if, indeed, one may so use the term--as is participated in by every other spot of ground within the whole realm of Scotland; nor, indeed, as a matter of fact, were Coldstream and Lamberton near Berwick without some measure of peculiar advantage, which they offered to those impatient ones who, from the more eastern counties, were minded to avail themselves of the proximity of the Scottish Border.

The origin of these marriages has been sought by some in the wild habits of times far distant, when lack of clergy in the district was to some extent supplied by the ministrations of friars from the adjacent abbeys of Melrose and Jedburgh, who in the course of their perambulations performed the rites of baptism and marriage. The Borderer, nowise forgetful, ere setting forth on expeditions of rapine and plunder, to tell his beads right zealously, was yet grossly ignorant about many things; nor had he access to any other source of enlightenment than the 'Book-a-bosoms,' as the mass-book was called, from the habit of the wandering ecclesiastics carrying it in their bosoms. Thus it was that stout William of Deloraine seemed, to the astonished eyes of the Goblin Page, so strangely to resemble one of these friars, when

As the corselet off he took, The Dwarf espied the mighty Book! Much he marvelled, a knight of pride Like a book-bosomed priest should ride.

But it may have been that this custom originated at Gretna Green about 1738, on the suppression of the infamous Fleet marriages, though, without doubt, irregular marriage was far from unknown long prior to this time in the Border parishes. At all events, acting on his knowledge that Scotch marriages, where parties accepted each other as man and wife before witnesses, were legal, one Scott opened a place at the Rigg, in the parish of Gretna, and there marriages were celebrated between runaway couples about the year 1753. Scott was succeeded by an old soldier named Gordon, who was wont to officiate in uniform, wearing a huge cocked-hat, and girt about the waist with a ponderous sword.

In a will-case tried some years ago at Liverpool, the plaintiff, Robert Ker, had been married on two occasions at Gretna Green--in 1850, and again in 1853--the first marriage having been solemnised in a beerhouse at Springfield, near Gretna; and the second in an alehouse kept by William Blythe, when Thomas Blythe, in presence of his wife, performed the ceremony, which was thus described: 'I went in and had some conversation, and asked him to do this little job. He said he would, and asked me if I was willing to take this lady as my wife, and I said yes. Then he asked her if she was willing to take me for her husband, and she said she was; and I got hold of her hand and put the ring on, and we were declared man and wife; and that was how we were married.' At this trial, a book containing a register of marriages performed by the Blythes was produced in evidence.

Thomas Blythe was himself examined in the Probate Court at Westminster, and stated that in the May of 1853 he was living at Springfield, Gretna Green, and was in the agricultural line, though he did a small stroke of business in the 'joining line' as well. Replying to counsel as to how he performed the ceremony, he gave the following account of the marriage service as by him conducted: 'I first asked if they were single. They said they were. I then asked the man: "Do you take this woman for your wife?" He said, "Yes." I then asked the woman: "Do you take this man for your lawful husband?" She said, "Yes." I then said: "Put on the ring." The ring was put on. I then said: "The thing is done; the marriage is complete."' A certificate of marriage was written out and given to the woman.

We doubt not, however, that many of our readers may learn with surprise that, even now, marriage--provided that one or other of the parties have resided three weeks in Scotland--may be thus speedily and effectually performed at the erstwhile notorious little village of Gretna Green, as well as elsewhere north of the Border.

IN ALL SHADES.

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