GRETNA GREEN.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 656, 5 November 1909, Page 4

GRETNA GREEN.

;Ani interesting claim,.. tfhich. is being mado :othe'ilacdonald peerage by Mr. Alexander Bos]riUfe-ii;XQrkßyre I'SSfttteman,'-'.. indi--ectly concern the' family of-Lord Linlithgow 'says X London .writer)./ The disputa.involves i'-'.question 6f "legitimacy arising 'out ''of >a Irejna Green .- marriage, ; which took jlace 'in the 'early, :part'.of-;,the last century.' ,The lady in th9'-caiM,\a daughter of .tho -Duke' of Glouces-, :er,: 'made ; a"runaway' ! match with the third Lord llacdonald. Tney had. tyo children,, a' ion- and'a daughter.: The daughter 'became SountessTofrHopetoun, and .was the -' great-1 jralidmother !of ' the. present Lord Linlithgow, it is curious to find', considering ;.how,-'-fre-.. lucntlytho serenity of the aristoorktic families I vas disturbed by Scotch marriages, that nearly r century-.passed before the 'hand of thevlaw lescen'ded: upon>th©; various amateur parsons— ihe'famous "blacksmith" (he was really a toaacconist, 'it-mow.: appears) and othersi:before md after-'him—who drbva-so flourishing a trade >ver the border. The ancestors of scores of Eaglish people of the present day iiado furiously hurried excursions to; Gretna 3recn. Among them were two who in their .ater carters reached the high position, of Lord Chancellor of England—Lord t'ldon and Lord Brougham; One* of.-the most Sensational of these runaway'marriages, that of Edward Gibbon Wakefield and - Miss Ellen; Turner, the laughter of a Blackburn resident, has some special interest for Australia;. There was ; a jreat outcry about it for Miss Turner was • little iioro'than a child, arid was led into ths marriage by a subterfu je. • The resnilt, it will be remembered, -was - that Wakefield and his brother; were .'prosecuted for- abduction,, and sentenced to three-yeara'-imprisonment. It was filleged' that Miss Tunm' was told that her lather had been ruiied in a bank failure, and in' order to assist hit* in getting, out of - his iuppe?ed difficulties,, ska wms indueed te marry Wake&eld. r-A sjecial Act amollinj the mar.'iags iiu afterwards passed through Parliament. ' ■ ..