Gretna Green Celebrates Record Marriage Year

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 631, 6 April 1929, Page 18

Gretna Green Celebrates Record Marriage Year

RETNA GREEN has just ■TkS'CS'vM completed a record year. ■ O I During 1928 marriages ■ SjJ were celebrated over the historic anvil at the rate of four a week, which is about the same average as in the days of yore. Five of the bridegrooms were Americans. But the days are gone since gloping swains and sweethearts fled northward, pursued on horseback, perhaps, by angry fathers and brothers armed with hunting whips, to get married quickly before vengeance could overtake them. Gretna Green no longer gives the protection to lovers that it did. No longer can a couple rush Into the smithy or toll-house, fling down a guinea, and demand to be married there and then without any questions being asked. That was all altered over 70 years ago, when Lord Brougham’s act put obstacles in the way of the matrimonial escapades of couples who sought sanctuary in this little town just inside the Scottish border. That Act provides, among other things, that a wedding there must be regarded as irregular and invalid unless one of the parties to it has been resident in Scotland for at least 21 days before the ceremony. The usual procedure nowadays is for the officiating blacksmith to ask the couple if ou . c them has complied with this stipulation, and whether, if they are U J lC iu r a^e ’ they have the consent of their parents or guardians to get married If everything is satisfaetory, bride and bridegroom join Hands oyer the anvil, on which a Bible is placed, and the blacksmith declares them to be lawfully married. It may be mentioned, however, that quite a number of romantic couples who go througn this form of matrimonial contl;ac! ? refer to confirm the legality of their married state by having another and more formal ceremonv performed elsewhere. ' Many people are still ignorant of V 1 ® existence of the Lord Brougham f k . t ’ a ? d t s, lni they can get married th Green in a hurry. Within the last few weeks three couples have

travelled all the way from London V that town, only to be turned a disappointed because they cocomply with the residential quau tion. fhaf It is a mistake to suppose Gretna Green was the only V where eloping lovers could d®7, authority of their parents or ians. Gretna Green became * ne oured spot only because of “S gc . proximity to the border, and cessibility by road. It is alsci take to suppose that the bla- - w was the only person perform the marriage ceremony- it tollkeeper, the ferryman, anyD ltie fact, could officiate. Many a _ ur . stories told of couples, with tn« suers hot-foot upon their beenc held up at the ferry because man found “difficulty” in c , it them across the water to safe the last desperate moment, tor ted satisfied himself that he had e all the money that the COUP § afford, the boatman would ove j the “difficulty,” and proceed I crossing. .