SOME FAMOUS SECRET MARRIAGES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 46, 23 February 1901, Page 5 (Supplement)

SOME FAMOUS SECRET MARRIAGES.

That the days of romance are not yet dead is proved conclusively by the latest Anglo-American alliance, which has fluttered the dovecots of London and New York society. Gretna Green is: gone, but young- hearts still beat with the fervour of a century ago, even "in this prosaic and utilitarian age. Many middle-aged people will remember the sensational runaway matchl which was more than a nine days' wonder in ISG4 (says an English exchange). On the 10th of August of that year Lady Florence Pa get was secretly married to the Marquis of Hastings. The ceremony took place at St. George's, Hanover Square, in the presence of half-a-dozen intimate friends of both parties. The Marquis was 22 years of age at the time, and his bride n little younger. What added more •than a spice of interest and excitement to the. elopement was the fact that Ludy Florence was at the time, supposed to be engaged to a, wealthy landowner and sportsman, who sub* sequently became v Cabinet Minister. The wild turf speculations of the illfated young Marquis, his enormous losses, and his premature death, four years after his marriage, helped to make his brief career as romantic as anything' conceived by a professed writer of fiction. A year before the Hastings-Paget elopetnetit intense interest was caused by a petition presented to the Committee of Privilege of the House of Lords by the Earl of Dundonald, praying them to decide that he was entitled to vote for representative peers of Scotland, and thai 'he was the lawful son of the late Earl. His brother, the Hon. L. Cochrane, of H.M.s. Warrior, claimed the peerage. The Dow-ager-Conntess gave evidence, from which it appeared that her marriage to the late Earl was a' secret one, at* tended with a good many features of romantic interest. Later on there Was vi public ceremort\ r. Their Lordships evidently believed the l)owager-Coim* tess's story, for they gave judgment ■for the petitioner, and declared the first or secret marriage, which took place at Annan, in Scotland, a valid one«