PROFITABLE SMITHY

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 189, 9 May 1934, Page 5

PROFITABLE SMITHY

Prosperous Gretna Green Some years ago (says a Reuter correspondent to "The Dominion”) I bad my first introduction to Scotland when motoring through Gretna Green on my way to Inverness for the Highland Games there. And, among crowds of other tourists. I duly stopped to visit the famous smithy where thousands of “runaway marriages” have been performed over the anvil. Judging by that experience, the place was a paying proposition, since at least 20 people nassed through its doors in the short space of time I stayed there—not more than 15 minutes. This—at sixpence a head —was good business. Now I see that the man who thought, of capitalising this romantic spot by charging admission to the curious lias just died. He was Mr. Hugh Mackie. ■ who bought the smithy 30 years ngo. although his association with the place dated back many more years than that. It was in 1869 that Mackie, then a youth of 19. went to Gretna Green ns a witness to a marriage there, and had his bright idea. His chance to put It info effect, however, did not come until 35 years later, when the smithy came into the market.

Afaekie, then n prosperous farmer, snapped if up. and in a few years, so great did the tourist trade become, he formed a company consisting of his wife, his three daughters, and his son to run the place