GRETNA GREEN RECORD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20130, 15 December 1928, Page 2 (Supplement)

GRETNA GREEN RECORD.

INCREASE IN MARRIAGES.

RECORD FOR A CENTURY.

A.'HIGH 'PRIEST ;OF" HY^IEN.

j It was recently announced, ia.the British "that." tio fetoer thiin 118 marriages had been "celebrated at Gretna <Gre.en this year. This; is a record unequalled. for a hundred years, so apparently romanbo still "lingers around the 'old' smiddy.' 'One of the most famous Gretna Green " priests " was a fisherman called Joseph Paisl'cy, who for over fifty years joined runaway couples in tho holy bonds of matrimony v

While ,stjll quite a youth Paisley often acted as clerk to the "priest " at Gretna, and was .-fired . with the ambition to perform marriages himself. During the absence of. the old "priest" on a smuggling expedition, young Paisley tried his 'prentice hand on a few runaway couples, and to " his great satisfaction found that ho could tie the knot expeditiously. ,

Pennant, in his famous tour in Scotland in 1772, visited Gretna, and wrote in hia diary: "As I had a great desire to see the high priest, by stratagem. I succeeded. . .Wo questioned him about his price, which, after eyeing us attentively, he left it to our honour." Apparently this was a orofitable method of obtaining substantial fees from grateful bridegrooms, for, it is *.aid' that Paisley made £IOOO a year out of these runaway marriages.- - . About the year 1794 Paisley was served with a summons to appear at the Court in Bristol to give evidence regarding the validity of one of the marriages that he had performed. After a, long litigation the marriage was declared! to be legal, and Paisley, returned to Gretna in high glee, feeling that he could now follow his romantic profession with increased se curity. Right to the end of hii; long life Paisley used to boast that ha could drink seventeen glasses of brandy at one sitting. Yet he was of tremendous strength, never had an illness, and livod until he was 82, passing away peacefully on January 9, 1811. A local newspaper thus records the sad event " At Gretna Green,, aged! 82, the celebrated Joseph Paisley, first (it is said) a tobacconist, afterwards a fisherman, and

finally, without ordination or commission, a voluntoer self-constituted Priest of Hymen, hotter known by the appellation' of tho Gretna Grecu Parson." Colonel Hawker, who wrote an account of Paisley 111 1812, said that ho officiated for neatly forty years at a chargo which varied from £4O to £IOO for tlio ceremony. In 1791 Paisley, who had lived in a cottage on the Green, removed to Springfield to be nearer tho Border, and became, landlord of the " King's Head " inn. At tho time of his death, about 1814, ho was to all appearance just one mass of fat, weighing at least thirty-five stone. Although an habitual drunkard he was seldom seen the worse for drink. During the last forty years of his life it wus his practice to drink a Scots pint, equal to three English quarts of brandy a day. On one occasion a special crony named " Ned the Turner" sat down with- him on a! Monday morning to au anker of strong' cognac, and before tho evening of th« Saturday following they kicked tne empty, cask out of tho door.

A humorous situation occurred on one occasion when ho was called upon to mafry two couples. He got tho pairs mixed and married tho wrong orides and bridegrooms. When they drew his attention to the mistake ? ho just remarked: " Wgel, then, ye can just soort ycrsels.." f J