GRETNA GREEN RECORDS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19255, 20 August 1924, Page 5

GRETNA GREEN RECORDS.

SOLD IN SOTHEBY’S AUCTION ROOM. There was brisk bidding at Sotheby’s recently for a thick manuscript volume in Russia gilt and a bulky parcel of marriage certificates (states the London correspondent of the Manchester Guardian). These formed a complete record of me Gretna Green marriages performed by Lohn Linton who kept the Gretna Green Inn between 1825 and 1854. Soon after the latter date runaway weddings in Scotland were stopped by Act of Parliament. The relics were sold by a descendant of Linton, whose house was the most popular for eloping couples, as is clear from tho fact that between 1100 and 1200 certificates were sold. The collection was shown at the Scottish Exhibition at Glasgow in 1911. One of the strangest marriages recorded was that of Prince Garlo Ferdinando Borbono, the brother of the infamous King Ferdinand II of Naples, in 1836, with an Irish girl. This couple were married four times, at Rome, Madrid, at Gretna Green, and finally at St. George’s, Hanover square, the last marriage apparently because London society was not convinced that they were married already, A remarkable elopement was that of Lord Drumlanrig, afterwards the Marquis of Queensborry, with Miss Caroline Clayton, as the lovers, instead of using the conven. tional post-chaise, rode from London to Gretna Green on horseback. Lady Adela Villiers, daughter of Lord Jersey, in running away to Gretna Green with Captain Ibbetson in 1845, was following the example of her grandmother, Miss Sarah Child, the daughter of the founder of Child’s Bank, who was married at Gretna Green to Lord Westmorland. The pursuit of tho couple by the banker, who gave up the chase after one of the horses in his coach had been shot by his son-in-law, is perhaps the most famous of these stories. The documents were bought by a private collector for £IBO.