GRETNA GREEN

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXXII, Issue 60, 8 May 1924, Page 8

GRETNA GREEN

SOME FAMOUS ROMANCES. barest of rare hooks, hoimr literally "iliqiu:, arc tlio.se of which there exists no copy but only the original tyidi » Look (say, a London paper) is the Register of Marriage* , lt Gretna Green kept by John Linton between 1825 and 185-1. Linton had many rivals, ; ,H „f whom kept registers and issued eertificrctes, but of these so-called "priests" Linton was the best-edu-WVted. and his register is the most, important and contains the most illustrious names. He arranged for the principal coaches to call at his inn; be secured the patronage of the r?c?i and fashionable world; and for thirty years his house was the favourite resort of doping couples. •An in ten sting case was that of Edward Gibbon Wakelicld to Ellen Turner on March K, 1826. Miss Turner was an heiress only sixteen years of a-jre, and Wakefield decoyed her from school by merns of a. forged letter, and induced her to marry him |.y pretending that lier compliance was necessary to save her lather from ruin. He was subsequently sentenced to three years' imprisonment- and tlip nnuriat'e was annulled by special Act of Parliament. DESPERATE SPOUrES. Another marriage, notable in itself and its consequences, was that, of Prince Carol Eerdinando Bonbone, younger brother of the notorious King Ferdinand 11. of the Two Sicilies, and Penelope Caroline Smyth, of Waterford, Ireland. Their history is extraordinary. First, niairiod at Gretna (ween, they went to Naples, whence, being expelled, they fled to Rome, and were married again there. They then went to Madrid, where the Prince's sister was Queen-Regent, n\)d by a third marriage tried to reconcile her to their union, but Failed. Returning to England, and being coldly received by society, they < ndeavoured to establish themselves by a fourth marriage- at St. George's, Hanover Square. I? I "SAWA Y All rSTOC'MATS. One of the most popular stories in tbo annuals of Gretna Green is that of Lady Adela Corisande Maud Villieis, daughter of flic Earl of Jersey, who on November 0, 1815, married Captain Charles Parke Ibbetson. A runaway bride, she followed the example of her grandmother, .Miss Sarah Child, the daughter of the founder of Child's Bank. The story goes that the banker, who was of a<' hasty and fiery temper, , dashed in hot pursuit, and only gave up tho chase when one of his hor.sos was shot by his prospective son-in-law.

These are nut a, sample of the hundreds of fascinating records. 'Gretna' Green marriages were put a slop to in 185(5 by an Act vliicli required persons domiciled in England to reside twenty-one days in Scotland before ching married there.