GRETNA GREEN DEBUNKED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 104, 4 May 1937, Page 10

GRETNA GREEN DEBUNKED

How a legend can be fostered till it becomes accepted tradition, and exploited so as to provide a profitable revenue, is shown in the referenceses to Gretna Green marriages in the report of Lord Morison’s Committee on Scottish Marriage Law. The scandal of irregular marriages was stopped by law in England in the middle of the eighteenth century: after which there continued to occur, fairly frequently, elopements across the border into Scotland, where marriage could still be contracted without serious formality. Gretnp, Green was one of the many places convenient for the celebration of these marriage*: and in Gretna itself, there were several spots, such as a public house under the sign of an anvil, where the ‘ceremony’ might take place. The famous ‘Smithy’ was not among these. It turns out to be a latter-day invention of a canny Scotsman of the 1890’s, who built a ‘museum ' and a blacksmith’s shop in Gretna Green for the express purpose of carrying on a marriage business there. We are told

that in 1932 the income from this business amounted to over £2OOO. Novelty, curiosity, and spurious Romance doubt combined to attract the Tegulaa flow of customers which this figure implies.

But behind the romantic facade, the report finds evidence of a very unsatiw factory state of affairs. These Gretna Green ‘marriages’ are not preceded by* notices, or followed, in every case, by) registration before a competent officialauthority. Consequently, many parties to these marriages have found themselves in the unenviable position of not knowing whether their ‘marriage’ i.< really valid or not. In short, the exis. tene of irregular forms of marriage in Scotland ‘opens a wide door to sedac' tion, deceit and fraud.’ The report ra commends the obvious remedy—suppress sion this marriage traffic by confining the reiteration of marriage to properly qualified officials, and by extending the right to proclaim a marriage and issun banns to the principal Church bodies ia Scotland. •