IN MARRIAGE UNDIVIDED.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 8036, 7 January 1905, Page 7

IN MARRIAGE UNDIVIDED.

The late Colonel Anstruther Thomson, in his "Eighty Years' Beminiscen'ces," tells the story of a remarkable marriage. Of the many quaint "characters" whom Colonel Anstruther Thomson met in the hunting field none captivate the imagination like the brothers Leamon, of Ivybridge—"two thin, delicate-looking old men, twin brothers, seventy-two years old, with white hair, very gentle and courteous in manner, red cut-away coats, white -cords, black boots, caps and gloves. Most respectable, and nothing slang about ■them; they are so alike you can hardly -tell them apart." When past sixty years of age, one night after hunting, one of them said to the other: " I have been thinking neither of us can have much longer to live in this world, and it will be a terrible thing for the survivor to have to remain here alone. Don't you think one of us ought to marry ?" **' Yes," was the reply, " I have thought so for a long time." " Well, do you know of any lady?" " Ye 3, I do. Is there anyone you fancy?" On comparing notes it appeared they had both selected the same woman, the manageress of the hotel at Okehampton. " Well," said one, " we have lived together all these years without a wry word, and it's a pity we should fall out at our time of life." So they tossed up which should marry her. The winner rode down to Okehampton next morning and was accepted. All three lived together, and and the wife nursed both brothers in their last illness, was left their money, and is, I believe, alive now, as she was only about thirty years of age when this happened.