GRETNA GREEN.

Waikato Times, Volume I, Issue 55, 5 September 1872, Page 3

GRETNA GREEN.

Tuk following account of the last of the Gretna priests is given by The Carlisle Patriot:—"The last ol' the Grotna priests is dead —old Simon Lung—who for iiKinv vears past has been the lone survivor of a lone line" of self-appointed dignitaries, lie died April iJll, at Kelliug, iS'ewcastle-on-Tyne, (at which place ho wns staying with his son over winter), and wus buried in Gretna churchyard. The united careers of the two Langs, father mid son, as priests, extend over fully eighty years. David, the father, was born ami brought up in the parish of Gretna. Early in life be went into Lancashire as draper or pedlar, and soon after was carried oil' by the press-gang. During the time ho was in the English service the ship in which ho sailed was boarded and taken by Paul Jones, I lie pirate Paul being tho first who stepped on board. The ea.pt ives wore run into a French port, and inducements made for them to join the American servieo, in which Paul then served. David Lang, howover, returned sale to Grotna, donning the priests (rroK'.onials in tho year 1792, and continued in the woddinsi line till the"time of his death, nearly forty years after. Tho greatest achievement of his reign "was the marriage of Thomas, Lord Erskine, in his old ii' T c, to hi? mistress, Miss Sarah Buck, of York Buildings, Mavvlobonc. For this event it is said he netted 100 guineas. David svecoeded in yoking several soions of noble and powerful houses, the Tilliers. the Eeauelert'3. the Coventrics, and others of equal standing. He was cut otf rather suddenly, in 1817, in his 7'jml year, from a severe cold caught while attending the great sensational trial at Lancaster of Wakefteld, for the abduction of Miss Turner, a rich heiress, 15 years old. After this event Simon Lang at once entered upon the duties of the priestly olfiee ; and as his father's fame was full in the land, he naturally fell into ft lucrative branch of business at once. Sim, however, had his trials amongst it all. Some of his rivals, jealous of his success, resorted to all sorts of unprincipled dodges in order to injure and annoy him. If a newly-arrived couple wanted to find out ' Lang, the priest,' the invariable answer was, ' Doid an , ' bu'riet, lang sen. , ' But his soil, surely ho lives ?' ask the strangers. 'Doid an' a'—deid's a door nail!' is the response. Yet, in spite of such unfair opposition, Sim flourished abundantly, followed closely his legitimate occupations of varying the tone of these by doing a little smuggling on the quiet. He lon<* outlived all his competitors, and saw the decline of the golden days of old Gretna; but still ho eoi - tinned in harness*to the last. About twelve months since ho wont through probably the liv.t marriage ceremony he ever performed in complete dishabille, having nothing on but his shirt and drawers. Tho reason for this unwonted exhibition was that the parties reached Grotna from Dumfries by tho midnight train, and. like all fond lovers, could brook no delay. So the old priest was aroused from his slumbers to do duty at a moment's notice.