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Description of Gretna Hall,
the principal Marriage-house.
Some matters touching Gretna
Hall,
An inn of goodly fame;
The chiefest place where ladies call,
Who go to change their name.
We will proceed to describe
the edifice wherein the most notable the Prince of Capua pledged fealty to
his beauteous bride. Dr. Dibdin, when peregrinating through the mazes of his
northern tour, tarried a space at Gretna, either to change horses or satisfy
his curiosity, as many others have also done ; and he remarks, that the
gossip and his gude wife of the hostry eagerly ushered him into the room
wherein were united this noble Italian and the fairest fair one, Miss Smyth,
as also Mr. Sheridan and the amiable Miss Grant. These were nuptials which
have been noted by other writers as being remarkable for their positive and
for their relative circumstances.
In the ease of one of these
weddings, this single celebration at Gretna was not held sufficient; but it
was afterwards most indefatigably repeated in other places, for the purpose
of making surety doubly and trebly sure. Though a marriage here performed is
legally held binding to all intents, and therefore, though the knot here
tied cannot well slip afterwards, still we have many instances set forth in
the archives, of a repetition of the ceremony under more regular
proceedings. Such repetition may be rather designed to satisfy conscience,
than to satisfy law. Law is not rendered sleepless at night by the procedure
; but conscience, especially where the deed has been done clandestinely or
rebelliously by disobedient children, and feels sufficiently punctured by
the sole act xof disobedience, cannot sleep unless the forms of a more
legitimate and approvable and moral and religious mode of union be gone
through. If, however, it be held necessary to marry again in this more
approvable way, why marry at all in the first instance at Gretna ? The
reason is, that the performance at Gretna secures the tie in a legal sense
irrevocably; and then, when Pa and Ma find that the thing is done, and
cannot be witdone, and when the sinners themselves come to a like sense of
this truth, they all feel that a great stigma attaches to so disreputable a
practice, and will certainly hang upon them for ever, unless they devise
some mode of wiping it out. What is to be done ? How can it be wiped out ?
Why, forsooth, they lay their heads together, and they arrive at the
determination that all parties and all conscienccs will be satisfied by the
act of going to church, and by repeating the business according to the
rubric.
According to this view of the
matter, one celebration belongs to law, and another belongs to conscience ;
and this refers to those who are of the established tenets of the land. But
it sometimes happens that two persons come together who either are of
dissimilar creeds, or else are of .one creed, more especially abounding
amongst the opinions of some distant clime, and not nurtured in Britain.
In such a case they satisfy
the statutes of this realm in order to compass their own ends; and then they
subsequently yield to the requirements of their own religious tenets, by
repeating the ceremony of espousal agreeably thereto whensoever a fitting
opportunity shall be procured.
Wherefore, however strange it
may appear at the first glance, we see that a man may marry several times in
his life without either perpetrating polygamy or without ever becoming a
widower, only by wedding the same lady repeatedly over and over again.
Gretna Hall, or "the Hall,"
situated near the Green, is now the aristocratic and fashionable resort;
that is to say, since the new road turned regicide, and cut off " the King's
Head," together with the village of Springfield, as already explained. It
was erected to its present purpose soon after the time , of the alteration,
so as to lie more conveniently on the great thoroughfare; for the entrance
to Springfield from England, where journeyers, peregrinators, and elopers
used to pass, is circuitous, difficult, and inconvenient.
We were informed that the
territory whereon stands this famous shrine, pertains to Colonel Maxwell of
Galloway; and that the estates lying round about the village were the
patrimony of- Sir John Maxwell of Springkale, Baronet in these her Majesty's
realms; but that of late, the undoubted son of his body has succeeded
thereunto, and goes by the name of Sir Patrick of that ilk.
The building itself is a
comely looking establishment, especially when the grounds adjoining to it
are taken into consideration; and albeit a hostelrie in genus and
reputation, open as it were to all comers, still it wears the complexion of
privacy and seclusion. Such as may be posting from Carlisle city into
Scotland will get a fair relay of horses there, and peradventure good
entertainment; but it appears to be a sort of understood thing, that few
abide long except those who come for "a particular purpose," and it has most
indubitably a greater degree of sacred retirement pervading it than the
roisterous way-side inns that greet the traveller elsewhere. Let none
approach it with profanity and irreverence, it being that an ecclesiastical
spirit hangs over it.
The figure is well nigh four
square ; the centre facade falls back or recedes about six feet, whilst two
wings project beyond it that much, the one being on the right hand, and the
other on the left. The door is entered by a flight of steps, placed in the
middle of the said receding facade, garnished on each side with shrubs:
there is a window on each side of the door, and there are several squarer
and smaller windows for dormitories in the story above, -wherein the weary
may take rest. With regard to the aforesaid projecting wings, they are
externally set off with windows somewhat resembling the others, except that
the upper ones are larger; and internally, they contain some rooms passably
well furnished. The out-side of the house is
GRETNA HALL.
white—typical of the purity
of its purpose; whilst gray bands, by way of adornment, are run round the
margins of the windows, and down the corners, from the eaves to the earth.
The roof, through which Asmodeus himself would have peered with
astonishment, is well overlaid with pure slate ; and last of all, albeit not
least of all, several stacks of chimneys rise exhilaratingly over the whole.
Art curious to know wherefore
we make particular mention of the chimneys? Anticipating that thou mayest be
so, we take upon us to tell thee.
Know then, and take for an
unerring truth that wherever you see a house with a good many chimneys, the
owner thereof has a benevolent heart. This may seem strange; but ten words
will serve to explain that it is not so, and that it is nothing more than
the natural consequence of the noble passion that produced them. For, where
there are many chimneys, there will be many fires ; and where there are many
fires, there will be much comfort; and where there is much comfort, there is
much good humour; and where there is much good humour, accompanied by many
blazing faggots, there will be much good cheer, much good fellowship, much
good entertainment, and much generosity. Thus it is, that a man's right
excellent qualities may with precision be always estimated by the number of
chimneys that adorn the roof of his house. We were first made acquainted
with this beautiful fact, by an ancient gentleman who was seated beside us
on the top of a coach, journeying past the mansions of certain esquires.
"There!" cried he in an
ecstasy, as we passed a mansion which certainly was crowned with a most
inordinate number, "There now, I'll be sworn but a first-rate fellow lives
there. Who does that place belong to, coachman?"
"Squire So-and-so, that keeps
the harriers that made such a capital run last week.'"
"Then Squire So-and-so is the
best-hearted man I have heard of for the last month. I would give the world
to shake hands with him.'"
This old gentleman was right;
and the chimneys on Gretna Hall are a source of delight to those who behold
them.
In front of the building
there is a grass lawn, green and pleasing to the eye, garnished in divers
places with trees and evergreens of less size ; and a carriage drive of 200
yards in length, more or less, leads from the entrance gate near the Green
directly up to the door. Moreover, an adjoining field has been taken in and
added to the grounds, that nothing might be wanting; round about the which
run some shady and labyrinthine walks, where lovers may saunter at will in
the cool of the evening; and many stately trees growing thereby, spread
their nervous limbs abroad over head, whereon any who have too hastily done
a rash act, may go and hang themselves up at pleasure. In fine, the place is
altogether tastefully laid out, with care both for joyous pastime and
pleasant recreation.
John Linton, keeper and
purveyor thereof and ' therein, is not a fool in his way, any more than
Simon Beatie :even like our friend at the toll-gate, he is also "wide
awake," as the moderns phrase it.
His prey consists mostly of
the tritons, whilst Simon, his fellow fisher at the bridge, is content to
throw his net generally over the minnows. Now, Simon the angler, by his
position, has greatly the advantage over John the angler in the question of
numbers ; but we opine that John at the Hall has the advantage over Simon at
the gate, in the matter of profit—for one triton is ofttimes worth more
than a score of small fry.
They do not catch Princes of Capua every day; but when, by a happy chance,
they do get such a triton into their meshes, be sure that they make the most
of him.
It should seem, also, that
John Linton never sleeps ; and that too, for the reason above given,
videlicet, he is always, " wide awake ;" he knows that his customers may
suddenly come at any unexpected or unlooked-for hour like thieves in the
night, and' catch him unprepared; wherefore, like a careful virgin as he is,
he always keeps his lamps ready trimmed, replenished with oil, and lighted,
in order that he may welcome the coming of the bridegroom whensoever it
shall happen.
Nevertheless, John Linton has
a son, and this son is indoctrinated to be, "wide awake," also, for
vigilance at Gretna is the chiefest of the cardinal virtues ; and if the
father has occasion to go to his farm, or to look after his merchandise, he
charges his son with vehement words to light his lamp and abide within doors
instead.
This is a right excellent
arrangement; and the necessity of it will be fully confessed when it is
recollected, that where several merchants living in the same vicinage,
carrying on the same line of business, and consequently often clashing in
rivalry, self-interest, and competition, nothing short of the greatest care
on the parts of Linton and Co., can secure customers' to the Hall, albeit to
the prejudice of every other congenerous and connatural establishment. But
every one at Gretna looks to the making of his own fortune rather than to
playing into the hands of his neighbours—an unamiable and almost selfish
procedure, at the same time, a procedure not wholly unknown in other places
besides this, when men, trading in the same line, happen to cross each
others' paths.
Vigilance and activity are
the body and soul of business. It is vigilance that looks for and discovers
mines of treasure ; and it is activity, 'following upon this discovery so
made, that brings the hitherto hidden treasure to light, and secures it to
those who practise these two twin qualities.
John Linton and son are not
destitute of these virtues. They are incessantly on the look out for mines
of treasure in the shape of rich and soft bridegrooms ; and when they have
found any of the sort posting through Carlisle,' their agents there located
lose no time in conducting them where it shall seem best for securing an
assiduous working of the said mines in the shapes of rich bridegrooms.
A man is never so generous in
his life as at the time of his change of estate ; and where the feeling .of
blacksmiths, or whomsoever it may be, is left to his generosity, he is
indeed a mine of precious metals that renders up his riches but too easily
to the labours of these pseudo-clerical searchers into the bowels of his
earth. He feels so happy at his triumph and success, in having at last
surmounted every obstacle that had hitherto denied his possession of that
sweet one, dressed in white and adorned with orange blossoms, who now stands
beside liim, that his heart is opened most freely, widely, unreservedly; and
when a man's heart is open, you may do what you like with his purse. Of a
truth that same is open also.
Some' centuries ago, our
ancestors framed a statute, which was enacted to restrain and set bounds to
the incontrollable generousness of new-made husbands. It actually lays down
how much the delirious man shall give away on this overpowering occasion ; a
precaution which the legislature had found necessary, because many noblemen
and gentlemen of fair possessions, had, in the excess of their softness,
absolutely bestowed away all of this world's goods that had pertained unto
them, and by so doing had well nigh brought ruin on themselves and their
kindred.
It has been generally
supposed that a man's evil principles only require checking or regulating,
and that his virtuous ones may be allowed to run freely to their extremest
extent; but these facts teach us to know, that even his best qualities, must
sometimes be curbed, lest they run past the bounds of discretion—supposing
it were possible to be too discreet.
When one friend has
overwhelmed another with civilities, we may hear the obliged one exclaim, in
the excess of his gratitude,—"My dear fellow, you really are too good.' And
if it be possible to be too good, why, surely it may be possible to be too
discreet, or too generous ; and where a man is too generous, and was
unsparingly giving away his whole fortune, the law stepped in to restrain
him.
Pity it is that the law does
not put a limit to the generosity of bridegrooms at Gretna — that is, when
the bridegrooms are feeing the landsharks who combine to fleece them there.
We have said that John
Linton, like a careful virgin, always kept his lamp ready trimmed; and that
if any accident called him away to his farm or his merchandise, he never
failed, at his departing, to charge his son with vehement words to light his
lamp, and abide within doors at his post. By this it will be seen how little
it matters the hour of the day, or the hour of the night; let the truant, or
the runaway, the eloper or the fugitive, arrive at the Hall before sun-down
or after, day, night, late, early, either John Linton in actual self is
there ready to greet him, or else the flesh of his flesh,' the bone of his
bone, the child of his body, is present to do the same.
Such is the arrangement and
constitution of this place. Who shall say otherwise than that these facts,
carefully collected on the spot in the spirit of philanthropy, for the
instruction and edification of all mankind, but more especially for the
young ladies to whom these pages are submissively offered, are supremely
worthy of record in this important and veritable history? Yet, oh dread
lady-patronesses ! we beseech ye to understand aright the true reading of
these facts, and not to be readily enamoured with the narrative of deeds
which are too inconsiderately done at Gretna—deeds which, to say the best of
them, are assuredly wrong and very indiscreet. They are not exhibited to
your view that you should be prepossessed in their favour; but that the
contemplation of evil ways, and the sight of the hideous form of sin, may
rather make ye eschew iniquity than follow it. We will not now foolishly set
about to persuade you not to fall in love, or if you do, not to give way to
it; because your fascinations, your winning virtues, and your charms, have
too dearly taught us and convinced us, that love is a power which no
determination on our part can banish from our natures, —. a power that will
not be reasoned with, that will not be argued down, and will not be
persuaded away. But coolly and honestly, we think that Gretna Green should
be the last place thought of in a hopeless ease—that those who " marry in
haste" too often "repent at leisure," according to our admirable motto on
the title page,—that hanging by the neck, or walking over head into a pond,
or looking into the muzzle of a loaded pistol with dire intent, may each be
a fate no worse than what ye may bring upon yourselves by rushing
unadvisedly into matrimony— and, in fine, that if it can in any possible way
be so contrived, it is more comely, more decent, more sacred, and more
respectable to be married before the altar beneath a groined roof with
friends and neighbours around you, than in a country tavern by an innkeeper,
or behind the hedge by a weaver or a toll-gate keeper. What think ye? |
