3-065-643 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"On the Road to Gretna," by J. Morgan, from the exhibition at the French Gallery, Pall-Mall, 1874. Engraving of a painting. 'The little village, just over the Scottish Border, where fugitive lovers from England used to avail themselves of the Scottish law of marriage, by hastily performing the legal process of a declaration that they would take each other into matrimonial life-partnership, is not of so much importance at the present time. Nobody would suppose, on meeting in that neighbourhood an aged couple in a small donkey-cart, creeping along the road at the rate of three miles an hour, that they were intent upon such an expedition. We further believe that one might watch the passers-by during many days of the pairing season, without seeing any man and woman more likely to demand the services of the famous blacksmith, who, in days of yore, was accustomed to earn his fee by officiating as a witness of the Scotch marriage, and by issuing a formal certificate of the fact. The elderly Darby and Joan represented in Mr. Morgan's picture may not improbably entertain for one another some kind of tender regard befitting their venerable years. But they have no occasion to fear the pursuit of an angry father, and the donkey will not be hurried'. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.