Left at length to ourselves, we passed onward up the village street; not a few small inns were there, the landlady of one of the very least of which assured us that as many as nine couples at a time had, in days when business was brisk, sought the shelter of her tiny roof. A little way farther on, we did not fail to notice the name of ‘Lord Erskine’ scratched upon an ancient and decidedly rickety pane in a window of the _Queen’s Head_, where also is exhibited, framed and glazed of course, his so-called marriage certificate, in form precisely as in use to-day, thus: ‘_Kingdom of SCOTLAND, County of DUMFRIES, Parish of GRETNA._—These are to certify, to all whom they may concern, that ——, from the parish of ——, in the county of ——; and ——, from the parish of ——, in the county of ——, being now both here present, and having declared to me that they are single persons, have now been married after the manner of the laws of Scotland. As witness our hands at Gretna Green, this — day of —— 188-.’ Witnesses (two in number). That a marriage like this can still be solemnised between ‘such as will not get them to church, and have a good priest that can tell them what marriage is,’ may come as a surprise to many who have believed that the glories of Gretna Green lay all in the past. Not only, however, had we the assurance of our friend the mason; but a tale of recent matrimonial venture was imparted, as evidence conclusive that Border marriage is even now an occurrence by no means unfrequent. The _dramatis personæ_ in this real nineteenth-century romance were a young English lady, who, as a visitor at a neighbouring resort of pleasure, had satisfied the requisite condition of three weeks’ residence in Scotland by one of the parties; and a young officer in an infantry regiment. Taking the train one fine morning to Gretna Green, the lady was met at the station by her intended bridegroom, with whom she was speedily and indissolubly, according to local rite, made one for aye. Neither can any man say that ‘not being well married, it will be a good excuse for him hereafter to leave his wife,’ because, provided that two witnesses be present and the questions put be satisfactorily replied to, weddings such as these lack nought of the legal validity and obligation of those contracted with pealing organ and the most ceremoniously conducted ecclesiastical display. The Act of 1856 only makes Scotch marriages illegal in the case of one or other of the parties not having resided for three weeks in the kingdom of Scotland, thereby putting a stop to many runaway marriages, especially among servants, who came across in numbers from Carlisle at the season of annual hirings.