GALLOWAY

The author of the present item is the last in a line that stretched for around two hundred years. After the passing in 1754 of Lord Hardwicke’s Marriage Act, which prevented minors from marrying without their parents’ consent, English couples would take advantage of laxer Scottish laws. As one of the nearest parishes to England, Gretna Green became the destination of choice, and the marriage was usually conducted before two witnesses by a village blacksmith, who became known as an ‘anvil priest’.

2pp., folio. In fair condition, on aged and lightly creased and chipped paper. The whole of the first page is filled in the same hand in two columns, with the first column beginning '4 Cops, 1 Peck, or "Sleek"; i.e. a sleekit peck - not a heaped one, as with potatoes or apples. | 4 pecks make 3 Imperial or Winchester bushels. | 1 Carlisle Bushel is 4. pks. 1 or 3 imp. Bushels.' The right-hand column begins: '1. Imp. Bush. of Barley weighs 56 lbs. The common sized cart will hold 24 pks. (or sleeks): or 18 Imp.