BOUND FOR THE BORDER 23I 



Thomas Carlyle country round about Ecclefechan ; in 

 Hamilton Palace, which adorns the Yale of Clyde; 

 and in the ruins of Bothwell Castle, the cradle of the 

 Douglas family : 



' And Bothwell's lord henceforth we own, 

 The prop and bulwark of our throne.' 



Gretna, a village a mile on the Scottish side of 

 the Sark, lies in Dumfriesshire, nine miles north of 

 Carlisle. The Green is there, but its famous black- 

 smith is a myth ; though here, as at other places on 

 or near the border — Coldstream, for example — the 

 layman occasionally, at sight, filled up the certificate 

 which bound together a couple for life. 



I am not sure that this proceeding bore directly on 

 postal business ; yet as, when the deed was done, the 

 eloping couple probably wrote a letter home to say so, 

 it must have had its influence on the revenue. 



A ' single ' letter from the bride to her parents at 

 (say) Doncaster, 148 miles from Gretna, would cost 

 tenpence halfpenny ; a sprig of heather from the 

 hillside, or a forget-me-not from a handy pool, put in 

 a bit of paper, would be an enclosure, which doubled 

 the charge. 



A line or two from young Lochinvar to the startled 

 and angry father might have formed a second en- 

 closure, making the letter triple, and bringing the 

 postage to half-a-crown. On an epistle weighing an 

 ounce, the postman's demand at Doncaster might 

 have been, ' Letter, three and fourpence,' as it was not 

 the custom to prepay postage. 



