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Proceedings of the Royal Society 
elsewhere. Thus, little more than two years ago, in his return for 
the quarter ending December, the registrar of a Eoss-shire parish 
reported that ‘Hhe marriages are becoming fewer every year, but 
some belonging to the parish are married in the low-country towns 
to avoid the expense of a ‘ Highland wedding.’ ” In the return 
for the same quarter, an Inverness-shire registrar stated that “ the 
excessive expense connected with rural weddings, to which all and 
sundry must be invited, induces parties to take advantage of their 
proximity to the town of Inverness, and have the ceremony per- 
formed there, where it can be done on a cheaper scale.” 
The circumstance of the residence of a favourite clergyman being 
in a different parish from that of the domicile of the parties fre- 
quently accounts for the limited number of entries in the marriage 
register. The registrar of one of the districts of Dundee reported, 
a few years ago, that comparatively few marriages were recorded by 
him, because the houses of the favourite ministers for performing 
the ceremony of marriage were situated beyond the bounds of his 
district. In the return for the same quarter, the registrar of Kirkin- 
tilloch stated that of sixteen couples whose banns had been pro- 
claimed in that parish, only three were married in it ; and in the 
case of one of the districts of Greenock, with a population of not 
less than 15,000 (?), about the same period, the total number of 
marriages registered during the year seldom exceeded thirty, on 
account of most of the residences of the officiating clergy, as well 
as the chapels of the Episcopalians and Eoman Catholics, being 
situated in adjoining parishes. Towards the end of 1878, the 
registrar of St Clement’s district, Dundee, made the following 
announcement in one of his quarterly returns “ The death of the 
Rev. George Gilfillan will cause a decrease in the number of mar- 
riages registered in this district, as, from his popularity among the 
labouring classes, he was called on to perform the marriage ceremony 
oftener than any other Protestant minister in Dundee.” Occa- 
sionally the figures of suburban marriage registers are augmented by 
the circumstance of the residences of some of the incumbents of 
city charges being at a little distance from their cures. Thus, 
the registrar of Cathcart recently reported that his marriages were 
in excess, ‘‘ owing chiefly to the residence of Glasgow clergymen 
lieing in that parish, and the marriage ceremony frequently taking 
place in the minister’s house.” 
