<Dd> How much better, brighter, more promising, in short, a Gretna Green marriage sounds than a Coldstream or Lamberton toll - bar one! and yet they are equally efficacious . Gretna Green indeed, is as superior in reality as it is in name . It looks as if it were the capital of the God of Love, while the others exhibit the bustling, trading, money - making pursuits of matter - of - fact life . Though we dare say Gretna Green is as unlike what most people fancy, still we question that any have gone away disappointed . It is a pretty south country - looking village, much such as used to exist in the old days of posting and coaching . A hall house converted into an hotel, and the dependents located in the neighbouring cottages . Gretna Hall stands a little apart from the village on the rise of what an Englishman would call a gentle eminence, and a Scotchman a dead flat, and is approached by an avenue of stately trees, while others are plentifully dotted about, one on the east side, bearing a board with the name of the house, the host and high - priest,' Mr. Linton .' There is an air of quiet retirement about it that eminently qualifies it for its holy and hospitable purpose ." </Dd> <P> Since 1929, both parties in Scotland have had to be at least 16 years old, but they still may marry without parental consent . In England and Wales, the age for marriage is now 16 with parental consent and 18 without . Of the three forms of "irregular marriage" that had existed under Scottish law, the last was abolished by the Marriage (Scotland) Act 1939, which came in force from 1 July 1940 . Prior to this act, any citizen was able to witness a public promise . </P> <P> Gretna's two blacksmiths' shops and countless inns and smallholding became the backdrops for tens of thousands of weddings . Today there are several wedding venues in and around Gretna Green, from former churches to purpose - built chapels . The services at all the venues are always performed over an iconic blacksmith's anvil . Gretna Green endures as one of the world's most popular wedding venues, and thousands of couples from around the world come to be married' over the anvil' in Gretna Green . </P> <P> In common law, a "Gretna Green marriage" came to mean, in general, a marriage transacted in a jurisdiction that was not the residence of the parties being married, to avoid restrictions or procedures imposed by the parties' home jurisdiction . A notable "Gretna" marriage was the second marriage in 1826 of Edward Gibbon Wakefield to the young heiress Ellen Turner, called the Shrigley abduction (his first marriage was also to an heiress, but the parents wanted to avoid a public scandal). Other towns in which quick, often surreptitious marriages could be obtained came to be known as "Gretna Greens". In the United States, these have included Elkton, Maryland, Reno and, later, Las Vegas . </P>

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