Our English love-smitten lads and lasses are pretty generally aware of the
facility with which the most awful and holy of all engagements may be
contracted in North Britain. They sometimes make the experiment in their
own persons; and, "by the simplicity of Venus' doves," old boys and old
girls have been known to follow, as fast as post-chaises, horses, and lads
could carry them, close upon the heels of their juniors, (bound on the
same errand,) to the blissful land o' cakes and matrimony. An English
gentleman, known to the writer, was making a few purchases in a shop,
wherein stood three or four other customers. A man and woman entered, and
the former, addressing the master of the shop and his aforesaid customers,
used, as he took the woman's right hand, words to this effect:--"Witness,
ye that are here present, that I (N. or M.) take this woman (N. or M.) for
my wedded wife." In like manner the _sposa_ desired all present to witness
that she took the man for her wedded husband, with her own full
acquiescence in, and approbation of, his determination. The English
gentleman who had witnessed, in silent amazement, this (to him) novel
engagement, was informed, after the departure of the happy couple, that
the marriage was to all intents and purposes valid by Scotch law, having
been solemnized as effectually as if by religious rites, in the presence
of respectable _housekeepers_, who, as such, were efficient witnesses, and
all that were requisite of _ceremonial_ to make the marriage good!
I give this anecdote as related to me by the gentleman who saw the
incident mentioned; should there be any discrepancies in his relation, I
shall feel obliged by a _correct_ account of the manner of contracting
marriages in Scotland, from any of your correspondents capable of giving
such.