warned his hearers against evil habits, amongst which he catalogued that of indulgence in intoxicating drinks, and warned the young men not to frequent public-houses, however much they might be ridiculed or thought mean for not doing so.  The candidates came from three parishes, the girls dressed very plainly and as usual outnumbering the boys.  The general congregation was numerically small, and we were surprised that there was no collection!  Service over, we returned to our lodgings for tea, intending to resume our walk immediately afterwards.  We were so comfortable, however, and the experiences of the previous day and night so fresh in our minds, and bodies, that we decided to rest our still weary limbs here for the night, even though we had that day only walked six miles, the shortest walk in all our journey.

[Illustration:  KIRKANDREWS CHURCH.]

Our host, Mr. Forster, was moreover a very entertaining and remarkable man.  He had been parish clerk for many years, a Freemason for upwards of thirty years, letter-carrier or postman for fourteen years, and recently he and his wife had joined the Good Templars!  He had many interesting stories of the runaway marriages at Gretna Green, a piece of Borderland neither in Scotland nor England, and he claimed to have suggested the Act of Parliament brought in by Lord Brougham to abolish these so-called “Scotch” marriages by a clause which required twenty-one days’ residence before the marriage could be solemnised, so that although the Act was called Lord Brougham’s Act, he said it was really his.  Its effects were clearly demonstrated in a letter he had written, which appeared in the Registrar-General’s Report, of which he showed us a copy, stating that while in the year 1856, the year of the passing of Lord Brougham’s Act, there were 757 marriages celebrated in the district of Gretna Green, thirty-nine entered as taking place in one day, November 8th, in the following year there were only thirty and in the next forty-one, showing conclusively that the Act had been effectual.  We could have listened longer to our host’s stories, but we had to rise early next morning to make up for our loss of mileage, and retired early to make up for our loss of sleep on the previous night.

(Distance walked six miles.)

Friday, October 13th.

We left Longtown at 7.30 a.m. by the long and wide thoroughfare which gives rise to its name, and followed the Carlisle road until we turned to the right for Gretna Green.  Our road lay between Solway Moss and the River Esk, to both of which some historic events were attached.  Solway Moss is about seven miles in circumference, and is covered with grass and rushes, but it shakes under the least pressure, and will swallow up nearly anything.  In 1776, after heavy rains, it burst, and, as in Ireland, streams of black peaty mud began to creep over the plain and to overwhelm the houses.  It was the scene of a battle fought on November 24th, 1542, when the English