Joseph Paisley.the celebrated Gretna-Green Parson. Dec.d January 9, 1811, aged 79.
[Anon., c.1811.]
Scarce woodcut from an unidentified publication, sheet 135 x 90mm. 5¼ x 3½". Trimmed.
Commemorative portrait of Gretna's most famous priest Joseph Paisley, described as 'a big, rough, hard-drinking borderer,' who moonlighted as a smuggler, a tobacconist, and a fisherman. Gretna became known as the 'Caledonian Temple of Hymen' in the late eighteenth century and lampooned as the centre of the 'marriage trade'. One of the main characters in Charles Stuart's comic operetta Gretna Green (1783), a hit afterpiece at the Haymarket theatre during the 1780s and 90s, was loosely based on Priestley.
[Ref: 18267] £90.00
Scarce woodcut from an unidentified publication, sheet 135 x 90mm. 5¼ x 3½". Trimmed.
Commemorative portrait of Gretna's most famous priest Joseph Paisley, described as 'a big, rough, hard-drinking borderer,' who moonlighted as a smuggler, a tobacconist, and a fisherman. Gretna became known as the 'Caledonian Temple of Hymen' in the late eighteenth century and lampooned as the centre of the 'marriage trade'. One of the main characters in Charles Stuart's comic operetta Gretna Green (1783), a hit afterpiece at the Haymarket theatre during the 1780s and 90s, was loosely based on Priestley.
[Ref: 18267] £90.00