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Paisley. The celebrated Priest of Hymen at Gretna Green. _'cui placet Impares Formas atque animos sub Juga aenea Saevo mittere cum Joco.' Hor. Car. 33 Lib. 1.

Paisley. The celebrated Priest of Hymen at Gretna Green. _'cui placet Impares Formas atque animos sub Juga aenea Saevo mittere cum Joco.' Hor. Car. 33 Lib. 1.

C. Turner F.S.A. Delt. 1800. J. Walker Sculpt.
Publis'd by C. Turnor Dec. 20 1800.
Etching with aquatint. Sheet 165 x 230mm. Foxing. Faint trace of crease through part of image. Trimmed to plate.
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 eigteenth 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: 6222]  £65.00


 

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