Annotation:English Bring to Gratney Green the Lasses that Hae Siller (The)
Back to English Bring to Gratney Green the Lasses that Hae Siller (The)
ENGLISH BRING TO GRATNEY GREEN THE LASSES THAT HAE SILLER, THE. Scottish, Air and Reel (cut time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCCDD. The tune, apparently once a song air (now lost), appears in Robert Riddell's Collection of Scotch Galwegian & Border Tunes (1794) in which the author notes: A Border Song, commemorating the Gretna Green weddings-which are the greatest violation of the marriage ceremony now permitted in any civilised country. Siller is Scots dialect for 'silver' or money. The implication seems to be that moneyed parents of the runaway girl who had refused consent to the marriage would, once she was married, have to relent and stump up with the dowry. So it seems to be the motivation of the male eloper that was satirised in the song!It might be worth noting that "a trip to Gretna Green" is a euphemism for
elopment.
As per Wikipedia:
Gretna Green is one of the world's most popular wedding destinations,
hosting over 5,000 weddings each year in the Gretna/Gretna Green area, and
one of every six Scottish
weddings.[2]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gretna_Green#cite_note-2>
It has usually been assumed that Gretna's famous "runaway marriages" began
in 1754 when *Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage_Act_1753>* came into force in
England. Under the Act, if a parent of a minor (i.e., a person under the
age of 21) objected, they could prevent the marriage going ahead. The Act
tightened up the requirements for marrying in England and Wales but did not
apply in Scotland <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland>, where it was
possible for boys to marry at 14 and girls at 12 with or without parental
consent (see Marriage in
Scotland<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage_in_Scotland>).
It was, however, only in the 1770s, with the construction of a toll road
passing through the hitherto obscure village of
Graitney<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Graitney&action=edit&redlink=1>,
that Gretna Green became the first easily reachable village over the
Scottish border.[3] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gretna_Green#cite_note-3> The
Old Blacksmith <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blacksmith>'s Shop, built
around 1712, and Gretna Hall Blacksmith's Shop (1710) became, in popular
folklore at least, the focal tourist points for the marriage trade. The Old
Blacksmith's opened to the public as a visitor
attraction<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visitor_attraction> as
early as 1887.
The local blacksmith <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blacksmith> and his
anvil<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anvil> have
become the lasting symbols of Gretna Green weddings. Scottish law allowed
for "irregular marriages", meaning that if a declaration was made before
two witnesses, almost anybody had the authority to conduct the marriage
ceremony. The blacksmiths in Gretna became known as "anvil priests",
culminating with Richard
Rennison<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Rennison>,
who performed 5,147 ceremonies.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: The Northumbrian Piper's Pocket - Green Book (1993). Riddell (Collection of Scotch Galwegian Border Tunes), 1794; p. 17.
Recorded sources: Veteran VT157CD, Rob Say - "O'er Lang at the Fair."
See also listing at:
Hear the tune played on Scottish smallpipes by Matt Seattle and Bill Telfer on youtube.com [1]