So far as a winter day can be ‘glorious’ this certainly was. Keen frost: unclouded sky perfect calm: dry atmosphere. Poor old Murdoch very weak. D. [Dr David Graham] curetted1 the girl Mathieson from Faldonside at Hopes, Bridge Street. I gave Chlor[oform]. Then I walked via Kirkwynd to Briarbank + Greenhead. It was most enjoyable + I sat for a while on one of the benches on the hill + enjoyed the sunshine while Keltie [dog] hunted field mice among the heather. Letter from Barbara2. Baptie a little better + able to sit up3. Johnstone, Greenhead, has bought Bow’s house at Ashybank4.
1 Assume ‘dilation and curettage’ or D&C, a gynaecological procedure in use from the late 19th Century
2 Andrina Barbara Henderson ‘Barbara’ Roberts, later Thwigg (1902-1996); Dr Muir’s granddaughter
3 Thomas Baptie (1860-1929), driver for Dr Muir, his son died 1918 and Thomas had been unwell more recently
4 The editor assumes that this is one the two individuals named William Johnstone, one aged 56, the other 32, living with their respective families at Greenhead [source: Valuation Roll, 1920]
[Source: Scottish Borders Archives & Local History Service SBA/657/22, Dr J S Muir of Selkirk, medical practitioner, journal for 1919]
