Still freezing: almost no “come”1 + intensely cold. Road awful for walking. Gave little Greta Smith Chlor[oform] + extracted 3 teeth. Peter Peden2 called. Motored to Curror Street, R.C. School, Glebe, Heather Mill, Cannon Street [and] Sunderland Hall. Got N.H.I. cheque for 71 19 143 + War Bonus of £21 10 6. Helen + the Patons were at Elmpark4 for lunch + tea. Last night after the Rosses left Marion Paton began a venomous attack on Kate [?] and I just told her straight that I knew all the other side of the question at which she took a very red face.
1 A word used regularly by Dr Muir “CUM, Come, n.2 “A thaw” (Rxb. 1927 E. C. Smith Braid Haaick 10, come); “moisture in the air” (m.Dmf.3 c.1920, cum); “sweat on ice when frost begins to yield” (Dmf. 1925 W. A. Scott in Trans. Dmf. and Gall. Antiq. Soc. 22, cum). [kʌm]” [Source: ‘Dictionar o the Scots Leid’]
2 It is not clear which of two men named Peter Peden this would have been; one a shepherd, aged 56, was at Deepslades, the other a gamekeeper, aged 53, at West Broadmeadows Lodge
3 This was Dr Muir’s capitation under the National Health Insurance Act 1911; when the Editor was at school £71 19 shillings and 14 pence would have been presented as £72 0 2; explanations welcome!
4 Elmpark or Elm Park, Scott’s Place, Selkirk was the home of Agnes Mackintosh, née Watson, formerly Harper (1859-1946)
[Source: Scottish Borders Archives & Local History Service SBA/657/23, Dr J S Muir of Selkirk, medical practitioner, journal for 1920]
