A foggy morning followed by a most charming mild, sunny, calm day. It was great to be outside + I sat quite a long time reading in the bower with my little friend the Robin singing over my head. In the morning I walked to Heatherlie + Ravensheugh. Mr Steedman1 is ill. I came back by Wellwood + readjusted Mitchell’s splints2. I sat in the afternoon addressing town accounts. Helen cycled with Miss Dicken3 + Quosbarth4 to St Boswells where a pennon was presented to Earl Haig5 + he laid the foundation stone of cottages for 18 soldiers6.
1 John Graeme Hay Steedman (1893-), solicitor, of Ravensheugh, Selkirk
2 Alexander Mitchell had fallen off a horse on 2nd October whilst riding at Headshaw with two of Dr Muir’s grandsons; he was a chauffeur, “Inhabitant Occupier, not rated” at Wellwood, Ettrick Terrace, Selkirk, John Roberts junior, manufacturer, Proprietor [1920 Valuation Roll]
3 Not identified
4 Alison Tweedie Quosbarth (1875-1947), later Alison Tweedie, hospital nurse, born Newport, Fife, daughter of Johann Herman Quosbarth, ship-broker and German Consul, and Isabella Miller Moffat
5 Described as a “guerdon in silk and embroidery” [Southern Reporter, Thursday 14 October 1920]
6 On 9 October 1920 at 2.45 p.m. Field Marshall the Earl Haig laid the foundation stone for old soldiers’ homes at St Boswells on behalf of the Scottish Veterans Garden City Association (Incorporated) at a well attended event, at which were also present the Dukes of Buccleuch and of Roxburgh, Lord Salvesen and Sir Richard Waldie Griffith [Southern Reporter, Thursday 7 October 1920]
[Source: Scottish Borders Archives & Local History Service SBA/657/23, Dr J S Muir of Selkirk, medical practitioner, journal for 1920]
Rumbling Clint's Scottish Notes 