Slept in Smoke Room till 4 a.m.
A raging Sou’ Wester all last night + heavy rain up till 1. Then it was fair + sunny till 5 when there was a heavy blast. I don’t remember when Ettrick [Water] was so big. It covered all the bank above the Cauld. Tweed was also raging + all low haughs1 were flooded. Dav.2 went to London with the Taylors. Henrietta Brown3, Backrow was found dead in a chair. John Walker4, the Glebe also died. I motored in town + to Philipburn + Bowhill. In afternoon motored in town, Fairnilee Lodge + Peelburnfoot + the gardener at Manorhill. Helen5 was in Edinburgh at the dressmaker’s. At Bowhill I dressed a cut on Lady Mary’s6 hand + at Philipburn saw Mrs Ballard7 looking very frail + aged.
1 Haugh, n. Also hauch (Sc. 1808 Jam.); †halch (e.Lth. 1845 Stat. Acc.2 II. 18); haw; and dims. haughie, hauchie. A piece of level ground, gen. alluvial, on the banks of a river, river-meadow land (Sc. 1782 J. Sinclair Ob. Sc. Dial. 193). Gen. (exc. I.) Sc. Also used fig. and attrib. [Dictionar o the Scots Leid]
2 David Charteris ‘Dav.’ Graham (1889-1963), M.B., medical practitioner and Dr Muir’s business partner
3 Henrietta Brown (about 1857-1921), powerloom weaver, died 16 March 1921, aged 64, at 22 Backrow, Selkirk
4 John Walker (about 1839-1921), retired joiner, married to Mary Inglis, stayed at 20 Glebe Terrace, Selkirk, he had been suffering from a cerebral haemorrhage and died at 5 a.m. on 16 March 1921, death certified by John S Muir M.B.
5 Helen Frances ‘Mousey’ Muir (1880-1963), Dr Muir’s third daughter and sometime housekeeper
6 Assume Lady Mary Theresa Montagu Douglas Scott, later Cecil (1904-1984)
7 Julia Mary Ballard née Anderson (about 1838-1922), widow of George Alexander Ballard (about 1826-1892), Madras Civil Servant
[Source: Scottish Borders Archives & Local History Service SBA/657/24, Dr J S Muir of Selkirk, medical practitioner, journal for 1921]
Rumbling Clint's Scottish Notes 