Got a copy of dear Kate’s1 ‘Photo aet 17 from Rennie2
I was knocked up at 2 a.m. for Mrs Heard, Castle Street who had a d.3 before I arrived. Nurse Moffat4 was there. It was a clear frosty night but the frost gone in the morning. The day was fine till evening when there was a little rain. Was out early + saw 8 town cases at the Home. Gave Fell5 a cystic douche. Met Beck6 at Foster7, Glebe Terrace at 11.30 to [illegible] an abscess but he would have gas which I gave him at 3.30 + evacuated more than a pint of pus from his right thigh. Motored to Middlestead + Howford Cottage, taking up Mrs Tait’s8 account from Mauldsheugh. Was called in to see Mrs Linton9, Oakwood + came home by Beechwood. Helen10 went with Mrs Mack11 to a performance of the “Hymn of Praise”12 in W. U.F. Church13.
1 Catherine Stewart ‘Kate’ Rennie née Muir (1829-1915), Dr John Stewart Muir’s sister and wife of the Reverend James Rennie
2 The Reverend James Rennie (1826-1924), Church of Scotland minister, living at Prestwick, Ayrshire
3 Janet Louisa Heard, born 21 April 1921, daughter of Walter Heard, general labourer, and May Heard nee Avery [1921, 778/ 40, Selkirk]
4 Nurse Moffat is not yet identified
5 Thomas Fell (about 1857-1923), retired gamekeeper, married to Jane Ismay and living at Bewlie Mains Cottages, Lilliesleaf
6 Assume Elizabeth Fyfe Beck (1865-1954), nurse, born Dumfriesshire and died Ceres, Fife, she was District Nurse at Selkirk before and after the First World War
7 Not identified
8 Agnes Tait née Doherty (1887-1955), wife of Robert Tait, ploughman
9 Not identified with certainty but presumably either Elizabeth Carruthers Glendinning (1888-1962), wife of James Robert Linton (1873-1952) or Victoria Winona Johnstone (about 1890-1957), wife of Andrew Linton (1876-1951)
10 Helen Frances ‘Mousey’ Muir (1880-1963), Dr Muir’s third daughter and sometime housekeeper
11 Agnes Mackintosh née Watson, formerly Harper (1859-1946), formerly of Elm Park, Selkirk
12 Hymn of Praise may be a generic reference to that piece of the Divine Service that follows the Kyrie (though that would hardly constitute a performance) or a reference to a Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang (Hymn of Praise) Op. 52 (MWV A 18), his 13-movement ‘Symphony-Cantata’, or perhaps to another as yet unidentified piece
13 West United Presbyterian Church or Baptist Chapel was in Backsides (now The Valley), adjacent to the top of the Stey Brae [Canmore ID 231637]
[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 