Dull day but dry + calm. Saw 5 town cases + Hospital cycling + Cannon Street + on to Faldonside for Cath Duff1. Wrote the words of “If I Should Die Tonight”2 + tried to memorise them. Spent all the afternoon + evening getting up material for my reply to the toast of B.M.A. tomorrow night3.
1 Cath Duff is not identified, perhaps a member of staff
2 This probably refers to the poem by Thomas Gray “If I should die and leave you | Be not like the others, quick undone | Who keep long vigils by the silent | dust and weep. For my sake turn to life and smile | Nerving thy heart and trembling | hand to comfort weaker souls than thee. | Complete these unfinished tasks of mine | And I perchance may therein comfort thee.”
3 Dr Muir was at a British Medical Association event the following day, see his diary entry for 16 November 1921
[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 