Message from Birrell1, Lilliesleaf about getting Isa Shillinglaw2 to Poorhouse3 + Dav.4 asked me to do Shawburn + Riddell. I had a big town list first. Did them + left [?] for for [sic] Shawburn + Lilliesleaf after lunch. At Lilliesleaf got message to Easter Lilliesleaf5 + Bewlie Mains6 + so was pretty late of getting back. Midlem Hill7 was solid + we got back with difficulty.
1 Assume Andrew Birrell (about 1857-1950), schoolteacher, sometimes described as ‘headmaster’, at Lilliesleaf, 1891 Census and in VRs 1891-1940; born Monimail, Fife, he married 1882, Catherine ‘Kate’ Smith and had children Christina Maggie Birrell (1884-1971) and Andrew Smith Birrell (1886-1917), both born Lesmahagow, Lanarks [sources: 1921 Valuation Roll, VR011600033-/556, Roxburgh County, Page 556 of 993; Christina’s death, 1971, 451/ 21, Newport On Tay]
2 Isabella Shillinglaw (1870-1922), domestic housekeeper, the daughter of William Shillinglaw, ploughman, and Isabella Shillinglaw née Gray [birth, 1870, 732/ 83, Coldingham; death, 1922, 789/ 171, Hawick]
3 Isabella died 28 June 1922 at 17 Drumlanrig Square, Hawick (Hawick Combination Poorhouse, James Fleming Boyd, governor), usual residence Lilliesleaf [1921 Valuation Roll, VR003900019-/349, Hawick Burgh, page 349 of 452]
4 David Charteris ‘Dav.’ Graham (1889-1963), M.B., medical practitioner and Dr Muir’s business partner
5 It is not immediately clear who Dr Muir was visiting at Easter Lilliesleaf, the 1921 Valuation Roll shows the following at this location: Robert Curie Thomson Currie, William Turnbull, Angus Smith and William Hope
6 It is also not immediately clear who Dr Muir was visiting at Bewlie Mains, sometime Bewliemains, Lilliesleaf, the 1921 Valuation Roll shows the following at this location: William and Adam Smith, John Robertson and Thomas Fell
7 Dr Muir has previously noted the hill at Midlem as a difficult climb
[Source: Scottish Borders Archives & Local History Service SBA/657/25, Dr J S Muir of Selkirk, medical practitioner, journal for 1922]
Rumbling Clint's Scottish Notes 