Bitterly cold. Cheviot + Ettrick hills white + a little snow on Newark. Some Wind N. Some snow in afternoon. Bright sunshine in forenoon + at intervals. Cycled to Cotfield Cottage1 to see Wm Welsh2. Very stiff riding as the roads were soft3. Walked down to Hospital +c. Betsy Welsh4 off her chump again.
1 Cotfield, Lilliesleaf, grid reference NT532,226, near Harelaw and just south of the Drove Road which heads in a generally WNW direction from the intersection at Harden Cottage just south of Esdalelaw, crosses the A7 at Grundistone Heights and eventually leads to St Boswells, see Ordnance Survey 6 inch Roxburghshire Sheet XIX, published 1863
2 William Welsh, ploughman, was Inhabitant Occupier not rated of a house at Cotfield, Lilliesleaf [1922 Valuation Roll, VR011600033-/884, Roxburgh County, page 884 of 993]
3 The state of the roads was a preoccupation to Dr Muir as a cyclist, with different weather having a very direct influence on their state (wet and warm conditions making them soft) before they were laid with modern tarmac
4 Betsy Welsh has not been identified though it may be possible to do so when the 1921 Census is published later this year
[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 