Some hoar frost early this morning. It was a better day: plenty sunshine but with the same biting N. + N.W. wind + a very few drops of rain. I cycled down to Green Terrace + then to Curror Street, Hospital, Melrose (where I cashed a cheque of McMillan’s1 for 21/- at the Royal Bank) + Newtown to see Oliver2 about the question of the Branch meeting3. Then I went across the foot bridge to Dryburgh + walked up to see the Wallace Monument4 – quite a pretty walk) + back by Mertoun Bridge. Dora5 arrived with little Enid Barker6. Went down to Elmpark7 with Dora to thank Mrs Mack for her kindness in bringing me from Edin. 2 shirts + a supply of Littlejohn’s beans8.
1 Assume John James McMillan (1879-1953), medical practitioner, in general practice at Melrose (though it is conceivable that the meeting might have been attended by Hugh Agnew Macmillan (1890-1950), medical practitioner, Kirkhope-born, in general practice in Methil, Wemyss Parish, Fife from around 1925, but working for his M.D. (1923) at this date)
2 Presumably Matthew James Oliver (1863-1951), M.B., C.M., D.P.H., medical practitioner and Medical Officer of Health; at Hawthorndenes, St Boswells, e.g. 1914, 1925 and 1930 Valuation Rolls
3 Assume The Edinburgh Branch of the British Medical Association (which includes the Scottish Borders area) held its previous A.G.M. in June 1921
4 The Wallace Statue, Canmore ID 71817, grid reference NGR NT 59156,32697, the first statue of Wallace to be erected in Scotland,; RCAHMS records that “It was built for David Stuart Erskine, Earl of Buchan, c.1814. The sculptor was John Smith. The urn is inscribed with the following lines:
Sacred to the memory of Wallace | The peerless Knight of Ellerslie [sic] | Who wav’d on Ayr’s Romantic shore | The beamy torch of Liberty | And roaming round from Sea to Sea | From Glade obscure of gloomy Rock | His bold companions call’d to free | The Realm from Edward’s Iron Yoke.” see Canmore: Dryburgh, Wallace’s Statue And Ornamental Urn
5 Andrina Dorothy ‘Dora’ Muir (1882-1978), nurse and Dr Muir’s youngest daughter
6 Enid Gordon Baxter, later Thorn (1917-2013), born 1 Nov 1917 at Gothenburg, daughter of Lily Birgitta Baxter formerly Lindback and Harold Ross Baxter, manager and informant of the birth, of 47 Södra Vägen 50, 412 54 Göteborg, Sweden [Consular Returns 1917, 164/CL 233]
7 Elm Park, Selkirk was the home of Dr Muir’s close friend Agnes Mackintosh née Watson, formerly Harper (1859-1946)
8 The Editor assumes Dr Muir means coffee beans in which case a reasonable guess is Robert Bertram Littlejohn, restaurateur, who was Tenant Occupier of a shop at 149 St Leonard’s Street, Edinburgh and this hypothesis seems to be supported by the fact that the Proprietor was Thomas Johnston of Havana, Cuba [1925 Valuation Roll, VR010000503-/296, Edinburgh Burgh, page 296 of 319]
[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 