A nicer day with just a very slight shower in afternoon. Saw some town cases then cycled to Raeburn Place, Millburn Place, Deuchar Mill, Planting1, Mt Benger Cottages + then over Paddyslacks [sic]2 to Traquair, Elibank, Ashiestiel to Glenkinnon Burn3 where there was a picnic in Connection with Barbara’s 20th birthday4. A lot of the young folk cycled. Helen5, Ailie Boyd Wilson6 + Peter7 went up in the Swift8 + Jack9 had his car full. We had a capital tea + I left to be able to receive Ernest + Kitty Muriel10 who arrived about 6.
1 Dr Muir had been attending Lizzie Mary, sometimes Minnie, Hogg née Goodfellow (1888-1963) at a house ‘Planting’ at Yarrowfeus, Yarrow; see Dr Muir’s diary entry for 27 July 1922.
2 Paddock Slack, often called Paddy Slack, is the pass between the Gordon Arms, Yarrow and Traquair, Peeblesshire through grid reference NGR NT313,288.
3 The Glenkinnon Burn descends from the back of Elibank and Traquair Forest, descends through grid reference NGR NT425,339 and debouches into the River Tweed immediately above Ashiestiel Bridge.
4 Andrina Henderson ‘Barbara’ Roberts, later Thwigg (1902-1996), Dr Muir’s eldest grandchild.
5 Helen Frances ‘Mousey’ Muir (1880-1963), Dr Muir’s third daughter and sometime housekeeper.
6 Ailie Brack Boyd Wilson or Boyd-Wilson, later Milne (1890-1955), born Alie Brack Boyd-Wilson, Sep Quarter 1890, Blean, Kent, 2a 809; sometimes officially recorded as Alice but correctly recorded on the 1911 Census when she, her mother Mary Ethel and sister Dawn were at Elwyn Road, Exmouth, Devon; changed her name to Ailie Brack Boyd Wilson Milne, 25 June 1920 [London Gazette, 30 November 1920]; died March Quarter 1955, aged 64, Hendon 5e 628.
7 Peter Allan [sic], evidently a charge of Dora’s, is Peter Muir Spurgeon Allen (1914-2005), who was at Thorncroft, Selkirk, aged 7, in the 1921 Census [taken 19 June 1921], born 4 June 1914, Chorlton [Lancashire], the son of the Reverend Willoughby Charles Allen and Catherine Ellen Allen née Green; a head teacher (retired), he died 16 February 2005 at the Royal Infirmary Edinburgh, usual residence Hope Cottage, Stenton, Dunbar, East Lothian.
8 The Swift Motor Company made Swift Cars in Coventry; Dr Muir (or the medical practice) had run one as a ‘workhorse’ car since he had acquired it some time before August 1914.
9 John Roberts, junior ‘Jack’ (1876-1966), Dr Muir’s son-in-law, a mill owner and sometime Provost of Selkirk, later knighted “for political and public services in Selkirkshire” [Supplement to the London Gazette 1 June 1953 page 2941].
10 Hugh Ernest Muriel (1886-1979), banker, and Katherine Stewart Rennie ‘Kitty’ – sometimes ‘Kate’ – Muriel née Taylor (1883-1960), daughter of Edward Earl Taylor (1855-1929) and Jane Logan Rennie (1855-1915), Dr Muir’s niece.
[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 