Message to Morton, Riddell Lodge1 + Mitchell, Borthwickshiels. I saw a few town cases + then left In Ernest’s2 Swift3 with Kitty4, Helen5 + Peter6. We went to Riddell, Hassendean, Hawick, Fiddleton, Hermitage7, Steele Road, Saughtree, Note o’ the Gate, Chesters, Camptown, Oxnam, Kalefoot + Kelso8. It was very enjoyable + the views were at their best. We picnicked at Hermitage Castle + got home at 6 when I found a message to Mitchell, Borthwickshiels9 + Ernest kindly took me there. His car can go. I had a crowd at consultation + had to send some of them away.
1 Andrew Morton, forester, was Inhabitant Occupier of a house West Lodge, North Riddell, Lilliesleaf [1922 Valuation Roll, VR011600033-/882, Roxburgh County, page 882 of 993].
2 Hugh Ernest Muriel (1886-1979), banker with the Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank.
3 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 but Dr Graham’s must be one of their sportier models – perhaps the pre-war 3-litre 15 or the 1921 2-litre 12.
4 Katherine Stewart Rennie ‘Kitty’ – sometimes ‘Kate’ – Muriel née Taylor (1883-1960), wife of Hugh Ernest Muriel and daughter of Edward Earl Taylor (1855-1929) and Jane Logan Rennie (1855-1915), Dr Muir’s niece.
5 Helen Frances ‘Mousey’ Muir (1880-1963), Dr Muir’s third daughter and sometime housekeeper.
6 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.
7 Fiddleton Toll Bar, grid reference NGR NY38842,96203, is on the A7 as it follows the Ewes Water south so the party has travelled via Mosspaul, turning off at Fiddleton and approaching Hermitage NY505,957 from the east instead of taking the direct route out of Hawick up Slitrig via Langburnshiels.
8 The party travelled onwards (presumably turning off at Newlands to Steele Road thus cutting off the section to the Hermitage Bridge just short of Newcastleton) and turned east up the Liddel Water to Saughtree NY561967 – where one can turn off to Kielder – on down through Note o’ the Gate NT588,029 to the junction NT593,106 travelling on through Chesters NT626,106, at which they took the minor road straight ahead to Camptown on the Jed Water NT679,135, crossing the main road to Oxnam NT698,184 Kalefoot NT709,275 and Kelso.
9 Robert Fletcher Mitchell (1887-1947), Tenant Occupier of part of Borthwickshiels, Roberton [1922 Valuation Roll, VR011600033-/707, Roxburgh County, page 707 of 993].
[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 