Nice warm morning but there came an extraordinary sudden change about 1 O’clock. The sky was black + a cold N.E. wind blew. It looked like rain but it didn’t come. I had to go to West Essenside1 + cycled there. I had on a new celluloid truss I had got from Salt & Son2 but it wasn’t at all comfortable. I went to Bla’wearie + on Esdaile Law3 in hope of seeing the aeroplanes competing for the King’s Cup4. They were flying from Newcastle to Renfrew + a line between the two crosses Peel Fell, Chisholme and Redford Green5. I got so cold that I left before they could have appeared + I had a punctured back tyre going down to Burnfoot6 + had to blow it up 6 times on the way back.
1 West Essenside, Ashkirk, grid reference NGR NT442,201, where Dr Muir was attending Robert Heard, see diary entry for 7 September 1922.
2 Salt & Son were medical suppliers in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
3 Blawearie, Roberton, grid reference NGR NT441,167, with Esdale Law to the NNE.
4 The King’s Cup air race is an annual British handicapped cross-country air race, established by King George V as an incentive to the development of light aircraft and engine design; it was first contested on 8 September 1922 covering 810 miles from Croydon to Glasgow via Manchester and Newcastle (Day 1) and back via Manchester and Cardiff (Day 2) [source: Kings Cup Winners].
5 The route appears to have entered Scotland at Peel Fell, grid reference NGR NY626,997 and crossed south of Hawick past Chisholme, NT418,122 and Redfordgreen, NT366,161.
6 Burnfoot, Ashkirk, NT458,201.
[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 