Mist all day + cold East wind but only a shower in forenoon very dreary. Jack, Alec + Stewart1 went off in the car to play golf at Goswick2 + Jock started for Berwick on his motor bike.3 I sat + read all forenoon + wrote Nancy4 + after tea walked via Lesbury to Long Houghton + Boulmer returning by a road near the coast.5 A married daughter of Simpson’s with a baby6 is staying at the Schooner.7
1 John ‘Jack’ Roberts junior (1876-1966), Dr Muir’s son-in-law, and two of his children Stewart Muir ‘Little Stewart’ Roberts (1908-2003) and George Edward ‘Tim’ Roberts (1911-2005).
2 Assume Goswick Links, Berwick, a fair way up the coast from Alnmouth at grid reference NGR NU058,452; it is a celebrated links course designed by James Braid (1870-1950), Scottish professional golfer and renowned golf course architect.
3 John Stewart ‘Jock’ Roberts (1904-1950), Dr Muir’s eldest grandson, already showing his adventurous spirit (he was to die in a climbing accident in 1950).
4 Agnes Amelia ‘Nancy’ Roberts née Muir (1878-1948), Dr Muir’s second daughter.
5 Dr Muir appears to have taken a clockwise route via Lesbury, NU237,117, Long Houghton [Longhoughton], NU243,151, Boulmer, NU265,142, and back along the road through NU260,125.
6 It is not obvious who Simpson might be, perhaps one of the Simpsons related to Dr Muir’s friend Agnes Mackintosh née Watson, formerly Harper ‘Mrs Mack’ (1859-1946), of Elm Park, Selkirk, whose mother was a Simpson (perhaps Margaret ‘Maggie’ Simpson née Watson (1857-1939), Mrs Mack’s sister); it seems improbable that this would refer to the daughter and grandchild of Mrs Simpson the Roberts’s housekeeper.
7 The Schooner Hotel at Alnmouth is a 17th Century coaching inn renowned in Dr Muir’s time.
[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 