Affleck’s death1 on 25th
Still very dull + misty. No distant views at all. Still there was no rain + very little wind + when I was near Rothbury there was quite a nice blink of sun. I started to cycle to Alnwick Station meaning to strike the N.Rd. 2 but went to Shilbottle by mistake + on to Newton on the Moor, Longframlington, Brinkburn, Pauperhaugh, Rothbury, Thropton, Snitter, Lorbottle, Bridge of Aln and Alnwick3. Got glass of beer at Thropton + tea at the Br. of Aln4 at Rothbury. I sat a while by the Coquet + watched the trout rising. Encountered many hills particularly after Br. of Aln where I took a wrong turn + had an awful climb to the Alnwick Road. Passed fine place = Callaly Castle5. Saw a pack of beagles at Br. of Aln. Never saw the Cheviot.
1 Sir James Ormiston Affleck (1840-1922), M.B., C.M., M.D., F.R.S.E., Scottish medical practitioner and author, practised in Stockbridge and the New Town, later at the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh and the City Fever Hospital, elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1896 and President of the Edinburgh Medico-Chirurgical Society 1905 [sources: “Sir James Affleck, LL.D., M.D., F.R.C.P., F.R.C.S.Edin., Consulting Physician, Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh.” The British Medical Journal, vol. 2, no. 3222, 1922, pp. 617–18. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20421239 accessed 28 July 2022; and Lectures of Sir James Ormiston Affleck (1840-1922)].
2 This appears to read N.Rd. presumably referring to the Great North Road in which case Dr Muir’s route from there onwards was perhaps unplanned.
3 Shilbottle, grid reference NGR NU196,087, Newton on the Moor, NU171,053, Longframlington, NU130,012, Brinkburn, NZ118,990, Pauperhaugh, NZ100,996, Thropton, NU031,021, Snitter, NU024,034, Lorbottle, NU033,065, Bridge of Aln, NU088,121 and Alnwick, NU187,130.
4 Assume the Bridge of Aln Hotel on the A697, grid reference NGR NU088,121; it can be seen east of Whittingham Station on Ordnance Survey 6” Northumberland Sheet XXXI.SW, published 1899.
5 Callaly Castle is a Grade I listed building and a substantial country house to the north of the village of Callaly, between Lorbottle and Whittingham, grid reference NU052,098.
[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 