A dull wet day. Almost constant but never heavy rain + N.E. wind. Only saw three town cases. Went to Library to consult old files of Southern Reporter but they hadn’t them far enough back.1 Letter from Will Ogilvie2 with capital criticism of Jean Guthrie Smith’s poems3 “All brains + brilliance without any melody or a right word or suggestion that makes the heart beat quicker or the blood run warm.”4
1 Dr Muir was researching information for the semi-jubilee social meeting at the Victoria Hall on Monday 23 October 1922 in honour of the Reverend Dr Andrew Ross (1871-1942).
2 William Henry ‘W H’ or ‘Will’ Ogilvie (1869-1963), author, journalist and one of Australia’s great Bush poets, living at Ashkirk.
3 Jean Frances Guthrie Smith (1895-1949), daughter of John Guthrie Smith (1868-1923), W.S. and Elizabeth Orr ‘Lizzie’ Guthrie Smith née Rennie; a poet, she published Adventure Square, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1922.
4 This appears to be private critical commentary because the Editor cannot find any evidence of this text being published.
[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 