More wind – N.W. – + drouth1 which are much needed for the stools. My cold has passed off pretty quickly due in some measure I think to Pil.Op. [?]. Message to [Jean ?] Thomson, Beechwood.2 Cycled there + on to Harewoodglen + then to Caddonfoot. Papers full of election returns. The Labour Party has had the most gains + have about doubled their numbers.3
1 Drouth, n. and v. Also drooth, drowth, †druth. Sc. forms and usages of Eng. drought. The forms drouth and drowth are now only in dial. or poet. use in Eng. Cf. Drocht. [Dictionar o’ the Scots Leid]; it is probably best known in Scots language and literature but not exclusively, see for example Thomas Hardy’s poem of new love ‘After The Visit’ [see also Dr Muir’s diary entry for 5 April 1920].
2 Thomson does not appear in the Valuation Rolls at that location at this time (the 1921 Census would be helpful) so is presumably a member of the household of Miss Jemima ‘Minty’ Colville (1857-1932), the occupier of a Villa and ground ‘Beechwood’, Linglie Road, Selkirk [1921 Valuation Roll, VR011700009-/326, Selkirk County, page 326 of 611]; born Lanarkshire, she was the daughter of David Colville, steel maker, and Jane Colville née Barr, she died in 1932 at the Crichton Royal Institution, Dumfries, usual residence Beechwood, Selkirk.
3 More than doubled: in the 1922 General Election the four leading parties took:
Conservative (Bonar Law) 344 seats = minus 35 (net)
Labour (J R Clynes) 142 seats = plus 85 (net)
Liberal (H H Asquith) 62 seats = plus 23 (net)
National Liberal (Lloyd George) 53 seats = minus 71 (net).
[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 