A grand drying day for the remains of harvest. Not much sunshine but a sharp drying N.W. wind. Cycled with Nancy + Helen1 to the Meet at Ashkirk but we were rather late. We went up to Grundiston Height2 + left our bikes + walked towards Grundiston + saw them go away towards Stirches.3 I came away before the girls + called at Dryden for Mrs Cowan.4 Got home at 2.20. Kate Dunlop called to say Good bye. She leaves on Monday to take up a Sister’s post at Chalmers.5 The McConnells at Abbotsford have been looking at Whitmuirhall.6
1 Agnes Amelia ‘Nancy’ Roberts née Muir (1878-1948) and Helen Frances ‘Mousey’ Muir (1880-1963), Dr Muir’s second and third daughters respectively.
2 Groundistone Height, the highest point on the main road between Ashkirk and Hawick, is a linear feature through grid reference NGR NT498,201, crossing the A7 as it turns south across Groundistone Moss (the area looks rather different these days with the road upgraded).
3 Groundistone farm, grid reference NT491,189; its road access is from the south so the party must have crossed the fields; Stirches would have been almost due south of them as they approached Groundistone itself.
4 Assume Bessie or Betsy Cowan née Oliver (about 1871-1962) who had married 1895 at Kirkton, Roxburghshire, Andrew Cowan (about 1853-1936), widower, at that time farmer at Friarshawmuir, Bowden but later at Dryden, Ashkirk.
5 Katherine Mary ‘Kate’ Dunlop (1874-1944), nurse, daughter of Charles Walter Dunlop (1846-1922) and Edith Dunlop née Sugden (1846-1926); when she was a member of the Selkirkshire Voluntary Aid Detachment Dr Muir, its Commandant, noted that “Kate Dunlop has come out top at an exam. with 94%.” [diary, Saturday 9 January 1915].
6 The Editor cannot identify the McConnells at Abbotsford or Whitmuirhall.
[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 