Inclined to dampness with a little drizzle in forenoon. Mild : sunless. Started to cycle to Beechwood1 but when leaving the bank it began to drizzle so I came back to the car + on mounting my bike in West Port fell + hurt my right thigh. Motored to Heatherly [sic]2, Beechwood, Muthag Street, Mavisbank + then to Kersknowe3 (to get signature of a lad Bathgate4 to an Emigration out + was consulted by his mother5) + Whitmuir (Mrs Neil).6 Bella7 still in bed + Mousey8 doing all the work + doing it well. We had high tea in the kitchen.
1 Dr Muir had been attending a patient at Beechwood, Linglie Road, Selkirk.
2 Heatherlie, Selkirk, area of NT464,284.
3 Kersknowe, Bowden, grid reference NGR NT508,270 is visible south east of Whitmuirhall on Ordnance Survey Roxburghshire Sheet XIII (and parts of Selkirkshire Sheets XI), published 1863.
4 Robert Bathgate (1901-?1983), estate worker, embarked 6 April 1923 at Glasgow on Canadian Pacific Railway’s SS Marburn and arrived December 1923 at Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada en route for Toronto. He may have made a return trip in 1927 (SS Montcalm, departed Greenock, 26 Mar 1927) but he appears to have died in 1983 in British Columbia. [sources include Canada, Ocean Arrivals (Forms 30A), 1919-1924]
5 Henry Bathgate, orraman [odd job man on farm], was tenant at Kersknowe Holding, Bowden, Roxburghshire [1921 Census] with his wife Eleanor ‘Ellen’ Bathgate née Davidson, 49, born Carham and son Robert Bathgate, 20, born Abbotrule, Southdean (see footnote 4).
6 Assume Christina Neil née Scott, married 4 April 1919 at Oxnam to Adam Grey Neil, forester and joiner; she had a daughter, Agnes Grey Neil, later Caie (1921-1987) in April 1921; the family was at Whitmuir, Selkirk [1921 Valuation Roll, VR011700009-/333, Selkirk County, page 333 of 611].
7 Isabella ‘Bella’ Paulin (1873-?1952), the Muir family housekeeper, daughter of James Paulin, groom, and Grace Paulin née Cranston, born Ladykirk, Berwickshire [Sources include: ‘A Souter’s Bairn, recollections of life in Selkirk’ by Jenny Corbett with Avril Jack, published Selkirk Common Good Fund, 1993].
8 Helen Frances ‘Mousey’ Muir (1880-1963), Dr Muir’s third daughter and sometime housekeeper.
[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 