Another of those extraordinary + complete changes of weather. Yesterday calm : cloudless sunny : Today a gale : drizzling: cloudy sunless! Walked round the town. The child of Nancy’s care taker [sic] at Wellwood1 ill.2 saw him 2a.3 Did some clerical work but was a good deal disturbed. Wrote Fanny McKenzie.4 Got “Herald” from Rennie5 with Monday’s death.6 but I had seen it in Saturday’s Scotsman. At 10 o’clock Dav.7 came to see me as he had to do an enterostomy8 on Mrs Davidson9 + it was 12 before I got back.
1 Agnes Amelia ‘Nancy’ Roberts née Muir (1878-1948), wife of John Roberts junior and one of Dr Muir’s daughters, living at Wellwood, Ettrick Terrace, Selkirk.
2 Perhaps John Simpson (about 1869-), butler, born Edinburgh but recorded as living at Wellwood and working for John Roberts junior in a private capacity, 1921 Census. Care taker or care-taker is a term sometimes used alongside butler in historic sources.
3 The Editor is not familiar with this notation.
4 Frances Gordon Ord ‘Fanny’ Mackenzie née Rennie (1864-1948), wife of ‘Monty’ Mackenzie, merchant.
5 The Reverend James Rennie (1826-1924) Dr Muir’s brother-in-law and ‘Monty’ Ord Mackenzie’s father-in-law.
6 Montague Allan Ord ‘Monty’ Mackenzie (1854-1923), merchant, whose death Dr Muir noted above his diary entry for 1 February 1923.
7 David Charteris ‘Dav.’ Graham (1889-1963), M.B., Ch.B., medical practitioner and Dr Muir’s business partner.
8 “An ileostomy or similar surgical operation in which the small intestine is diverted to an artificial opening in the abdominal wall or in another part of the intestine” [Oxford Languages].
9 Mary Laidlaw Davidson née Dalgleish (about 1862-1923), wife of John Davidson, shepherd, was at Viewfield Nursing Home, usual residence Braidgairhill, Ettrick.
[Source: Scottish Borders Archives & Local History Service SBA/657/26, Dr J S Muir of Selkirk, medical practitioner, journal for 1923]
Rumbling Clint's Scottish Notes 