A splendid day : clear + sunny but a very sharp N.E. wind. The hounds met at Oakwoodmill + I cycled out to Greendemains1 + walked to the height above Middlestead.2 I got a distant glimpse of them on [?] Oakwood + on their way to Outer Huntly3– after lunch I cycled to Shawpark, Hospital, Cannon Street and Ettrickhaugh Road. Went to meeting in Union Hall to protest against the Town Council turning the Victoria Hall grounds into a Putting Green. Charles Roberts4 in chair. I read some verses by Guthrie.5
1 Greendemmings or Greendemains, later known as Haremoss, approximate grid reference NGR NT468,250, where there is now parking on A7 north of Hare Moss, at the top of the steep climb from Braw Gates (The Braw Yett). Located close to the old Selkirk-Ashkirk Toll Bar according to John Thomson’s ‘Atlas of Scotland, 1832’.
2 Dr Muir has travelled along the Selkirk – Ashkirk road (now the A7) to Greendemains and the walked across to what the Editor assumes is the second, unnamed height at grid reference NGR NT452,248 which is the best guess for a height “above” Middlestead, Selkirk, NT452,264 (as opposed to the first height he would have reached at Brown Moor Heights, NT461,247).
3 The Hunt was in the Huntly Hill area south west of Selkirk between Oakwood, grid reference NGR NT420,259 and Outer Huntly, NT440,225, near Woll Rigg (by contrast Inner Huntly is close to the Ettrick Water at NT414,249).
4 Assume Charles Henry ‘Charlie’ Roberts (1877-1954), tweed manufacturer, brother of John ‘Jack’ Roberts junior (1876-1966), mill owner and Dr Muir’s son-in-law, both born in New Zealand.
5 The Editor cannot think who Guthrie might be.
[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 