11 April 1923 diary of Dr John Stewart Muir (1845-1938) of Selkirk

It seems there was very heavy rain during last night + with the melted snow the Ettrick was said to be in flood. It looked wet when I rose + I put on trousers but it faired + was a nice warm day.¹ Very slight E. wind + the air quite mild. I cycled to Haremoss to see John Scott² who had an ischio rectal abscess³ which I opened. Then I walked across to the Middlestead March⁴ to try + see the hounds at Bowhill but it was too hazy. After tea I cycled to Curror Street + Shawpark. Got an invitation to dine with the Glasgow + W of Scotland Branch but unfortunately that is the day of our Branch meeting.⁵

¹ Dr Muir normally cycled in what he called knickers, being breeks, most likely plus twos, but the point of swapping them for trousers in wetter weather is completely lost on the Editor.

² John Scott is unidentified. The Haremoss is shown on the east side of the Selkirk – Greendemains – Ashkirk road i.e. in Lilliesleaf, Roxburghshire, but the Editor can find no evidence of John Scott nor of a dwelling-house called Haremoss either there or westwards across the Selkirkshire boundary.

³ The Editor is grateful to a reader for identifying Dr Muir’s text as “ischio-rectal abscess”.

⁴ Middlestead, Selkirk, grid reference NGR NT452,264. For a sense of Dr Muir’s view westwards towards Bowhill see Ordnance Survey six inch Selkirkshire Sheet XI.SE, published 1900.

⁵ Both were Branches of the British Medical Association, Dr Muir’s being the Edinburgh and South East Scotland Branch.

[Source: Scottish Borders Archives & Local History Service SBA/657/26, Dr J S Muir of Selkirk, medical practitioner, journal for 1923]