Wind round to S.W. at last. Since March 12th– 13th it has been N.E., E, or S.E. There was a peal of thunder last night + heavy rain but it gradually cleared up to a fine sunny day, though the glass [barometer] was low. I cycled to Yarrow Manse, Mountbenger Cottages + Henderland. Found James Mitchell1 distinctly better. Took 2h. 15m to go up + 1h. 35m to come back with the wind. Dora2 sent a pamphlet about the American Mission in Egypt for which I had to pay 5d for deficient post. Helen3 had the Thorburn children4 at tea. Had to give Bella5 a hypo of Heroin for pain in her leg.
1 Dr Muir had been attending the Mitchell family at Henderland, Megget, north of St Mary’s Loch, since late 1921. In the 1921 Census the family comprised James Mitchell senior aged 67, James Mitchell junior, 35, Mary Richardson Mitchell, 33, Eliza Dalgleish Mitchell, 25, and Isabella Shiel Mitchell, 26.
2 Andrina Dorothy ‘Dora’ Muir (1882-1978), nurse and Dr Muir’s youngest daughter.
3 Helen Frances ‘Mousey’ Muir (1880-1963), Dr Muir’s third daughter and sometime housekeeper.
4 The Thorburn children were Alastair Murray Thorburn (1920-2017) and Elizabeth Mary Thorburn (1922-), both born at Dandswall, Shawpark Road, Selkirk, son and daughter of Malcolm Murray Thorburn (1889-1977), manufacturer and sometime soldier, and Mary Alison Thorburn née Brodie, married 1916, St Giles, Edinburgh. Alastair was a soldier in later life, Colonel in the King’s Own Scottish Borderers, trained at Sandhurst and at Achnacharry, seeing combat with No. 4 Commando on D-Day and at Walcheren (awarded a Croix de Guerre for his part in the latter).
5 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].
[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 