Letter from Mary1 asking Helen2 to go with me in July.3
Was up + down all night with Mrs W Emond (Agnes Tait), Southport + delivered her (Chloroform, forceps, stitches) of a son4 at 6.30 a.m. R.O.P.5 + one of the stiffest I ever had. She did well + was all right at night. It was a fine forenoon + I walked to Yarrow Terrace, Buccleuch Road, Forest Terrace, Tweed Mill +c. At 12 Fowler6 took Photos of staff at Viewfield7 with the sun making them all blink. A girl8 with a basal fracture of skull was brought in from St Mary’s Mill, a patient of Hiddleston.9 At 4.30 I had to motor (as it had begun to rain) to Ettrickbridgend to see a girl Lilly Hoggan10 at Fairholme.11 Was very tired at night + went early to bed.
1 Mary Jane Wallace née Muir (1836-1933), Dr Muir’s sister, widow of James Wallace (about 1841-1922) whose funeral Dr Muir had attended at Haslemere, Surrey on 10 July 1922.
2 Helen Frances ‘Mousey’ Muir (1880-1963), Dr Muir’s third daughter and sometime housekeeper.
3 Dr Muir has previously made references to planning a trip to Portsmouth. They appear to have travelled down to London together on Sunday 15th July and overnight to 16th when they travelled onwards to Guildford to be met by Mary.
4 The Editor is at a loss to explain what was supposed to be happening with Mrs Wm Emond, South Port whom Dr Muir had described as “on the straw but still in fine shape at 7 p.m.” in his diary entry of 27 April 1923 and whose son William Angus Emond was born the same day at South Port, Selkirk.
5 Right Occiput Posterior.
6 Fowler is unidentified.
7 Viewfield was the Muir & Graham medical practice’s nursing home.
8 The patient is as yet unidentified.
9 John Murray Hiddleston (1891-1954), L.R.C.P.S., L.R.F.P.S., medical practitioner.
10 Dr Muir had referred to visiting the sister of Lillie Hoggan (1906-), a young woman Agnes Hoggan (1905-), on 29 April 1923. The sisters were two of the three boarders at Ettrick Bridge, Kirkhope in the 1921 Census, the other being Ella Babtie (1919-) – actually Helen Scott ‘Ella’ Baptie.
11 Mrs Agnes Jane Macgown was Proprietor/Occupier of a house and garden Fairholme, Ettrickbridgend which does not appear to be the same location as that referred to on 29 April.
[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 