Another fine warm day with slight S.W. wind. The freedom from dust of the well constructed roads here is most pleasant.1 I felt my dyspepsia all day + couldn’t eat much. Wrote some P.C.s [postcards] in forenoon, one to Agnes Logan2, + Helen3 + I lunched at Rowallan.4 Then Bob. Wallace5 took me + Amy6 in his Ford to Goodwood (where we had the fine view from the hill top7) + back to the Bailey’s at Bachelor’s Gate, Easebourne8, for tea. There I met the brother doctor.9 Walked round the garden in evening+ saw 2 Jays the gardener had shot.10
1 It is interesting that the roads in Sussex were so much better than those in Selkirkshire as to be worth commenting on.
2 Assume Agnes McIver Logan (about 1848-1928), daughter of Alexander Stuart Logan (1810-1862), advocate & Sheriff of Forfarshire and Agnes Logan née Greig (about 1813-1891), thus Dr Muir’s cousin. She died 16 November 1928 at Abbeyview, Causewayhead, Logie, Stirlingshire, aged 81 [1928, Statutory registers Deaths 485/B 53].
3 Helen Frances ‘Mousey’ Muir (1880-1963), Dr Muir’s third daughter and housekeeper.
4 Rowallan, Haslemere (next door to Scotstoun), home of William Edward ‘Willie’ Muir (1872-1948), Dr Muir’s brother nephew, and his wife Logie Elizabeth Whiteway (about 1877-1956). By the time of the 1939 England and Wales Register, Amy was living at Rowallan, Haslemere with William and Logie Muir.
5 The implication that Wallace is a medic (Dr Muir’s diary entry for 25 July 1923) points to his being Robert William Lessel (or Leslie) Wallace (1881-1930), M.C., M.B., Ch.B., M.D., medical practitioner, born Turriff, Aberdeenshire, studied George Watson’s College and Edinburgh University, in medical practice at Woking, Surrey in 1923 [sources include: UK Medical Register, 1923].
6 Amy Kathleen Waldie (1889-1960), James Wallace’s niece who lived at Scotstoun, Haslemere, Surrey [see for example the 1911 England Census for Scotstoun].
7 The fine view is presumably the one at St Roche’s View, grid reference NGR SU877,110, close to Goodwood Racecourse, where Dr Muir had enjoyed a fine view during a cycle ride on 17 July 1923.
8 Bachelor’s Gate was on Easebourne Street, Easebourne, Midhurst, Sussex, and though the 1921 Census does not include property names – more likely the clowns at Find My Past have omitted it from the transcript (£2.50) the same way they have cropped it off the image (£3.50) – but there’s a very good chance Dr Muir’s Bailey family was that comprising Henrietta Bailey (about 1841-), born Oxford and widow of Granville Rowe Bailey (1843–1917), and daughters Blanche Bailey (1875-1949) and Marianne Bailey (about 1882-), both born Madeley, Staffordshire. Blanche therefore be the one Dr Muir mentioned in his diary of 17 July 1923. Henrietta is recorded as having died at Bachelor’s Gate 8 January 1928 [England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995].
9 The brother would in that case have been John Hewett Bailey (1879–1969), a Clerk in Holy Orders rather than a doctor (the Editor is not very sure that this is a correct reading anyway). Curiously he had a connection with Bucklow, Cheshire where some of Dr Muir’s extended family lived.
10 The Editor assumes that this is back at Scotstoun.
[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 