Another showery day but with sunny intervals: mild. Had to motor first to Fairnilea1 (making calls in town) [and] back to Dunsdale, Heatherlie Park2 + West Port. Mr Ross3 who has biliary congestion4 was rather better. Clare5 is at home. Then I motored to Whitmuirhall6 + Whitmuir.7 Durnford8, Elmpark, arrived with Mrs Mack9 from St Andrews [illegible] with a sprained ankle. Was in the home10 all afternoon. Wrote Helen.11
1 Fairnilee, Clovenfords parish, where there was a number of different households.
2 Dr Muir had been seeing someone, probably James Smith, barber, at Heatherlie Park, Selkirk (see diary entries for 6 August 1923).
3 Mr Ross is so far unidentified.
4 Biliary congestion is blockage of the bile ducts.
5 Clare is so far unidentified.
6 Dr Muir had been attending the Cowan family at Whitmuirhall (on the Bowden road), see diary entry for 2 August 1923.
7 In his 31 July diary entry Dr Muir appears to have confused Whitmuirhall and Whitmuir. It is still not possible to identify who he was attending.
8 Assume Norman Stanley M Durnford (1889-1965), businessman, of Stoke Bishop, Bristol, Mrs Mackintosh’s son-in-law, married to Agnes Watson Harper (1888-1976).
9 Agnes Mackintosh née Watson, formerly Harper (1859-1946), of Elm Park, Selkirk.
10 Assume Viewfield Nursing Home (he calls his home, Thorncroft, ‘the house’).
11 Helen Frances ‘Mousey’ Muir (1880-1963), Dr Muir’s third daughter and housekeeper, appears to have stayed at Haslemere, Surrey, where Dr Muir had been holidaying until 28 July.
[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 