A dull sunless day. Not so cold + only slight drizzle at times. Went along to call for Lizzie1, who with Nancy2 is living at Redstone3 + has just had 4 weeks in Jones’ Nursing Home.4 She had gone out however I found her at Ladyton.5 She looks very thin + worn + is going up to visit Jean6 in London. In the afternoon I cycled to Ayr + up the Cumnock road to where a branch road leads to Stair. The river there from the Old Bridge was lovely. I had a long crack with a miner. Came back by Tarbolton + into Prestwick by the road from St Quivox.7 In the evening read Guthrie’s verses about “Johnnie Walker”,8 Caird’s on Emeralds9 + some stories from Agnes Logan’s book10 to Rennie. Mileage 19.3
1 Elizabeth Orr ‘Lizzie’ Guthrie Smith née Rennie (1858–1926), daughter of The Reverend James Rennie (1826-1924), Church of Scotland minister and Catherine Stewart Rennie née Muir, thus Dr Muir’s niece.
2 Nance Tennant Guthrie Smith, later Clark (1902-1993), born 24 Jan 1902 at 5 Kirklee Gardens, Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland; daughter of John Guthrie Smith (1868-1923), W.S. and Elizabeth Orr ‘Lizzie’ Guthrie Smith née Rennie. Nance married 1933 in, New Zealand, John Vandy ‘Jack’ Clark, she died 1993 in New Zealand. [1902, 646/3 202, Partick].
3 Redstone, Prestwick [Monkton, Ayr], home of Edward Caird ‘Eddie’ Miller (1864-1927), iron and steel founder, widow of Jessie Logan Miller née Rennie (1860-1920), Dr Muir’s niece. Edward Miller was still living there in 1925.
4 Jones’s Nursing Home is so far unidentified.
5 Ladyton, Prestwick, Ayrshire, home of The Reverend James Rennie (1826-1924), Dr Muir’s brother in law, the widower of Catherine Stewart Rennie née Muir.
6 Jean Frances Guthrie Smith, later Neal (1895-1949), daughter of John Guthrie Smith (1868-1923), W.S. and Elizabeth Orr ‘Lizzie’ Guthrie Smith née Rennie, married 1883, Glasgow; died 22 Jul 1949, Kensington, London; Jean married 1918, Barnet, Middlesex, Lawrence Edward Neal (1895-1996), later Managing Director of Daniel Neal & Sons of Portman Square, London a child-focussed department store. A poet, at one time published in in The Nation, Athenaeum and Voices alongside authors such as D H Lawrence, John Middleton Murry, Henri Gaudier Brzeska and Isaac Rosenberg. She published Adventure Square, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1922. [sources include https://fitzrovianews.com/2010/07/29/jean-guthrie-smith-a-poet-who-conveys-a-deep-love-for-fitzrovia/].
Lawrence and Jean’s son Lieutenant Kenneth Guthrie Neal (1919-1944), Service Number: 200572, Royal Artillery, 68 Anti-Tank Regiment died 9 August 1944, aged 24 and is buried at Bayeux War Cemetery, Calvados, France, grave reference XXII. D. 11.
7 Dr Muir appears to have cycled up what is now the A70, turning left (north) at grid reference NGR NS447,199, to Stair, NS439,234, Tarbolton, NS429,270, and home on the road from St Quivox, NS374239.
8 The Editor has not yet found the poem but assumes that the book is ‘Adventure Square’, 1922, London, Hodder and Stoughton, by Jean Frances Guthrie Smith, later Neal (1895-1949), see footnote 6.
9 This item is so far unidentified.
[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 