Fair : cold + a little frost. Roads pretty bad. Saw a dozen town cases motoring. Left at 2 + did Lilliesleaf + Sprot Homes.1 Went on to Newtown + met Jack2 who was at a Unionist meeting at which Dalkeith was adopted Candidate.3 We left Newtown at 4 in Jack’s Citroën + went via Stitchill, Eccles, Leitholm, Duns, Preston + Reston to the Haven, St Abbs.4 which we reached about 6.20. Found Nancy5 pretty well. Got warmed + had a comfortable supper. We encountered a heavy fall of snow between Leitholm + Duns.
1 Six almshouses at Lilliesleaf provided by the Miss Frances Sprot Trust endowed in 1881 by Miss Frances Sprot and formally known as the Miss Frances Sprot Homes.
2 John ‘Jack’ Roberts junior (1876-1966), mill owner, of Wellwood, Ettrick Terrace, Selkirk, and husband of Nancy (see below).
3 Walter John Montagu Douglas Scott (1894-1973), 8th Duke of Buccleuch from 1935 but at this time Earl of Dalkeith. Lord Dalkeith was to take Sir Thomas Henderson’s parliamentary seat for Roxburghshire and Selkirkshire on 6 December 1923 when Dalkeith received 11,258 votes (43.1%) to Henderson’s 8,046 (30.8%) with George Dallas in third place with 6,811 (26.1%).
4 The Roberts family routinely holidayed on the east coast, in Berwickshire or Northumberland. Other members of the family had travelled to St Abbs on 5 November.
5 Dr Muir’s daughter Agnes Amelia ‘Nancy’ Roberts née Muir (1878-1948) had been diagnosed with Exophthalmic goitre or Graves Disease earlier in 1923.
[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 