The frost gave in this forenoon. There was dense fog all day. No wind. Weathercock S.W. Very slight drizzle at intervals. Paid 9 visits + walked to Over Whitlaw to call on Willie Wood.1 It was not very bad going. Took Kelty2 but I don’t think he enjoyed it. Erskine Harper3 went to Viewfield.4 Helen5 + Miss Wallace6 went to the Opera.7 I saw Willie Stoddart8 a second time + called at Elmpark.9
1 William Wood was Occupier at Over Whitlaw Farm, Galashiels, grid reference NGR NT517,300. He is otherwise unidentified but may be the individual recorded in the 1921 Census living at Sunderland Hall South Lodge, aged 67, born “Caranchshaws” [Cranshaws], Berwickshire, with his wife Elizabeth, 65, born Westruther, Berwickshire.
2 Kelty was a dog that Dr Muir records taking for a walk very infrequently since at least 1917 but either someone else must have been his regular walker or he was not their dog.
3 James Erskine Harper (1887-1953), son of Ebenezer Erskine Harper, sheriff substitute, and Agnes Harper née Watson later Mackintosh.
4 Viewfield, the Muir and Graham medical partnership’s nursing home at the top of Viewfield Park and immediately behind the Victoria Halls.
5 Helen Frances ‘Mousey’ Muir (1880-1963), Dr Muir’s third daughter and sometime housekeeper.
6 Miss Jane Wallace (1874-), nurse to the Roberts children, Dr Muir’s grandchildren [see diary entries for 6 April 1915, 22 October 1916 and 7 April 1918 and 1911 Census]; she was born at Langbarns, Tongland, Kirkcudbrightshire.
7 The opera is so far unidentified.
8 This may refer to William Stoddart (about 1850-), retired shepherd, recorded as a boarder at Deloraine Hope, Kirkhope, in the 1921 Census.
9 Elm Park, Selkirk, home of Dr Muir’s good friend Agnes Mackintosh née Watson, formerly Harper (1859-1946).
[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 