Wrote Dora1 + Mr J Spittal2
Got letter from Mr Jack Spittal telling me that he would be unable to come to the Scott dinner3 as he had lumbago + got a wire from Jack4 to say he had written the Sec. It was hard frost again + where the snow had not melted the roads were rig.5 It was a fine clear day + there was curling. Made 14 calls including Buccleuch Road + Dunsdale. Saw Erskine Harper6 at the Home7 + called at Elmpark.8 I have got addresses from all 3 parliamentary candidates = Dalkeith, Dallas + Henderson.9 Helen10 went with Mrs Mack + Miss …11 to a Liberal meeting at the Victoria Hall.
1 Andrina Dorothy ‘Dora’ Muir (1882-1978), nurse and Dr Muir’s youngest daughter, who was living and working in Egypt at this time.
2 John Kerr ‘Jack’ Spittal (1883-1946), accountant. Born, 1883, Caithness and married, 31 January 1918 at St Margaret, Westminster, Alice Barbara Findlay (1894-1970). He was the son of Rachel Spittal née Harvey (1845-1917) and Charles Grey Spittal (1836-1891), sometime Sheriff substitute of Selkirk who owed Dr Muir £32 5s at the time of his death.
3 The Scott dinner is so far unidentified.
4 John ‘Jack’ Roberts junior (1876-1966), mill owner, of Wellwood, Ettrick Terrace, Selkirk and Dr Muir’s son-in-law.
5 The Editor assumes that Dr Muir is using the old agriculture term rig (“A strip of ploughed land raised in the middle and sloping gradually to a furrow on either side” source Dictionar o the Scots Leid) to describe that feature of snow-covered roads where passing wheels push the snow both outwards and into the middle of the carriageway.
6 James Erskine Harper (1887-1953), son of Ebenezer Erskine Harper, sheriff substitute, and Agnes Harper née Watson later Mackintosh.
7 Viewfield, the Muir and Graham medical partnership’s nursing home at the top of Viewfield Park and immediately behind the Victoria Halls.
8 Elm Park, Selkirk, the home of Dr Muir’s good friend Agnes Mackintosh née Watson, formerly Harper (1859-1946).
9 Walter John Montagu Douglas Scott, 8th Duke of Buccleuch from 1935 but at this time Earl of Dalkeith. He was to take Sir Thomas Henderson’s parliamentary seat for Roxburghshire and Selkirkshire on 6 December 1923 when Dalkeith (Unionist) received 11,258 votes (43.1%) with Henderson (Liberal) receiving 8,046 votes (30.8%) and George Dallas (Labour) 6,811 (26.1%).
10 Helen Frances ‘Mousey’ Muir (1880-1963), Dr Muir’s third daughter and sometime housekeeper.
11 This name 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 