It was pouring this morning + scarcely a vestige of snow visible except at the back of dykes +c. Some bits of the roads however were very icy, especially so on the Hartwood[burn]1 road on the Brae going down to the keeper’s house. I got down but I couldn’t get up with the care [sic] + had to turn back by the home [illegible text].2 It cleared up by midday + it was a fine afternoon + freezing once more at night. I motored later to Lilliesleaf + Chapel. Papers full of election results. Government have a majority of only 60 over Labour who are over Liberals.3 Went down to Elmpark4 after dinner to talk about Erskine.5
1 Though it is poorly written here, Hartwoodburn is clearly the location written in Dr Muir’s diary for the 9 December 1923 diary.
2 The handwriting is so poor in places that the Editor has no confidence in identifying Dr Muir’s route and this was exacerbated by the lack of names and addresses visited so often provided by Dr Muir’s diaries.
3 The Conservative and Unionist Party took 258 seats (41.95%), a lead of 67 over the Labour Party’s 191 (31.06%). The Liberal Party took 158 (25.69%). A party needed 308 seats for a majority and in the end the Labour Party under Ramsay MacDonald formed a short-lived minority government with informal support from the Liberal Party.
4 Elm Park, Selkirk, the home of Dr Muir’s good friend Agnes Mackintosh née Watson, formerly Harper (1859-1946).
5 James Erskine Harper (1887-1953), son of Ebenezer Erskine Harper, sheriff substitute, and Agnes Harper née Watson later Mackintosh.
[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 