Saw some town cases walking in forenoon + after lunch down to Clarilaw to see Marjory B.1 who has again been very alcoholic. Was there a long time + had tea. It was quite dark when we left (Baptie2 driving me with Macaulay3) + went via Bowden Moor, Darnick to Galashiels to Mrs Brydon, Abbotsford Road.4 It is certainly nearer than going by Lindean but owing to the darkness + not knowing the road we did not save any time.5
1 Marjory Ballingall (1854-1914), daughter of George Ballingall (1881-1914), farmer. and Agnes née Brodie, all living at Clarilaw, Bowden, 1901 Census. In 1881 George was recorded as farmer “of 1,000 acres” at Clarilaw, Bowden. Marjory and her father died in 1915 and with Agnes’s death on Sunday 6 June 1915 the time of the Ballingalls in Roxburghshire came to an end (Ballingall is generally a Fife name).
2 Thomas Baptie (1860-1929), driver and handyman for Dr Muir.
3 Macaulay was one of Dr Muir’s horses, see diary entries for 11th February 2024.
4 Isabella Brydon née Howie (about 1841-1904), the wife of Adam Brydon, farmer, lived at 21 Abbotsford Road, Galashiels, Selkirkshire.
5 After crossing Bowden Moor the party would have crossed the River Tweed after Darnick via the Melrose Bridge, then travelling into Galashiels along the road past Langlee House. This part of the route is visible on Ordnance Survey six inch Roxburghshire Sheet VII.NE, published 1899.
[Source: Scottish Borders Archives & Local History Service SBA/657/7, Dr J S Muir of Selkirk, medical practitioner, journal for 1904]
Rumbling Clint's Scottish Notes 