Still mild + calm but not quite so warm as yesterday. Started immediately after breakfast + drove to almshouses (Miss D… back from Infirmary), Newhouse + Ashkirk U.F.M.1 Then after a bite of lunch + changing horses + [sic] I drove to the Firs (Mrs S. much better2), Yarrowford, BdMeadows, Ettrickbank Mill, Curror Street + Heathpark. Got invitation for Conan Doyle’s meeting3 on 27th. Broke the tap of the supply pipe of gas stove + had to burn off the gas at the meter.
1 Ashkirk United Free Manse was to the east of the Selkirk-Hawick road. It is visible on Ordnance Survey six inch Selkirkshire Sheet XVI.NW & NE, published 1900. The house was later occupied by W H Ogilvie and his family.
2 Dr Muir had been attending Alice Smith née Paterson (1863-1943) of The Firs, Selkirk (wife of Patrick ‘Pat’ Smith (1858-1930), advocate and sheriff-substitute) who had given birth on 13 January 1904 but had been unwell since.
3 The wooden bridge at Selkirk was destroyed by the great flood of 1902 and in 1904 locals organised a three-day event to raise funds for a new one. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) spent time at Selkirk supporting the fundraising. As it happens Conan Doyle was in Selkirk again that year when he opened the batting for the M.C.C., scoring 35, when they played at Philiphaugh on 24 June 1904.
[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 