Sharp frost + a lovely bright day with very slight wind, first W. + then N. It began to rain + snow at 6.20 p.m. Cycled to Tower Street, Forest Road, Philiphaugh, Broadmeadows (Mrs Lang away to Edinburgh1) + Bowerhope.2 The Loch was very calm with a ruffled surface here + there. All the hill tops were white with snow, the Megget valley being all covered. James Laidlaw3 on his way to Biggar Fair4 rowed across with the man + I took a pair of oars going over. Found Janet Laidlaw5 rather better. Mrs Hall from Houdshall6 was there. Got tea + had a delightful row across the loch again + a good run home calling at Whitehope7, Yarrowford + The Firs. The roads got soft in the sun but one could get a hard track in the shadows on the S. side of the road.
1 Assume Margaret Pattison Lang née Graham (1821-1914), widow of Hugh Morris Lang (1817-1900), banker and landed proprietor, of Largs, Ayrshire and later Broadmeadows, Selkirk. She was a a close friend of Dr Muir.
2 Bowerhope is on the south side of St Mary’s Loch and had a boathouse, see Ordnance Survey six inch Selkirkshire Sheet XIII.NE, published 1900. Dr Muir had been up there on 29 January 1924 to attend Janet Laidlaw, see that diary entry for more detail.
3 James Laidlaw, 55, farmer and head of household, was born Yarrow and living at Bowerhope, Yarrow, 1901 Census with Alexander Laidlaw and Janet (see below).
4 The Editor cannot readily find a reference to a fair at Biggar, Lanarkshire, in February 1904.
5 Janet Laidlaw, aged 53, was recorded at Bowerhope farmhouse, Yarrow, as housekeeper .
6 Mary L Hall née Laidlaw (about 1849-), wife of Thomas Hall, was recorded at Houdshall, Bowden, Roxburghshire, in the 1901 Census which also noted she was born Ettrick, Selkirkshire. She was Thomas Hall’s second wife (his first wife Alison Fox died at Southdean, Roxburghshire in 1888) and they were married in 1894 at Galashiels. Mary was born 17 January 1849 at Annelshope, Ettrick, the daughter of John Laidlaw and Isabella Laidlaw née Laidlaw. It is conceivable that Mary was a cousin of Janet, James and Alexander Laidlaw.
7 Assume Whitehope Farm, Yarrow, grid reference NGR NT356,279.
Continued on opposite page:
[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 