Colder today + more wind. It began to snow in the forenoon + there was quite a gale with sleety small hail very sore on one’s face. Found Mrs Lang1 rather better + at night May Lang2 wired that I did not need to come up. Got wire to Mrs Elliot, Newhouse3 + drove over. Mr + Mrs Geo. Roberts4 gave a ball in the Victoria Hall which was a great success. Helen + Dora5 went. I was there from about 10 till 12.30 but felt rather out of it. Danced only one dance viz. with Emma Downs, Jim Roberts’ fiancée.6 Quite fresh + raining at night. Had to lend Mrs Roberts 2 bottles of whiskey [sic].
1 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 Margaret Graham ‘May’ Lang (1861-1958), daughter of Hugh Morris Lang and Margaret Lang née Graham. A cyclist. Born Largs, Ayrshire.
3 Joan Elliot née Lambert (about 1853-), wife of James Elliot (about 1845-), farmer, Tenant Occupier of the farm and house of Newhouse, Lilliesleaf. Born Bowden and Castleton respectively, they had married 28 June 1876 at Bowden, Roxburghshire.
4 This will be George Roberts (about 1842-1910) and his second wife Annie Elizabeth Folds née Briggs, who died 5 January 1908 at Dandswall, Selkirk.
5 Dr Muir’s two youngest daughters Helen Frances ‘Mousey’ Muir and Andrina Dorothy ‘Dora’ Muir.
6 Catherine Emily ‘Emma’ Downes (1884-1949), married later in 1904 to James Alexander ‘Jim’ Roberts (1879-1948). They left not long afterwards for New Zealand where they had two children, John Edward Downes Roberts (1906-1985) and Dorothy Violet Roberts, later MacMillan (1909-).
[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 