The distant hills were white today. I was feeling much better as far as my catarrh was concerned but I was seized with a very severe spasm of lumbago after breakfast. I took it on my way to the kitchen to warm my feet. With great difficulty I got into the dog-cart1 + drove to Newhouse to see Mrs Elliot2 + had to be helped into the trap when leaving there. Did not go out again. It was fair but a cold wind.
1 Dr Muir’s Mo-Car (manufactured since the 1890s by the Mo-Car Syndicate which was to become the Arrol-Johnston Car Company Ltd. in 1905) was a ‘dogcart’ – i.e. with transverse seats back-to-back. Since Dr Muir was still calling it a Mocar [sic] in 1913 it is reasonable to assume it was actually a Mo-Car, not an Arrol-Johnston. However Dr Muir calling it a trap here would seem to suggest that he actually took a pony and trap to Newhouse, even if he had by this date acquired a motorised version. As this transcription endeavours to plug the gap in the published diaries (currently between 1904 and mid-1914) it may at some time be possible to answer this question.
2 Since January 1904 Dr Muir had been attending Joan Elliot née Lambert (about 1853-1929), 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.
[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 