Got an urgent wire this morning from Crook Cottage1 + asking me to send Wilson2 if I could not go myself. There was also a message to Grace [?] Steel3 so I decided to venture. My back was still painful but much better. It was a windy day with severe blasts of snow + sleet + fine intervals. Walked down Forest Road to Buccleuch Road where Baptie4 picked me up driving Macaulay5 in the dog cart.6 Before starting I attended Mrs Jas. Lawton, Elmrow who had a daughter.7 Got away about 12. Took some lunch for self + Baptie. Called at Bowhill where Mrs Cruickshank8 gave a [sic] me a nice hot cup of coffee + I took off my boots + kept my feet pretty warm. We got a terrible blizzard between Gilmanscleuch + Newburgh. The fine hail stung our faces like millions of minute needles. It iced from [?] Tushielaw. Found that Mrs Johnston has developed tubercle in both apices. Got home about 7.30. Wilson saw Ann Dobson, Elmrow9 for me.
1 Dr Muir had been attending Mary Johnstone née Hewitson (about 1853-1904), wife of William Johnstone, roadman, living at Crook Cottage..
2 John Wilson (about 1873-1916), M.B., medical practitioner, of Kirkbrae, Selkirk.
3 Assume Grace Strang Steel (1884-1954), daughter of William Strang Steel of Philiphaugh and Rosetta Edith Barber, daughter of the late Samuel Barber, formerly of Demerara and of Hillhead, County Antrim.
4 Thomas Baptie (1860-1929), driver and handyman for Dr Muir.
5 Macaulay was one of Dr Muir’s horses.
6 This seems to settle the argument as to whether Dr Muir is referring to a motorised or a horse-drawn dog-cart at this time – see Dr Muir’s diary entry for 30 March 1904.
7 Isabella Maud Lawton, born 1 April 1904 at 9 Elm Row, Selkirk, the daughter of James Lawton, shoemaker, and Justina Lawton née Weir. Her parents had married 28 December 1894 at Galashiels.
8 Margaret Cruickshank (1854-1923), housekeeper at Bowhill, Selkirk. Born Gamrie, Banffshire, she was the daughter of George Cruickshank and Margaret Cruickshank née Duff.
9 Anne Dobson (1887-), recorded with her family at Elm Row, Selkirk [1901 Census]. The daughter of John Dobson and Mary Dobson née Davidson, she had six brothers and sister at the time of that Census.
[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 