3 April 1904 diary of Dr John Stewart Muir (1845-1938) of Selkirk

Heavy blasts of sleety rain with sunny breaks

Rose 6.30 + was down at breakfast first time since March 23^rd. My back is quite well. I never got rid of a severe attack so quickly but the briny taste of the salycitates in my mouth quite takes away my appetite. Saw only half a dozen. town cases + drove to Philiphaugh to see Grace.¹ Had lunch there. Dr Barr², his wife + daughter, Chas. + Walt. Dunlop³ + a man Brock from Faughill⁴ were there. Went on to Broadmeadows where I saw Willie Eddie Hamilton⁵ + pulled a tooth for R J.⁶ Had tea. Walked round to old Jo. Rutherford.⁷

¹ 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.

² There is not enough information given to identify Dr Barr with any confidence.

³ Charles Walter Dunlop (1846-1922) of Whitmuirhall and his son Walter Dunlop (1871-1941).

⁴ Hugh Bulkeley Price Brock (1871-1928), farmer, at Faughill, Bowden, Roxburghshire, 1911 Census (in Dunbartonshire 1891 and 1901). Sometime of Brasenose College, Oxford, and later of Bannachra, Helensburgh, he was the son of Henry Brock, master Turkey Red dyer, and Elizabeth Slade Price, married 1863 at Liverpool. Hugh Brock left £100,445 16s 6d.

⁵ Edward William ‘Willie Eddie’ Hamilton (1893-), son of Charles Gipps Hamilton (1857–1955) and Anna Gertrude Montgomerie Hamilton née Lang (1864-1937). Edward was therefore the grandson of Hugh Morris Lang and Margaret Lang née Graham.

⁶ Perhaps Robert James ‘RJ’ Lang (1855–1914), married to Jane Eliza Scott Plummer (1858–1901), father of Hugh Cyril Lang (1881-1957), Cicely Jane Lang (1883-1951), who appears elsewhere in these diaries, and Josephine Margaret Lang (1884–1982), later Taylor of Chipchase Castle, Barrasford, Northumberland.

⁷ John Rutherford (about 1826-1904), garden labourer, was recorded at Old Broadmeadows in the 1901 Census with Betsy Rutherford, his stepdaughter and housekeeper. His wife Isabella Hogarth had died some time previously.

[Source: Scottish Borders Archives & Local History Service SBA/657/7, Dr J S Muir of Selkirk, medical practitioner, journal for 1904]