Dull morning + showery. Gale abated but there was rather more wind again at night. Jean1 if anything easier : pain better. The pneumonia is confined to the left side but there is bronchitis on the right. I was pretty busy. Drove in forenoon to Heatherly [sic], Dunsdale, Hospital, Greenhead + Rockville2. After lunch cycled to Whiterigg3 where Leila4 has shingles + I vaccinated also. Had fair run down in 45m but it took me 57 to come back. Found wire to Broadmeadows to pull tooth to Eddie Hamilton.5 Gave him Narcotile [?] but it did not work very well. Had some dinner there. Was met in Heatherly with a message to see John Simpson, Kilncroft, who is off his head.6 There was some rain when I was coming up from Bowden.
1 Jane Henderson Logan ‘Jean’ Muir, later Pike (1877-1941), Dr Muir’s eldest daughter, suffering from pneumonia at this time.
2 Rockville, No. 17 Hillside Terrace, much later occupied by Robert and Mary Currie and regularly attended by Dr Muir, does not appear under that name in the early 20th Century Valuation Rolls. This is not unusual, with new properties routinely experiencing a delay before their names appear in the Rolls.
3 Whiterigg, Bowden, grid reference NT56110,31430, proprietor John Corse Scott (1854-1919).
John Corse Scott suffered almost unbearable losses in the First World War and died not long after it. At the time Dr Muir noted “Got a terrible shock when Paul Cochrane ‘phoned me that John Scott died this morning. Poor John. His later years have been sadly darkened by his many losses. 2 sons in law, a daughter and 2 sons. I noted how broken down he looked on Tuesday week at Alex’s funeral.” [Dr Muir’s diary Saturday 29 March 1919.
The footnote at that time bears repetition “John Corse Scott (1854-1919) of Synton lost his daughter Violet Johnston Stewart in 1915 of a brain haemorrhage (after the death of her husband Herbert Eustace Hathorn Johnston Stewart, also in 1915) and his son John Michael Corse Scott died on 29 March 1917 in Greece. John Scott’s other son-in-law Captain Ian Forbes Mackay was killed 25 September 1914 at Loos-en-Gohelle, Pas de Calais, France, while his other son Alexander Corse Scott (1894-1919), Captain Royal Scots, died 13 March 1919 at Aboyne Hospital, Bellwood Road, Peterculter, Aberdeenshire. All six are memorialised on a single panel at Ashkirk.” [see https://www.calmview.eu/HUBCAT/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=SBA657%2f22%2f23&pos=2%5D
4 Leila Jane Corse Scott (1889–1980), daughter of John Corse Scott and Esther Jane Robson Scott née Scott (1853–1910).
6 Dr Muir had been attending Edward William ‘Eddie Willie’ Hamilton (1893-), son of Charles Gipps Hamilton (1857–1955) and Anna Gertrude Montgomerie Hamilton née Lang (1864-1937).
7 John Simpson (about 1869-1904), master tailor and clothier, recorded at Kilncroft, Selkirk in the early 20th Century Valuation Rolls and in the 1901 Census with his wife Catherine Craig Johnstone and children John (1898-), Robert Johnstone (1899-) and William (1901-). Simpson died later in 1904 after being hit by a train whilst staying at an asylum.
[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 