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Private Notes
Lord Moorcroft is trying to persuade the Council to put up a memorial to the fallen of the 1914-18 war. But there is a section of the community who feel that the money would be better spent on such necessities as street lamps than on what the local schoolmaster calls 'vast marble eyesores'.
Kevin McDonald is Tannochbrae's shot-putting hope for the Highland Games. He is big, handsome and good-natured, but something brings about a change in his temperament. Finlay's efforts to help him only earn him a black eye. The partners at Arden House each have their own theory but neither can convince the other that he is right. It takes a near tragedy to provide the truth.
Robert Finlay visits his son Alan at Tannochbrae for the first time. Left to his own devices for much of the time he forms an association with Mrs. Hamilton. Mr. Finlay thinks her a kind and generous person: the Doctor thinks exactly the opposite.
Alan Finlay is a poor sailor. So when he is called out to visit old Strachan, the lighthouse keeper, who has spiked his finger, he dreads the trip. But Strachan is far worse than anticipated and Finlay must be both doctor and nurse - cooped up with Strachan and two other keepers in a spot cut off by gales from the outside world. Dr. Cameron is equally displeased as he has to cope with both his own and his partner's work while the latter is stormbound.
Angus Hendry, like many others in Tannochbrae, has been out of work for three years. The partners at Arden House each have their own theory on the best way to help him. What begins as an academic argument soon becomes a practical test of who is right.
Jamie looks to young Willie Kemp to help him over his bout of crematorium melancholia.
Dr. Finlay dreams of a free National Health Service, but Dr. Cameron is sceptical and fears the extra workload free health care might bring. But as usual the older man's attitude is not as rigid as it seems, and when a top consultant is summoned to Tannochbrae to see a rich hypochondriac Cameron is not above instituting his own 'Medical Service'.
The depression of the late 1920's was a time of sacrifice. Sacrifice for food, for principle and for solidarity.
Peter MacNab is a medical student of great promise who for one reason or another seems to have lost all confidence in himself. But this changes when Dr. Cameron asks him to examine an ailing Dr. Finlay.
There are times when a private patient is more trouble than he's worth. Not many would dispute a doctor's moral right to be paid for services rendered, but how far should Finlay press this right in a case of a man whose wife has received urgent medical attention and does not feel inclined to settle the account?
When Willie Campbell returns after supposedly serving in the Army in India he finds that his wife Jeannie has given birth to a child. Naturally there is a domestic explosion and Dr. Finlay becomes very concerned about the effect on the baby's health.
Hugh Armitage decides to stay at Lochend Guest House for a nice long holiday because of its reputation as ""one of the healthiest spots west of Dumfries"". But when he finds himself in the midst of an outbreak of food poisoning his opinion of Tannochbrae changes completely.
John MacEwan, one time concert singer and now professional loafer, comes into conflict with Aldo Narduzzi, an amateur opera singer. Caught up in the quarrel is young Tommy MacEwan, whose stubborn case of acne is causing Dr. Finlay a certain amount of concern.
Annie Laurie sets the tongues of Tannochbrae wagging when she takes in Willie Gillespie as a lodger.
Dr. Cameron and Dr. Finlay successfully deliver Kate Sinclair's first child. Later Finlay warns Kate and her husband that it would almost certainly be fatal for Kate to have another child. The resulting marital problem is a particularly acute one.
School doctor Fay Beresford targets the primitive toilet facilities at the local school, which she insists must be replaced by modern plumbing. It is a task at which both the Arden House doctors and Dr. Snoddie have failed in the past. However, Fay's forceful personality and good looks stir up unheard of activity in the town. Only Dr. Cameron seems to be sitting on the fence.
Janet is preoccupied: it is the jam making season. Hordes of small boys are beating a path to Arden House bartering old jam jars for pennies while the air is thick with bees attracted to the jam, much to the discomfort of two physicians busy healing themselves.
A girl is thrown from her horse and knocked unconscious trying to cross a river in which Alan Finlay is fishing. When she comes round her memory is gone. The partners decide that she must stay at Arden House while she recovers from her injuries and amnesia. Both men, Finlay in particular, are attracted to her, but Janet does not share their admiration for their uninvited guest.
