The notebook is inscribed (folio 2 recto) 'Original Songs By Donald Macpherson – Dedicated to Alexander Halley Esqre MD 21 Nov. 1848'.

Later versions of many items appear in MSS.14891 and 14894. The manuscript is water-marked 1822.

The contents are as follows.

(i) “I’ve pined and breathed infected air”, 2 stanzas (folio 5 recto);

(ii) ‘All hail, lovely Laggan! Thou sole spot of earth’, 4 stanzas (folio 7 recto);

(iii) ‘Innis, fhir nan iomad eol’, 8 lines (folio 8 verso);

(iv) ‘Often through my native glen’, 4 quatrains + chorus (folio 9 recto);

(v) “Ema, though stern Fate’s decree”, 4 quatrains + chorus (folio 11 recto);

(vi) “Give misers their treasures to count oer and o’er”, 4 quatrains + chorus (folio 12 verso);

(vii) ‘The World has many things I love’, 6 stanzas (folio 13 recto);

(viii) ‘Ma chi thu an sluagh eile beud’, 8 lines. With original by Saint Bernard beginning ‘Si quid mali vides in alio’ (folio 16 verso);

(ix) ‘Go care, with thy frowns where thy frowns are more welcome’, 4 stanzas (folio 17 recto);

(x) ‘Unstained as a friend, unsubdued as a foe’, 5 stanzas. ‘Caledonia’ (folio 18 recto);

(xi) “Since in Eden’s garden”, 5 quatrains + chorus. ‘Imitated from…Rob Donn’ (folio 20 recto);

(xii) ‘Say why should not poor bodies kiss?’ 6 stanzas (folio 23 recto);

(xiii) ‘The first time I saw thee I loved thee’, 3 quatrains + chorus (folio 25 recto);

(xiv) ‘See yon lovely, lovely rose’, 2 stanzas. From Ariosto’s “La verginella è simile alla rosa” (folio 26 recto);

(xv) ‘One morn I took my way to the wild wood’, 50 lines (folio 27 verso);

(xvi) “‘S airidh do chliu, Thobair ghrinn”, 28 lines (folio 32 recto);

(xvii) ‘Come send round the claret’, 5 stanzas. ‘The Gathering of the Earl of Mar, 1715’ (folio 33 recto);

(xviii) ‘O lay me by the streams that glide’, 3 quatrains. “The Aged Bard’s Wish” (folio 35 recto);

(xix) ‘O Spring that ilka spring surpasses!’ 6 stanzas. From Lobkowitz’s Latin poem on Karlsbad. See above, folio 32 recto, and MS.14891, page 102 (folio 36 recto);

(xx) ‘Twixt the man who has riches, to use or abuse’, 3 stanzas (middle of 37 recto);

(xxi) English imitations of three Latin epigrams (folio 38 recto);

(xxii) “Bho n’ tha sinn air tachairt gu ‘r n’ arsenal chuir uainn”, 4 quatrains (folio 39 recto);

(xxiii) “S’ clarchleas an saoghal gu leir”, 30 lines. From Shakespeare, ‘As You Like It’, II.vii.139 (folio 39 verso);

(xxiv) ‘Caithemid, mo chailinn chaoin’, 5 quatrains. From Catullus (middle of folio 40);

(xxv) “Dh fhalbh Mari gu tùirseach gu bruaichean na Danuib”, 3 stanzas (folio 41 recto);

(xxvi) ‘Tu quicunque es, qui Sceptra Tenes’, 14 lines (folio 41 verso);

(xxvii) “Ge bith thus’ tha t-uachran mor”, 15 lines (folio 42 recto);

(xxviii) ‘Am fear gun uaill a inbhe mhoir’, 10 lines (folios 42 verso);

(xxix) ‘Do chorp seang cho fallain eatrom’, 12 stanzas + chorus (folio 43 recto);

(xxx) ‘An sguel thainig bho thuath oirnn’, 10 stanzas (folio 44 recto);

(xxxi) “‘Ged tha sinn togarrach air ceol”, 4 stanzas (folio 46 recto);

(xxxii) “Cia iomad mile dhe m’ chuid iochdran aircail”, 29 lines (folio 47 recto);

(xxxiii) “Tha miltean de m’ iochdarain sinnt’”, 38 lines (folio 47 verso);

(xxxiv) “An cuimhne leats’ a Mhari”, 4 stanzas (middle of folio 48 recto);

(xxxv) ‘Seinnar suas air chruit nan teudan’, 8 quatrain + chorus (bottom of folio 48 verso);

(xxxvi) “Latha dhom ‘s mi air an airidh”, 4 quatrains + chorus (folio 49 verso);

(xxxvii) ‘Ge do their na feara faoin’, 4 quatrains + chorus (folio 50 recto);

(xxxviii) ‘Cearcag riamhach nan carn’, 3 quatrains + chorus (folio 50 verso);

(xxxix) “Feuch miltean bla’ a cheitain mhaoth”, 18 lines (folio 51 recto);

(xl) ‘S binn seinn loin Doire-charn!’ 9 quatrains (folio 51 verso);

(xli) “Gu tiamhaidh bochd truadh, ‘s an trom fhuar-dhealt air eididh”, 5 stanzas (folio 52 verso);

(xlii) ‘Ge fad air chuairt mi gur tric mo smuantean’, 11 stanzas (folio 53 verso);

(xliii) “Air madinn chuin ‘s mhios ‘am bruchd”, 4 stanzas (folio 56 verso);

(xliv) “Tho’ gay are the fields and tho’ green are the vallies”, 4 stanzas. ‘Composed during a walk on the Banks of the Wear, near Durham, July 1834’ (folio 58 recto); (xlv) “Up! Follow me! I’m Gothred Doo”, 2 stanzas (folio 59 recto);

(xlvi) “I’m the Mavis of Clan Cattan”, 1 quatrains + chorus (folio 60 recto);

(xlvii) ‘Where is that spirit fled that mortal clay’, 10 lines (folio 62 verso);

(xlviii) “An am na dubhlachd, ‘s’e glean an t-sugraidh”, 8 lines (folio 64 recto).