The item is a bound manuscript book, with cloth-covered boards. The volume contains the former front cover with the bookseller's details: The Cowdenbeath Manuscript Music Book, Williamson, Music seller, Cowdenbeath. The cloth board, inside front cover, has a handwritten title-page: 'A collection of / highland bagpipe music, / containing strathspeys / marches quicksteps / laments hornpipes / highland schottisches, jigs / reels polkas waltzes and country dances / Arranged and Written by / Alexander Wallace.
The pages are numbered, and some tunes are noted as arranged by A.W., Alex. Wallace, or A. Wallace.
The volume contains some loose material too. One is stamped Kelty and Blairadam Pipe Band, B.L. Hamilton, Pipe major, while another has a printed slip attached, headed National Coal Board.