Can anyone help me decipher the inscription on this 19th century Scottish book?

Factual Questions
1

My neighbors gave me a copy of an 1890 edition of Whistle Binkie: A Collection of Songs for the Social Circle. It has an inscription inside I am trying to decipher and I’d really appreciate any help with it.

A picture of the inscription
I upped the contrast and sharpened this one

So far I think it says:

Thanks in advance for any help :slight_smile:

2

It’s probably Mr Minchin

And the second word in the line you are curious about is “Dumfriesshire” - so it may be a town there, where Mr Minchin is from.

Turns out to probably be Lockerbie

3

I looked at the photo before reading your interpretation and got:

To Mr. John Kidd
From his mother’s friend
Mr. Murchie
Lockerbie [something]shire
Scotland
14 May 1890

A quick google reveals the -shire might be Dumfriesshire.

ETA: Damn.

4

Mr Minchin appears to be from Lockerbie which is in the County of Dumphries, Scotland.

5

The lack of a dot over the i in Minchin,when all the other i’s are dotted, looks to me that it is an e and the final letter also looks like an e rather than an n, so “Mr Menchie”

6

I think it’s Murchie, which is a Scottish name. (As in the Canadian tea company.)

Compare the “u” and final “r” in “Dumfriesshire”, for example.

7

I think you are right, ur is a better fit for the writing than en.

8

I think it might be Mrs Murchie, if you compare that to the Mr. in the first line, there seems to be an extra bit after the “r”. Would it not make sense in 1890’s Scotland that his mother’s friend would be a woman?
Roddy

9

Well? Are the songs any good?

10

I have it on expert authority (my Scottish wife) that the words are ‘Lockerbie, Dumfrieshire’, a place in Scotland

11

Thanks everyone, so much, for your interpretations. I’m really glad to have the place interpreted as Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire, because my brain kept breaking when I tried to read it :slight_smile: If anyone has any other interpretations, such as the Mr or Mrs’ name, I’d love to hear it.

I couldn’t say as I haven’t had much of a chance to read through it (I was just given the book this past weekend) but I did find that you can read the book online if you are curious!

12

Just checked it out. They don’t seem to have a lot of use for musical notation, it appears.