The notes include biographical material, notes on his sources (especially the influence on him of mediaeval French poetry and of Boccaccio), and notes on his various works, including several of ‘The Canterbury tales’, ‘Troilus and Cressyde’, and the ‘Boke of the Duchess’.

The notes do not form a complete series, as some of the sections are fragmentary. It seems likely that they are part of 'a historical course on English Literature which began with Anglo-Saxon Poetry and went on through French romance and allegory to Chaucer', given by Grierson to the first year English class during his years as professor at Aberdeen; see 'Sir Herbert Grierson' by David Daiches in the ‘Proceedings of the British Academy’, volume xivi (1965).

Folios 53-60 and 83-87 are typescripts of papers read at Philadelphia, 29 December 1934, and at Cincinnati, 1 January 1936.