The correspondents are political, literary, and clerical celebrities, chiefly English, of the nineteenth century. A number of letters are addressed to Sir Thomas Grainger Stewart, physician, to whom the collection was presented by Mrs Bishop in 1886 (MS.7178, number 1). Most of the letters are of interest only as autographs but a few have further biographical or other interest, especially those of Thomas Arnold, Lord Byron, Thomas Erskine of Linlathen, Harriet Martineau, and Hannah More, in MS.7178.