The paintings are chiefly of Edinburgh and other places in Scotland; several were made in Corfu and Malta, and some in Italy, Sicily, and other Continental countries. According to a note of the donor (Adv.MS.34.8.1, folio iii), they were probably made between 1830 and 1850.

They are mounted - apparently not in chronological, and certainly not in topographical, order - in three albums, each of which contains a list of contents at the beginning.