The contents are as follows.

(i) Letter of Lord Justice Clerk Bellenden to James VI, relating his interview with Queen Elizabeth, London, 1 March, 1584/1585. See 'Calendar of State Papers relating to Scotland, 1584-1585', pages 560, 564, 565. (Folio 1.)

(ii) Letter of Francis Stewart, titular Earl of Bothwell, to Colonel William Urie, relating to an attack upon a sentinel, Dumfries, 1670. (Folio 3.)

(iii) ‘Mr. Gidean Guthry his aco.ͭͭ of letters’, February-March, 1706. Discharge dated at ‘Kirktoun of Fetteressoe’, 1706. (Folio 4.)

(iv) Royal letter to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, 1706-1707. Sign Manual of Queen Anne, countersigned by the Earl of Mar. Wafer signet. (Folio 5.)

(v) Two documents addressed to ‘Monseigneur’ by naval officers, namely Captain de Hennot, recording his services in Canada and elsewhere from 1684, and desiring further promotion, 13 September 1724; and Heuzey de Grandmont, recording his services from 1689 to 1727 and desiring increase of pay. In French. Both stamped ‘Cabinet d’Hozier’. (Folio 7.)

(vi) Letter signed by the Duc de Choiseul relating to the payment of the "pension d’oblat" Versailles, 1768. In French.

(vii) Official Minute on the services of certain soldiers in India, addressed to "Monsieur [Jean] Law de Lauriston, Chevalier de l’ordre militaire de St. Louis, Brigadier des armées du Roy, Gouverneur-Genéral des Établissements français aux Indes", Pondicherry, 1774. Endorsed: ‘Vu, Law de Lauriston’. In French. (Folio 13.)

(viii) Letter, signed by Major-General Robert Skene of Hallyards, intimating his intention of standing again as parliamentary candidate for Fife, 1780. (Folio 15.)

(ix) Order for books by the 7th Lord Elibank, 1787. (Folio 17.)

(x) "Lettres d’ Annoblissement pour le Senoir Dominique Cabarrus. Copié sur l’original en parchemin", 1789. In French. Stamped "Cabinet d’Hozier". (Folio 18.)

(xi) Official copy, signed by General Huvot ‘commandant la subdivision de La Vendée’, of an order by the ‘conseil executif provisoire’ appointing Citoyen Jean Martineau Adjutant-General in the Leeward Islands, 1793. In French. (Folio 20.)

(xii) Three letters of General Bedos to Citoyen Gassouville, Chef de Brigade, Directeur d’Artillerie au Cap, 1794. (Folio 21.)

(xiii) Correspondence of John Campbell, Writer to the Signet, a commissioner of Lord Macdonald, on the subject of the construction of roads through Arisaig, Glenelg, and Skye, 1803-1804, including a letter of Thomas Telford, 1803, and a printed appeal for subscriptions and subscription list for the Glenelg road, 1807. (Folio 27.)

(xiv) Letter of Thomas Roscoe relating to literary work, 1820. (Folio 36.)

(xv) Letter of introduction, 1824, from Professor Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, Göttingen, addressed to ‘Dr Duncan, Junior, Professor of Materia Medica, Edinburgh’. (Folio 38).

(xvi) Letter of Charles, 5th Marquess of Queensberry, 1837. (Folio 40.)

(xvii) Letter of George Bancroft, the American historian, Newport, Rhode Island, 1851. (Folio 42.)

(xviii) "The poet’s wish" and ‘The response of the oracle’, two poems of Allan Ramsay, in the poet’s autograph. ‘The response of the oracle’, which is a fourth verse of, and a reply to, ‘The poet’s wish’, does not appear to have been printed. For "The poet’s wish" with several modifications, see Ramsay, ‘Works’ (1851-1853), volume I, page 185. (Folio 44.)

(xix) Frank of Lord Byron, with his seal, on a sheet addressed to his sister, the Honourable Mrs Leigh, 1815. (Folio 46.)

(xx) Letter of R Chambers to Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, 1826. (Folio 47.)

(xxi) Letter of Charles Hope, Lord President of the Court of Session, 1841. (Folio 48.)

(xxii) Two pages of manuscript in the handwriting of Thomas De Quincey. (Folio 50.)

(xxiii) Letter of Thomas Carlyle to Professor Blackie, 1855, declining to address the students of the University of Edinburgh. "What profit could there be to the good young men themselves in any amount of oratory, tho’ an Angel Gabriel appeared on the stump to address them!". (Folio 51.)

(xxiv) Letter, 1887, of Florence Nightingale to Dr Joseph Bell, Edinburgh, thanking him for his ‘Notes on Surgery for Nurses’. (Folio 52.)

(xxv) Letter of the Reverend Dr Charles Rogers, Edinburgh, 1889. (Folio 54.)

(xxvi) Letter of Joseph Crawhall, Newcastle, 1889. (Folio 56.)

(xxvii) Letter, undated, of W E Henley about an edition of Burns. (Folio 58.)

(xxviii) Letter of Professor W Knight to Dr Bell containing a story about ‘Rab’ (Dr John Brown) and Professor Bain, 1901. (Folio 60.)