The contents are as follows.

(i) Letters of R B Sheridan, undated (folio 1);

(ii) Letters of Alexander Wilson, the ornithologist, to Charles Orr, 1799-1802, undated, with a silhouette of Wilson; most of the letters are published in A P Paton, ‘Wilson the Ornithologist’ (London, 1863) (folio 4);

(iii) Lord Byron's family: bills of his mother, 1803, and of the poet himself, 1811, and letters of his daughter, 1839, and wife, 1844 (folio 33);

(iv) Letter of James Hogg to Robert McTurk regarding “The Queen's Wake” (Edinburgh, 1813), and a eulogy, 1828, on the gift of song (folio 37);

(v) Letters, 1819-1820, of Dr John Jamieson, on Scots words (folio 39);

(vi) Letter and fragment of a story of John Galt and two letters to him, 1834, 1838, undated (folio 41);

(vii) Letters of William Wordsworth, 1839, undated, and directions for a walk in the Lake District, probably made out for the Reverend John Park, Doctor of Divinity, Minister of St Andrews (folio 47);

(viii) Autograph manuscript by Thomas De Quincey of 'Recollections of Grasmere', as published in “Tait's Magazine”, volume vi (1839), page 569, and letter, undated (folio 52);

(ix) Letters, undated, of Mazzini and notes issued by the Comitato Nazionale (folio 54);

(x) Letter (incomplete) of Samuel Carter Hall, and two of his wife, undated (folio 60);

(xi) Letters to Sir James Clark, Baronet, Court Physician, from Lord Melbourne and Lady Lyttelton, on the birth of the Princess Royal, 1840, and from Sir Thomas Wyse and Samuel Rogers on social engagements, undated (folio 63);

(xii) Letter of James Knowles, lexicographer, undated, and two of his son James Sheridan Knowles, 1841, undated; that of 1841 appears to be addressed to Thomas Mulock, father of Mrs Craik (folio 68);

(xiii) Sketches by B R Haydon for his picture of the Anti-Slavery Convention, ?1840, and for an illustration to ‘Paradise Lost’, with notes, undated (folio 72);

(xiv) Letters to Thomas Mulock, 1841, and his daughter Dinah Maria Mulock, 1854, ?1859 (folio 74);

(xv) Letters of Lord Cockburn, 1843-1844 (folio 83);

(xvi) Letters to George Mossman, sculptor, 1844, undated (folio 86);

(xvii) Letters to Stephen Williamson, the Glasgow book-collector, from Thomas Wright, 1846-1847, M A Lower, 1860, Edward Edwards, the librarian, 1861, the Reverend John Payne Collier, 1862, and others (folio 88);

(xviii) Letters, 1846, 1850, to Peter Miller, Glasgow, from Lord Kinnaird, John Gibson Lockhart, Edward P Bouverie, and John Bright, regarding a petition (folio 96);

(xix) Letter of Elihu Burritt, 1847, and an envelope designed for Ocean Penny Postage, suggested by him, bearing postmark 1861 (folio 100);

(xx) Letter of Thomas Carlyle, 1848, and letters to him and his wife from Dickens, Browning, Leigh Hunt, Ruskin, and others, 1856-1858, undated (folio 102);

(xxi) Letters, 1849, to James E Cumming, Secretary of Glasgow University Conservative Club, from the Earl of Eglinton, Lord Stanley, and Wordsworth (folio 135);

(xxii) Letters, 1849, undated, to Frederick William Fairholt from Charles Roach Smith and Thomas Wright, regarding engravings for their writings (folio 139);

(xxiii) Letters to Gerald Massey, 1851-1858, undated, with a poem of Massey, undated. The writers include Charles Kingsley, 1851, Tennyson, 1854-1855, Kossuth, 1854, Louis Blanc, Freiligrath, and Carlyle, 1855, Walter Savage Landor, ?1856, and Ruskin, undated (folio 141);

(xxiv) Letters, 1851, of Arthur Perceval, Little Bookham, on experiments in boat-building (folio 166);

(xxv) Letters, 1852, 1881, probably all to Sir Joseph Noel Paton (folio 172);

(xxvi) Letters, 1863, undated, to W S Ridpath from musical and theatrical people unable to make use of his work (folio 176);

(xxvii) Letters, both probably to the Reverend Isaac Gould, from Stanyan Bigg, 1854, and the Reverend Morley Punshon, 1860 (folio 182);

(xxviii) Letters, 1858, 1867, of Frank Buckland (folio 184);

(xxix) Letters, 1889-1903, to Edward Caird, chiefly on Balliol College matters (folio 188).