Most of the letters are addressed to General Sir James Russell and his wife. There are several written by Ann Murray Keith (the prototype of Mrs Bethune Baliol in Sir Walter Scott's ‘Chronicles of the Canongate’) to Christian Rutherford, 1808-1818, undated, containing many allusions to Scott.

Other writers are: Maria Edgeworth, 1818; John Gibson Lockhart, 1825, 1840-1841; Reverend Joseph Wolff, missionary, 1834, 1850, 1858; Mountstuart Elphinstone, 1837; Scott's sons, 1837, 1839; Francis, 9th Lord Napier, 1846-1847, 1853, 1859; the Duke of Wellington, 1851; and Charles Dickens, undated.

The collection also contains accounts, 1844-1845, of Sir James Russell's services and career, and records, 1858, of the Beefsteak Club, a social club of officers in garrison at Stirling.