Joseph Train’s letters and the accompanying documents deal with demonology, the legends, antiquities, and agriculture of Dumfriesshire and Galloway, gipsies, Buckhaven fishermen, and legends and customs of the Isle of Man and of Skye. Many were intended to afford illustrative anecdotes for Sir Walter Scott's novels and some were printed in Scott’s notes. The latter part of the volume contains a large number of miscellaneous papers relating to the Highlands, Rob Roy, the Jacobite Risings of 1715 and 1745 (with copies of contemporary documents), and the Porteous Riot, much of the Highland material being in the autograph of Dr Mackintosh Mackay (folios 319, 352, 424, 457). Included is a letter of Sir Robert Peel, 1829, requesting Scott to sit for his portrait to Sir Thomas Lawrence (folio 469).