The papers include:

(i) Notes by David Herd on Scottish poetry, 1801, [?1804], undated (folios 1-18);

(ii) Criticisms by David Herd and others of David Irving’s ‘Lives of the Scottish poets’, [?1804] (folios 17-56);

(iii) Papers connected with Sir Walter Scott’s inquiries into Alexander Pope, 1821, undated (folios 61-63);

(iv) List of works of C R Maturin, perhaps drawn up in connexion with a project that Scott should edit them (folio 64);

(v) Copy of a letter of Richard Heber to Charles Henry Hartshorne regarding calumnies on their characters, 1826 (folio 66);

(vi) Sketch of a plan for a history of England (folio 70).