The contents are as follows.

(i) Contemporary copy of a 'Report of the committee from the commissioners of Shyres, 20 July 1653', concerning shire valuation and taxation in Scotland. (Folio 1.)

(ii) Manuscript of the first part of 'A journall of the siege and the taking of Buda, begun in June in the year 1686' (folio 2). To this is added a transcript in William Edmondstoune Aytoun's hand, apparently of the whole manuscript, in which he inaccurately dates the siege 1684, and an introduction in which he asserts that the manuscript was written by a member of the family of Keir of Kinmonth (folio 6).

(iii) Manuscript endorsed 'Paper relative to the Ecclesiastical disputes in Scotland, 1727'. It refers to reforms instituted in the Episcopal Church in Scotland by Bishop James Gadderar, and a subsequent schism in that church. (Folio 36.)

(iv) Copy of a letter dated 8 July 1746, from Norman Macleod of Macleod to Alexander MacDonald of Kingsburgh. Printed with slight variations in ‘The Lyon in Mourning’, volume ii, page 1, in ‘Scottish History Society’, volume xxi (1895). (Folio 46.)

(v) Copy of the speech made by Arthur Elphinstone, 6th Lord Balmerino, on the scaffold, 18 August 1746. Printed in ‘The Lyon in Mourning’, volume i, page 32, in ‘Scottish History Society’, volume xx (1895). (Folio 47.)