The contents are as follows.

(i) 'A night piece.' Published as 'Verses to the comet of 1811' in ‘The works of the Ettrick shepherd’ (London, 1873), edited by Thomas Thomson, page 398. The printed text varies slightly from the manuscript and omits the second stanza. (For another incomplete manuscript of this poem, see MS.4805, folio 102 verso.) There is a note of ownership, 1842, by Andrew Sinclair, the surgeon and naturalist. (Folio 1.)

(ii) Manuscript of the second half of 'The carle of Invertime' (‘Works’, page 359), dated 1828. It differs considerably from the published version. (Folio 3.)

(iii) Prayers for the Sabbath morning and evening, undated, apparently unpublished. (Folio 5.)

(iv) Letter of James Hogg to the composer John Clarke Whitfield, 1816, with the poem 'The lark', published (‘Works’, pages 411) as 'The skylark'. (Folio 7.)

(v) Letters of Hogg, 1822, 1824, one of which concerns his poem ‘Queen Hynde’. (Folio 9.)

(vi) Three letters to Allan Cunningham, 1835-1836, 1838, concerning Hogg and his wife (Folio 13.)