The journal comprises thirty-two newsletters, each written in a small notebook and each covering a period of up to four months. They record an eventful social life, divided between the Queen Street home of Robert Allan in Edinburgh and Brathay Hall on Windermere, where John and Jessy eventually settled. The Brathay Hall journals (MSS.8837-8838, 8842-8848, 8850-8857, 8861-8863) incidentally mention the poet Charles Lloyd, who was their neighbour, as well as Constable, Raeburn, Farrington, and others, who were their guests. The Queen Street diaries (MSS.8832-8837, 8839-8841, 8849, 8855, 8859-8860) describe the daily round of a well-to-do Edinburgh family and its circle of friends, among them the Learmonths, the Homes, the Cleghorns, and the Reids.