The contents include: a song, 'Come all brave boys of the cappen trade', scribbled on the back of a draft deed of the seventeenth century (folio 52 verso); a manuscript copy of a pamphlet, ‘An Account of the Engagement on the Sheriff-Moor’, printed by Robert Freebairn (Perth, 1715), reproduced by Robert Patten in his ‘History of the late Rebellion’ (London, 1717), page 203, but not otherwise known (folio 25); a letter, 1746, of Lord Kames regarding David Hume's difficulties with the Annandale family; letters, 1752, of Allan Ramsay, the painter, Sir Alexander Lindsay, Baronet of Evelick, and the Earl of Balcarres, regarding Lindsay's opposition to Ramsay marrying his daughter (folios 177-181); letters addressed to the Earl of Buchan, 1780-1813 (folios 88-99, 103, 142); correspondence, 1795, regarding George Chalmers' work on Lord Hailes (folios 109-112); letters, 1798-1803, of Henry Dundas (Lord Melville) on public affairs, many of them apparently addressed to David Scott of Dunninald, a Director of the East India Company (folios 119-137); and three letters, 1832, undated, of James Hogg (folios 159-163).