The contents are as follows:

(i) Letter signed by James III and countersigned by Archbishop Schevez, to Bona, Duchess of Milan, asking her to take steps for the release of Prospero de' Medici, his Prothonotary, imprisoned in her state, Edinburgh, 1477 (folio 1);

(ii) Letter of Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, to his son and successor William, in Paris, reprimanding him for idleness, undated (folio 2);

(iii) Letter of Alexander Leslie, afterwards Earl of Leven, to John, Lord Sinclair, regarding the settlement of the Northern shires, ?1641 (folio 8);

(iv) Letter of the 1st Earl of Albemarle, 1694 (folio 13);

(v) Two letters of the 4th Earl (1st Jacobite Duke) of Perth, ?1677, 1708, the former, addressed to Lauderdale, apparently relating to the raising of the Highland Host (folio 16); and one of 'L D de Perth', presumably Mary, his third wife, addressed, according to an attached note, to the Princesse de Vaudemont, St Germain-en-Laye, undated (folio 21);

(vi) Three letters of Frances, Duchess of Richmond and Lennox, 'La belle Stuart', to Sir Robert Clayton, on business, 1672-1673, undated (folio 24);

(vii) Letters of Viscount Sidmouth to Dr Adam Clarke, assuring him of access to the public records as editor of the ‘Foedera’, answering his appeal in favour of Elizabeth Fenning, and discussing the political situation, 1811-1827 (folio 30);

(viii) Printed letter, signed by Marshal Macdonald, to the Comte de Cessac, relating to the Order of the Iron Crown of Austria, 1817 (folio 39);

(ix) Letter of Thomas Hood, probably to Archibald Constable, asking for his help in obtaining contributions of Scott, Wilson, and others to a projected collection of poems by living authors, 1823 (folio 40);

(x) Facsimile, issued by the Philharmonic Society in 1867, of the title page, in Beethoven's handwriting, of the full score of the Choral Symphony composed by him for the Society in 1823 (folio 42);

(xi) Reminiscences of life in Glasgow in the late eighteenth century, by James Hopkirk (see also MS.3062), undated (folio 43);

(xii) Letter of Thomas Campbell, apparently to the editor of a review, criticizing Lady Charlotte Bury's ‘Diary illustrative of the times of George IV’, 1838-1839 (folio 45);

(xiii) Note of the Duke of Wellington, 1844 (folio 46);

(xiv) Letter of Dean Stanley to the Reverend Sir James Cameron Lees, 1877 (folio 47);

(xv) Letters of the Duke of Beaufort to William Hayman Cummings regarding the Catch Club, etc., 1885, 1893-1896, transferred from MS.1871 (folio 49);

(xvi) Letter of Lord Roberts, Mandalay, 1892 (folio 59);

(xvii) Letter of Thomas J Hodson to Dr Stirton, 1902, forwarding Wesleyan class-tickets of 1803-18044 and French ‘assignats’ issued under the Laws of 1792-1793, with explanatory notes (folio 62);

(xviii) Letter of Janet Macleod Rolland, Montreal, to Dr Stirton, 1912 (folio 65);

(xix) Letter of Sir Thomas Innes of Leamey to Dr Stirton regarding the coat-of arms of Cardinal Innes, 1921 (folio 75);

(xx) Letters of Frederick E Weatherly to Dr Stirton, 1927, and to William Hayman Cummings, undated, with poems of Weatherly, undated, a letter of his widow to Dr Stirton, 1929, etc. (folio 77);

(xxi) Autograph manuscript by John Buchan of a story, 'Ho, the Merry Masons', 1933 (folio 89).