The contents are as follows:

(i) Manuscript of part of the first draft of an article, 'Banting on corpulence', published in “Blackwood's Magazine” November 1864 (folio 1);

(ii) Manuscripts, undated, of four apparently unconnected fragments on rhetoric, one of which appears to follow the plan outlined in 'Notes for a treatise on public speaking', 1860 (see MS.4928) (folios 4, 12, 19, 36);

(iii) Manuscripts, undated, of a note on 'Bands between sovereigns of Scotland and subjects' (folio 45), and of part of 'Chapter I' of a work on Scottish history (folio 47);

(iv) Manuscripts, undated, of a story, 'The modern Samson' (folio 49), and of the beginning of two stories, the first entitled "Uncle Philip's legacy" (folio 71), the second untitled (folio 77);

(v) Manuscripts of nine incomplete articles, 'Wet days', 1861-1862 (folio 80); three untitled articles, the first, circa 1862, on medical books (folio 86), the second, 1863, on London thieves (folio 92), and the third, circa 1864, on Earl Russell as Rector of Aberdeen University (folio 98); five articles, undated, on 'Public executions' (folio 100), the British countryside (folio 101), Politics (folio 103), W M Praed's poetry (folio 108), and one in the form of a letter from 'Whyte Choaker' (folio 109).