The following dates of writing are given: 15 September 1712 (folio 2), 10 April 1713 (folio 76), 13 November 1712 (folio 80).

The contents of the manuscript are as follows:

(i) `The Pourtrait of True Loyalty exposed in the Family of Gordon, without interruption to this present year of God, 1691. With a copious relation of the siege of the Castle of Edinburgh in the year 1689. By W.S. An. 1691.` The original manuscript of this work, which was in Blairs College, Aberdeen (‘The House of Gordon’, page xxxvi), is at the Scottish Catholic Archives, Columba House, Edinburgh, where it has the pressmark MM 2/2. For other copies see Adv.MSS.34.6.10(i) and 34.6.11; the former was written by Robert Mylne senior, and may be the source of this copy; both have, though in slightly different form, the addition at the end, giving genealogical details down to 1732, in Mylne senior`s hand; this copy alone has an index. The author is said to be David Burnet, a Catholic priest. The work was largely used by William Gordon for his ‘History of the Family of Gordon’ and was printed entire as ‘The Siege of Edinburgh Castle’. (Folio 1.)

(ii) An abridgement of William Drummond of Hawthornden`s `History of the Family of Perth`. For another abridgement see Adv.MS.34.6.12, page 410, and for the complete work Adv.MS.34.6.9, folio 264 (both in the hand of Robert Mylne senior). This copy is said to have been taken from a transcript made by Alexander Nisbet, the heraldic writer, from Drummond`s original. (Folio 78.)

(iii) An account of the family of Maule, Earls of Panmure, based on a genealogical tree compiled by Reverend James Greenshields, 1708, and lent to Mylne by John Spottiswoode of Spottiswoode, 1712. (Folio 80.)

(iv) Copy of a charter, 1338, by Johannes de Ergadia, Lord of Lorn, in favour of Johanes de Strivelin, of various lands in Lorn, taken from the original in the possession of Walter Stirling, writer in Edinburgh. (Folio 82.)

(v) `A choice collection of severall Scots miscellanie modern poems.` Copies of poems, mainly political and satirical, circa 1670-1713. The subjects include: `the present Marquess of Montrose, 1709`; Sir Hugh Dalrymple of Hailes, 1706; `James VIII`; the Duke of Lauderdale (by the Earl of Aboyne); the Duke of Hamilton; the Countess of Lauderdale, `now of Murray`; Claverhouse, 1689; Glencoe, 1692; James VII; Duke of Argyll; Dr. Archibald Pitcairne. Several are published in ‘A Book of Scottish Pasquils’. (Folio 90.)