The material was copied by John Scrymgeour of Myres, presumably for his own use, possibly from Adam Loutfut`s heraldic manuscript (British [Museum] Library, Harleian MS.6149). Some of the items in Loutfut`s manuscript have been omitted, and the rest occur in a different order.

Loutfut`s manuscript is described in ‘The Book of the Ordre of Chyvalry’, pages xxvi-xxix. (In the following description, ‘Loutfut MS.1-19` refers to the various sections of the manuscript as listed therein.)

The contents of the manuscript are as follows:

(i) A treatise on tournaments (folio 1). It begins with the proclamation, 1447, of Arthur, Constable of France and later Duke of Brittany, and includes Loutfut MS.1, 9, 3 and 4.

(ii) `The description of the offices of Counstable Mareschall and utheris officiaris of armes with the blasoning ... to be put in armes ...` (folio 18 verso). This corresponds to Loutfut MS.2, but does not depict the various coats of arms.

(iii) A treatise on heraldry and blazon (folio 52). Loutfut MS.16. A section on how to cry largesse (folio 57) occurs in the Loutfut manuscript, folios 42-44. The shields depicted in the Loutfut manuscript are omitted.

(iv) The text known as `Liber Armorum`, beginning `How for to devyde gentillmen from churlis` (folio 67). Loutfut MS.5.

(v) `The Ordre of Chyvalry` (folio 74). Loutfut MS.8. There are many variations from the Loutfut text as edited in ‘The Book of the Ordre of Chyvalry’. The most important of these is the additional paragraph at the end, not found in any of the other versions, in which Scrymgeour states that although the treatise was intended for English knights, it also applied to Scots.

The book is in the same hand throughout, and has rubrics and initials in red from folio 1 to folio 46. A folio is missing between folios 5 and 6, but there is no lacuna in the text. An inscription in a 16th-century hand on folio ii reads `This book wes wreatin be my grandsir Mr Jhon Scrymgeo[ur] of Myris Maister of Warke to ye kings Majestie`.

The leaves have been trimmed, possibly to fit this binding. Remains of capital letters, apparently indicating the first leaf of each gathering, are visible in the lower margins of folios 1, 11, 23, 35, 47, 59, 69, 80, 92. Printer’s waste is inside the covers under the pastedowns.