Compared with Stewart`s own manuscript (Adv.MS.22.1.14), this transcript has several additional texts (which also mostly appear in the other transcript, Adv.MS.34.3.12); as only a few of these can ever have been in Adv.MS.22.1.14, it is likely that this transcript was not made from it, but from a lost expanded version; and if the Lues Stewart mentioned on folio 145 as a borrower of books is Sir Lewis, the expansion may not have been by him.

The correspondence between the two manuscripts is as follows:

Adv.MS.34.3.11, folios 1-4 = Adv.MS.22.1.14, folios 159-161;

folio 5 verso = folio 162;

folios 8 verso-26 verso = folios 162 verso-179 verso;

folios 29 verso-95 = folios 180-232;

folios 132 verso-138 = folios 233-8.

The additional texts, which occur in five discrete groups (folios 4 verso-8 verso, 27-29, 95-132, 138-144 verso, 145), of which all but the last are also in Adv.MS.34.3.12, are mostly similar in nature to those in Stewart`s manuscript; however, the copy of a poem on physiognomy (first published by J Sanderson in ‘Scottish Studies’, volume 28, pages 49-67, identified as part of ‘Buik of King Alexander’ and republished with the other version by S L Mapstone in ‘The Renaissance in Scotland’, pages 1-44, Appendix; it is not certain if this poem is by Hay or was added to the extant revised version of the larger work) (folio 7), and `Nobilitas Anglicana`, a chronological list of peerages created in England from the Conquest to the end of the reign of Elizabeth (folio 100) are noteworthy.

Additional texts in this transcript but not in Adv.MS.22.1.14 are as follows.

List of peerage creations, 1475-1542. (Folio 4 verso.)

Charter to Thomas Adam (sic: ‘Andrew’ in ‘The register of the Great Seal of Scotland’ (Edinburgh), ii, 636). (Folio 4 verso.)

Miscellaneous notes, including the titles of the King’s first son and a list of battles from 1314 to 1567. (Folio 5.)

Notes of the parliament of Robert I in 1318 and of a bond by Robert II to his son, 1403. (Folio 5 verso.)

List, 1406-1540, of collegiate churches (not in chronological order). (Folio 6.)

Poem on physiognomy by Sir Gilbert Hay (?), published by J Sanderson in ‘Scottish studies’, volume 28 (1987), pages 49-67, identified and republished by S L Mapstone. (Folio 7.)

Documents concerning the trial for the murder of David Riccio, namely Ormiston’s confession, 1573 (a note gives the source as Richard Kene, from the papers of his father, the former clerk of Council John Kene), and the assizs of Thomas Scot … [et al.] and Henry Yair, 1566, of which the latter two are published in ‘Criminal trials in Scotland from 1428-1624’ edited by R Pitcairn (Edinburgh, 1831), volume 1, page 478*. (Folio 27.)

Foundation charter, 1487, of the collegiate church of Tain (printed in ‘The register of the Great Seal of Scotland’ (Edinburgh), ii, 1684). (Folio 95.)

‘Roll of the contribution’. (Folio 99.)

‘Nobilitas Anglicana’, a chronological list of peerages created in England from the conquest to the end of the reign of Elizabeth. (Folio 100.)

Notes, 1475-1567, of charters of the Lord of the Isles and of the family of O’Neill. (Folio 132.)

Rental, 1487, of the Earldom of March. (Folio 138.)

Note on the Earl of Darnley. (Folio 138 verso.)

Note on Sir William Moray, Lord Bothwell, Panetar of Scotland. (Folio 139.)

Notes of events from 1591-1624. (Folio 139.)

Note of events in 1263. (Folio 139 verso.)

Note of transactions between Norway and Scotland in 1469. (Folio 140.)

Accounts of the bailie of Atholl, 1450, of intromissions with Tealing and Polgavie, 1521, and of the chamberlain of Strathearn, 1612. (Folio 141.)

‘Ane table of Chartours and other evidents written upon the backs of the rollis of the Kingis propertie’, 1468-1542. (Folio 142.)

Note of books lent to Adam Bannatyne, John Bannatyne, and Lues Stewart. (Folio 145.)

Genealogy showing the relationship of the 3rd Earl of Douglas and Robert, Lord Erskine (created 1438). (Folio 145.)

List, [circa 1626-1627], of the titles of George, Duke of Buckingham. (Folio 145.)

The hand of most of the text is an unidentified late-17th-century one; from the middle of folio 115 it is written by Robert Mylne (who wrote all of Adv.MS.34.3.12). The original pagination, in the centre upper margin, has occasionally been trimmed and is inaccurate. In the margin of folio 132 verso is a note by Thomas Ruddiman, controverting the account of the Earldom of Ross given in the text.