The contents are as follows.

(i) Letters, poems, etc., of Alexander Laing, the Brechin poet, to Peter Buchan, collector of Scottish ballads, Peterhead, 1828-1850, undated. The letters, which are in Laing's autograph, deal chiefly with literary matters of the day. Most of the poems (folios 4, 6, 10, 19, 23) appear later in published form.

(ii) Poems and other literary matter of Henry Scott Riddell, in his autograph, with one letter to him, 1815-1865, undated. Several of the poems are unpublished (notably those on folios 98-102, 107). The collection includes autobiographical notes (folios 58-79), a page of a separate and unpublished autobiography (folio 85), chapters i and ii of St Matthew's Gospel translated into Lowland Scots (folios 86-88), and a fragment of bible-commentary, crossed with a poem (folio 111).