The comonplace book contains drafts of letters to the ‘Bee’, an inventory of the Earl of Buchan’s property, lists of Scottish portraits, an ode, ‘To the Shepherd of the Cot’, and notes and drafts of papers on the Scottish Peerage and other subjects. Included is a manuscript copy of ‘The New Order of Gooding and Manuring all sorts of Field Land with Common Salts’, by Archibald, afterwards 1st Lord Napier (said to have been printed by Robert Waldegrave), referring to the right to issue licences for this practice given to Napier in 1595.