The scribe, John Sinclair, extended the James Macpherson material, notably by translating from Macpherson’s English what was missing from his Gaelic. He explains his editorial principles in a foreword addressed to his namesake Sir John Sinclair (folios i-ii). He had borrowed Adv.MS.72.2.4 and Adv.MS.72.2.6 from Peter Turner at some time between 1802 and 1809, and includes brief transcripts from these; that with which the manuscript begins is cut short, as he was obliged to return the exemplar. (Note, folio 3 recto). There are ornate title pages (folios 4 recto and 56 recto). Folio 56 recto contains a pithy comment on the conflicting claims of Smith and Duncan Kennedy to the poems in Sean Dana: “’S ma chaill Mac Ulraic na thoill, / Cha do bhuithinn Mac Lulaich le foill”. (If Kennedy lost what he deserved, MacLulich (i.e. Smith) did not win by cheating).

The contents are as follows.

(i) Transcript of part of ‘Oigheadh Chlainne Tuireann’ from Adv.MS.72.2.6, page 369, line 1 to page 384, line 21. (Folio 1 recto.)

(ii) Transliteration of James Macpherson’s Gaelic from ‘The Poems of Ossian in the original Gaelic’, with emendations and additions as described above. Spaces in the text are filled by the following poems extracted from the tale ‘Oidheadh Chloinne hUisneach’. (Folio 5 recto.)

(iii) “Fada lá gun chlann Uisneach”, 17 quatrains. Adv.MS.72.2.6, page 453. (Folio 19 verso.)

(iv) “Ionmhuin tír and tír ud shoir”, 9 quatrains. Adv.MS.72.2.6, page 439. (Page 39 recto.)

(v) Transliteration of the Reverend Dr John Smith’s ‘Sean Dana’ (Edinburgh, 1787). (Folio 57 recto.)

(vi) “Innisigim fios is ni fios bréige”, 71 quatrains. Transcribed from Adv.MS.72.2.4, page 77. (Middle of folio 83 verso.)