The volume includes notes on classical and modern authors, Lord Hailes' contemporaries at Eton (folio 38), life in Holland, 1748 (folio 7), books read, 1749-1755 (folio 233), and legal cases represented to 1755 (folio 241).

As well as material of inherent literary or intellectual interest, the papers in this section, deriving from various members of the family, provide a record of entertainment and leisure in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

The manuscript is not printed in James Balfour’s historical works, as it was missing at the time when they were published.

Many of the manuscripts contain notes, indexes, etc., by George Neilson.

Diaries, letter books and commonplace book, 1835-1884, of Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Malcolm (1782-1851) his sons, Rear Admiral George John Malcolm (1830-1884), and Pulteney Malcolm (1831-1852) of the Bengal Civil Service, and of George John Malcolm's wives, Ottonie von Dungern (1841-1866) and Sophie von Brockdorff (1846-1927).

The notes, 'Letters of W. Drummond to sundries all his owen hand. Sept. 16, 1693', and 'Manie of them printed, 1703', on folio 103, which was found loose in this volume, seem to refer to the contents of MS.2061.

Some of the lists are dated; the dates range from 1606 to 1614 (folios 359 verso-386)

William Soutar's output of work, most of it produced during the last thirteen bed-ridden years of his life, is quite remarkable. Apart from his regular and lively correspondence, and his poetry both in English and in Scots, he left a long sequence of diaries and journals, as well as a record of his dreams extending over more than twenty years.

William Soutar's output of work, most of it produced during the last thirteen bed-ridden years of his life, is quite remarkable. Apart from his regular and lively correspondence, and his poetry both in English and in Scots, he left a long sequence of diaries and journals, as well as a record of his dreams extending over more than twenty years.

William Soutar's output of work, most of it produced during the last thirteen bed-ridden years of his life, is quite remarkable. Apart from his regular and lively correspondence, and his poetry both in English and in Scots, he left a long sequence of diaries and journals, as well as a record of his dreams extending over more than twenty years.

William Soutar's output of work, most of it produced during the last thirteen bed-ridden years of his life, is quite remarkable. Apart from his regular and lively correspondence, and his poetry both in English and in Scots, he left a long sequence of diaries and journals, as well as a record of his dreams extending over more than twenty years.

William Soutar's output of work, most of it produced during the last thirteen bed-ridden years of his life, is quite remarkable. Apart from his regular and lively correspondence, and his poetry both in English and in Scots, he left a long sequence of diaries and journals, as well as a record of his dreams extending over more than twenty years.

William Soutar's output of work, most of it produced during the last thirteen bed-ridden years of his life, is quite remarkable. Apart from his regular and lively correspondence, and his poetry both in English and in Scots, he left a long sequence of diaries and journals, as well as a record of his dreams extending over more than twenty years.

Includes lists of communicants and of the inhabitants of the parish.

The commonplace book contains notes, 1646, by Walter Forsyth on subjects of dispute between the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches (folio 2) and notes and extracts, 1699-circa 1702, by John Gray from various printed books by John Edwards (folio 116), Sir Richard Baker (folio 139), Gilbert Burnet (folios 150, 159), and Meric Casaubon (folio 173).

A leaf is torn out between folios 95 and 96.

The commonplace book contains theological notes and extracts, 1648 by Walter Forsyth with an index of topics covered, and, written in the spaces between entries (as far as folio 52 verso), extracts from various printed books, especially from the works of Jeremy Collier, and ecclesiastical biographies, circa 1702.

Commonplace Book consisting largely of verse, but also with drawings of a Highland scene and pipers at Farr, botanical specimens from Farr and Edinburgh, and pasted in scraps from a visit to Scotland of 1826, and later visits to Switzerland and France.

Later authors include Bishop Stillingfleet (folio 197), Thomas Hooker (folio 92) and John Paul Marana, author of ‘The Turkish Spye’ (1686) (folio 178).

The date of the volume is no earlier than 1686.

The contents include: extracts from personal letters, biblical commentaries, poems and translations of poems.

It is likely that the notes on the lectures of Hugh Blair were taken not from the actual lectures, but from the published version which first appeared on Blair's retirement in 1783, and which went through several later editions.