The contents include:

(i) Ancient Scottish prophecies, in a 17th-century hand (folio 1);

(ii) Part of the ‘Flyting betwixt Polwart and Montgomery’, in Sir Walter Scott’s hand (folio 11);

(iii) Poem by Sir William Hamilton of Whitelaw on Viscount Stair (folio 19);

(iv) Laxo’s Lines, dated Lunnasting, 1720, probably transcribed by William Henderson, Junior, of Papa Stour (see MS.907) (folio 26);

(v) Poems by Francis Stuart, 1732-1735 (folio 47);

(vi) A sonnet described as being addressed by Warren Hastings to N B Halhed, but more probably by Halhed to Hastings, [?1812] (folio 57);

(vii) Satirical verses on Samuel Whitbread in connexion with the impeachment of Melville in 1805 (folio 64);

(viii) "Ode written after the King’s visit to Scotland", by Robert Southey, in his autograph, 1822 (folio 71);

(ix) Poems, perhaps by Scott’s friend, William Howison (folio 104);

(x) ‘On the origin of card-playing’, poem by Colin Mackenzie of Portmore, in his autograph (folio 121);

(xi) ‘The Magic Drum’, a poem based on Lapland folklore (folio 123).