Included are letters by Robert Adam, Hugh Blair, William Cowper, Richard Cumberland, David Garrick, George Lyttelton, Conyers Middleton, Sir Walter Scott, Richard B. Sheridan, Voltaire, William Wilberforce, and Edward Young. In addition, there are twenty letters by Montagu to various members of her circle and four letters to her from Frances Reynolds.

The text consists of a single couplet preceded by a comment by Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford (1689-1741), ‘On Voltaire by Dr Young talking in a profligate manner on[e] evening’. ‘Thou’rt so Ingenious, Profligate and Thin, / Thy self art Milton & his Death & Sin.’