The collection features a variety of poems, letters, mottos, and inscriptions from graves. These are taken from authors including: Gunnar Schevenius, Olof Bergklint, Johan Simmingsköld, Johan Henric Kellgren, Voltaire, and Jöns Bernard Santesson. The poems largely date to the 1770s.

The collection consists of anecdotes and verses, both original and excerpted from various authors, including: biographical anecdotes on Alexander the Great, Voltaire, Sir Walter Raleigh, Philip of Macedon, Socrates, British sailors, Turks, Russians, American Indians, and other individuals and groups; epistolary poetry and extracts from letters, most of which are signed William Thomspon; one letter from a British soldier at the Battle of Bunker Hill to his wife in England; elegiac and farewell poems; poems on nature, plants, and animals; hymns and prayers; religious and moral poems and fables; from speeches, and from religious texts, lectures, and sermons; recipes for burn and lip ointments, stain remover, flea repellent, and other home remedies. Excerpts attributed to Rousseau, Cowper, Goldsmith, and others. Indexed by category.