He begins with information about his childhood, including his godparents, the date of his innoculation against smallpox, and his education; and continues with biographical information about his college years; his first employment; his travels with Thomas Gray; and his Parliamentary activities. Much of the manuscript concerns the pieces he wrote, both published and unpublished, and those he published with the Strawberry Hill Press, as well as his reactions to the reviews he received. He also includes anecdotes concerning his attack by highwaymen in 1749; the family quarrel with his uncle Horace Walpole; and his disagreements with David Hume and Voltaire.

This poetry collection includes poems by Mary Stevenson Hewson herself, Francis Hopkinson, Thomas Gray, Peter Pindor, and translations from Voltaire and other French writers. Also included are two poems by Benjamin Franklin and an unattributed poem titled ‘Eligiac Ode, On The Death of Dr. Franklin.’ The collection is accompanied by a contemporary table of contents written on a sheet of European paper. The rest of the collection is written on American paper. A free endpaper of the casing is dated 1787 and signed Mary Hewson. Hewson was the well-educated daughter of Benjamin Franklin’s London landlady, his friend and correspondent.