The quotations included in the commonplace book come from: William Shakespeare, Walter Scott, William Robert Spencer, Charles Sedley, Byron, John Abercrombie, Washington Irving, Voltaire, Thomas Campbell, Thomas Moore, Antoine-Vincent Arnault, Mrs. Cornwell Baron Wilson, and W.S. Walker. There are seven watercolors, an aquatint, and pencil drawings, some enclosed in gold frames made from embossed paper. Two of the watercolors, portraits of a girl and a boy, are signed R.H. Johnson and dated November 1822.