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An imperfect manuscript containing fifty 'cywyddau' and five 'awdlau' written during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The majority of the poems are drafts by, and in the respective hands of, the herald bards Rhys Cain and his son Siôn Cain of Oswestry, the former being represented by twenty-seven poems of which some are dated between 1582 and 1612 and the latter by twenty poems of which some are dated between 1609 and 1634. Other poets represented in the volume are William Llŷn, James Dwnn, 1616 (holograph), Edward ap Raff, Richard Cynwal, Lewys ap Edward, and Siôn Phylip. About three fourths of the poems are hitherto unrecorded. The volume is made up of individual poems written on separate papers which were previously stitched, though probably not for the purpose of covering and binding in book form, and as in the case of other manuscripts deriving from the Cains, e.g., Peniarth MS. 117, each paper bears evidence of having at one time been folded and filed in a bundle, generally with an endorsement, until eventually it became worn and tattered at the creases. The title of one 'cywydd' by Rhys Cain has been added in the hand of Robert Vaughan of Hengwrt.

An autograph letter, 7 February [16]93, from Humphrey Humphreys, bishop successively of Bangor and Hereford (1648-1712), to Peers Maudit, Windsor Herald; letters and genealogies sent to Bishop Humphreys, 1704-1707, by Peter Le Neve, Norroy King of Arms (1661-1729), and Thomas Humphreys, mainly concerning the pedigree of Sir William Humphreys, a sheriff of the City of London, with notes thereon and on Robert Vaughan, Hengwrt (1592?-1666), by Bishop Humphreys.

A late seventeenth century manuscript, the first page inscribed 'The Pedigree of Rice Vaughan, Esq., one of the Auncients of Grayes Inne, . . . since his death completed . . . and drawn down to Henry, his eldest son, . . . being a Curious peice of Antiquitye Collected out of many Ancient manuscripts by . . Robert Vaughan of Hengwrt . . . with severall Collections since made by Henry Va[ugha]n'. Pp. 19-214 contain descriptions and illustrations, some emblazoned, of the coats of arms of the ancestors of the aforesaid Rice Vaughan [of Gelli-goch, co. Montgomery, and later of Gray's Inn, lawyer and author of, inter alia, Practica Walliae or the Proceedings in the Great Sessions of Wales (London, 1672)]. The descent of the said Rice Vaughan and of Henry, his son, in direct line from each of these ancestors is shown, and historical notes have been added in some instances. The Rice Vaughan pedigree had been compiled in the first instance by the Welsh antiquary Robert Vaughan of Hengwrt, the work being completed circa October 1652, and this material was utilised and presented in book form in the present manuscript by Rice Vaughan's son Henry who added his own name to each line of descent (see the inscription quoted above, a transcript of a letter from Robert Vaughan from Hengwyrt (sic), to Meredith Lloyd in London, 25 October 1652 (pp. 11-15), a copy of an inscription at the end of the original pedigree by Robert Vaughan (p. 223), and notes by Henry Vaughan on pp. 17 and 222-3). According to the notes on pp. 17 and 222-3 it would appear that the material to be found at the beginning of the volume (i.e. up to the end of p. 10) and at the end (p. 224 et seq.) was compiled by Henry Vaughan. This includes, inter alia, genealogical and heraldic data relating to the Vaughans of Corsygedol [co. Merioneth], the Vaughans of Macchenlleth (sic) [co. Montgomery], the Hydes of Cheshire (to which family Henry Vaughan's wife belonged), and Henry Vaughan himself and his connection with 'seuerall eminent familyes in Wales'. Tipped in at the end of the volume is an undated letter from George Agar Hansard to a Mrs. Edwardes relating to the contents of the volume.

A pedigree of the family of Hanmer of Hanmer, Flintshire ('Stemmata et Propagines antiquae familiae Hanmer de Hanmer transcript. ex libris Oweni Salusbury de Rûg. ar.') in the hand of Robert Vaughan (1592?-1666) of Hengwrt, Merioneth, with additions to the year 1684; a nineteenth century table showing the relationship between the families of Hanmer and Bunbury of Bunbury Stanny, Cheshire; another early nineteenth century table of the descendants of Gamaliel Lloyd of Mattersea Abbey, Nottinghamshire; and A list of the Nobility and Gentry, at Preston Guild, 1802.

A volume of papers from the Mytton library at Halston, consisting of draft dissertations by Dr. Humphrey Foulks of Marchwiel and other papers:- 'a dissertation of the literature of the antient Britains'; 'a dissertation on the places of worship, judicature, and sepulture of the antient Britains'; 'a short dissertation on the state of the lordship of Denbigh'; 'an essay about the setting of land'; a fair copy of a preface to 'The modern Antiquity of Wales'; a draft title-page and preface to a projected edition of Robert Vaughan's British Antiquities Revived, and Sir John Wynn's 'History of his own family'; drafts and transcripts of letters and documents relating to Welsh history; transcripts from 'Mr. Owen Salisbury's painted book'; transcripts of annals of the rebellion in North Wales; pedigrees; lists of the sheriffs of Flint and Denbighshire to 1739, extended by another hand to 1741; transcripts of monumental inscriptions in Bangor [on Dee], Wrexham, Gresford, Marchwiel, and Montgomery; a valor of Bromfield and Yale, 11-12 Henry VIII; and holograph letters by Rees Powell, Llanharan, 1736, Thomas Lewis, St. Asaph, 1736, and E. Lloyd, Ripple, 1737.