Papers of W. A. Madocks, including his memoranda books, letters to John Williams (his agent at Portmadoc), 1806-1825, and some materials for his biography in the form of copies of letters from Ebenezer Thomas (`Eben Fardd'), John Thomas, Chwilog, Ellis Owen, Cefnymeusydd, and others; a 'statute book' of the 'Ancient and Renowned Borough of Tremadoc', 1805-1810, with an account of the Tremadoc Ball and Hunt; together with records from the Harbour Office, Porthmadog, including account books and registers of Portmadoc harbour, 1824-1917. Also included are records of the Festiniog and Blaenau Railway Co., 1866-1883; plans, sections and other records, 1860-1897, of the Aberystwyth and Welsh Coast Railway, the Bala and Festiniog Railway, the Beddgelert Railway, the Caernarvonshire Railway, the Caernarvonshire and Nantlle Railway, the Cambrian Railway, the Corris, Machynlleth, and River Dovey Tramroad, the Corwen and Bala Extension Railway, the Croesor Railway, the Croesor and Portmadoc Railway, the Festiniog Railway, the London and North Western Railway, the Merionethshire Railway, the Portmadoc, Beddgelert and Rhyd-ddu Railway, and the West Midland, Shrewsbury and Coast of Wales Railway; a register of shareholders and minute books of the Festiniog Refreshment House Company, 1878-1890; a minute book and share ledger of the Penrhyndeudraeth Lead Mining Company, 1875-1882; nominal and muster rolls of the Caernarvonshire Volunteers, 1860-1883, and other Caernarfonshire militia records; a minute book and papers relating to collections in Caernarfonshire towards Queen Victoria's Jubilee, 1886-1887; account books relating to slate quarries and to shipping, and miscellaneous Caernarfonshire material, 1723-[19th century].

A manuscript copy, [1820s]-[1830s] (watermark 1814), of tours of North Wales undertaken in the Autumn of 1817 (pp. 1-30) and October 1819 (pp. 31-90) by Captain Henry Hanmer and his wife Sarah, including descriptions of visits to Lady Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, the Ladies of Llangollen (pp. 10-11, 14-19, 45).
The itinerary includes Llangollen, Wrexham, Beddgelert, Caernarfon, Bangor, Llanberis, Holyhead, Conway and St Asaph, and includes descriptions of Dolbadarn Castle (pp. 55-58), the Penrhyn slate quarries (pp. 65-66) and Parys and Mona copper mines (pp. 69-73). A number of related poems and tales are interspersed throughout the text (pp. 4-101), including verses by Anne Grant (p. 19), Anna Seward (pp. 22-29), Sir Walter Scott (pp. 31-33), W. Sotheby (pp. 37-45), W. R. Spencer (pp. 48-53), Dr [William] Dodd (pp. 61-62), and Amelia Alderson Opie (pp. 88-89). They are followed by further transcripts in the same hand (pp. 107-120), including verses by Thomas Noel (pp. 112-118) and Sir Walter Scott (pp. 119-120), and, in a different hand (pp. 121-139), verses by Byron (pp. 121, 125), R. B. Sheridan (p. 121) and Robert Southey (p. 123). The volume contains numerous cuttings from engravings, either pasted or tipped in (pp. 1-103 passim); several of these are by Henry Gastineau and are taken from Wales Illustrated: In a Series of Views... (London, 1830), as is the printed description of Llangollen on pp. 101-102. Inserted at the end (pp. 187-198) is a pamphlet by S. G. Perceval, The Ladies of Llangollen: New and interesting facts ([?1909]), transcribing extracts from the present manuscript. A press cutting, [1829], concerning the Ladies of Llangollen is pasted inside the front cover. Pressed flowers are pasted in on pp. 57, 64-65, and the remains of a leaf has been placed in an archival envelope.