The fonds consists of manuscript travel journals, engravings, and letters of naturalist, artist, and author James Forbes. The fonds containsa five-volume fair copy of a manuscript travel journal prepared by Forbes describing his travels and stays in Germany, Italy, and Switzerland during 1796 and 1797. Entries describe the climates, cultures, art, monuments, and historical sites of the places he visited. Some entries also reflect current events, such as the French Revolution, and comparison between the places he visited and his native England. The journals were prepared by Forbes ostensibly for his daughter, to whom the first volume contains a dedication. The fifth volume contains an addendum dated 1799. The The fonds also contains two letters, one a letter to Forbes from his grandson, the Count of Montalembert, and one a letter from Forbes to his sister, Eliza Fothergill, dated 1788. The final materials in the fonds are two hand-coloured engravings of illustrations created by Forbes in 1771 and 1783, and published by Richard Bentley (London, 1834).

Fonds consists of a journal kept by Lord William Pitt Amherst's coachman, James Dennison, while traveling to China on a diplomatic mission to the Qing court in China in 1816. Included is an account of the loss of the ship H.M.S. Alceste in the Straits of Gaspar.