Scope and Contents: The Mountmellick School exercise book (114 pages) primarily contains English poetry on topics such as friendship, marriage, and religion. Other poems include "The Hermit of Warkworth: A Northumberland Ballad" (by Thomas Percy), accompanied by explanatory information and footnotes, and "An Elegy on the Death of William Penn." The final poem is an acrostic that spells "Mountmelick School."
John Brown wrote his name in the back of the volume; his hand differs from the bulk of the text.