These books formed part of the personal library of Robert Burns. They were published in 1754. The ten volume set is incomplete, as volumes 3 and 9 are missing.
The first volume contains an inscription by Robert Burns, the poet's eldest son. In this he recalls as a boy taking the first two volumes to Mr Gray, the rector of the grammar school who had asked to borrow them. He presented them to John McDiarmid, a local journalist and editor of the Dumfries Courier. McDiarmid was an admirer of Burns and collected and published much information about his life in Dumfries.