As the original gatherings were too large to allow a satisfactory book to be made, they have been broken down into more manageable sizes. The old repairs to the paper were removed wherever possible and replaced with modern material. The volume had later been rebacked, the original spine being laid down and labels added, probably early in the 19th century.
The cover, which has been preserved, is plain brown leather, with some simple tooling on the spine. No earlier holes were to be seen: therefore the volume had not previously been bound, or more probably the earlier holes were reused. The paper had been thoroughly repaired several leaves were in effect inlaid, others had small holes covered and edges replaced, and every sheet had been strengthened along the inside of the fold. Sewing was with four of five strands of thread (a specimen has been preserved) no details could be observed, as the adhesive which had been used still adhered strongly, and the sewing had to be cut away in this condition. The book had been roughly, but effectively, put together. In November 1967 the front board of the volume became detached, and it was decided to take the opportunity, since repair was necessary, to have the book examined in detail in particular to try to determine if it had originally consisted of two volumes, as was suspected for various reasons. The following details are taken from Ian Cunningham's report of 1973: This work was originally bound in one volume alongside Adv.MS.19.2.2(i). Library stamps are in evidence throughout the work. There are also examples of pentrials throughout the work. There are frequent marginal annotations and rubrics, but these are in a different hand from the scribe's. Quire signatures are visible on the recto side in the bottom right corner, but these are later additions. A set of scribal foliation runs in the top right corner on the recto side in Roman numerals, but this has now been superseded by modern foliation. The work itself is headed with two lines of a hymn, partially cropped, which read: 'Jhu saluator, tu sis michi auxiliator Ad finem dignu libru pduc atq benignu'.
The guide letters for these capitals are often visible. The work is in a single column and is divided into 11 books, with spaces left at the beginning of each book for capitals which have not been completed.
The colophon on folio 124v states that the work was transcribed in 1488 by John Ramsay, a prior of the Charterhouse of Perth. This manuscript is written in Scots and is the only extant contemporary manuscript of the Wallace. Manuscript written in Scotland, containing the narrative poem 'The Wallace' of Blind Hary, or Henry the minstrel, probably originally composed between 14.
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