Drafts of poems and printed poems by Shilleto, Robert Burn, Sir William Hamilton, Morris Moore, Richard Okes, as well as those signed with initals only: J. B., H., and W. S. [William Selwyn?]. Poems include Hamilton's "Sonnet on the Meeting of the British Association at Cambridge, 1833", W. S.'s "Experience of Magnetic Belt", four lines by H. starting "The Lytteltons give all the time up to cricket," Robert Burn's "Piscator," Morris Moore junor's formal address to Thompson, 30 July 1869. On the verso of one set of poems is a printed list of freshmen, 1882.
The collection also includes a letter (in French) dated 9 March 1869 from A. Bos, Italian translator of G. H. Lewes's Physiology of Common Life asking about a report from the Evening Standard that the students have been served donkey at Trinity.
The collection is accompanied by two letters from W. Wollaston Groome to Mr Dykes dated May 1919 relating to the provenance of the verses, and his personal memories of W. H. Thompson.