This grant is in the form of letters patent of Robert Cooke, Clarenceux Kings of Arms, acting for the parts of England south of the Trent, granting to William Cecil, Lord Burghley, Chancellor, and the Masters and Scholars of the University of Cambridge, arms as depicted in colour in the left hand margin. The arms are gules, a cross ermine between four lions passant gardant or, and on the cross a closed book fessways gules, clasped and garnished or, the clasps downward. It is signed by Cooke. The document bears the armorial seal in red wax of the office of Clarenceux on a queue.