The book had previously been in the possession of a physician who had used it sparingly as a notebook to record various diseases, and had inserted headings on some of the pages. Many blank leaves remain. The physician had lettered the concluding pages for an alphabetical index, and had made a few insertions in them. The lettering was subsequently used by Ellys for his own index. Accounts, which appear to related to the rectory of Burgh Castle, occur in another but contemporary hand on pp. 66, 294, 302, 350, and 370. The physician had inserted an aphorism in Greek from Hippocrates, and two Latin proverbs on p. i. pp. 97-230: blank.