Comprises a substantial collection of manuscripts (many of them autographs), typed or pencilled transcriptions, and some printed proofs and early editions of literary works by Swinburne, including poetry, plays, novels, and essays. Many of them have apparently passed through the hands of Sir Edmund Gosse, and there are many editorial notes included in the bound volumes which have been appended by T.J. Wise, from whom Lord Brotherton probably obtained many of them.
Many of the volumes which hold the manuscripts are finely-bound and gilt lettered. The unbound manuscripts are kept in a single archive box.
Additional manuscripts for 'Music: An Ode'; 'Hawthorn Dyke'; 'The Year of Love' and 'Love and Sleep' added to the collection in 2017 (see items 41a; 97 and 98).