Glenbervie was a lawyer and politician. In 1803 he was appointed Surveyor General of the woods and forests; in 1810 he was made the first chief commissioner of the united offices of Woods, etc, and Land Revenues. He left office in 1814. In July 1820, while in France, he wrote the volume located at MS E234, which is primarily an account of his experiments in forest-management 1808-1813 (largely in the New Forest; somewhat in the Forest of Dean and the other royal forests) and the opposition to him, and a report of the state of the forests in 1819 (in the form of a letter to Commissioner William Huskisson, August 27, 1819). It also contains a brief history of English attempts to raise oak timber for ship-building before 1808. The volume has no title or author statement but is dated and ascribed to Glenverbie by references in the text.

Laid in the manuscript, presumably after Glenbervie's death, were four letters dated 1813 about forestry in the Forest of Dean (two sent to Rev. Davies of the Forest); an 1844 letter from the Office of Woods forwarding Hungarian acorns for experimentation; an 1860 note about oak saplings in New Forest; two letters of 1882 and 1886 between Sir James Campbell and the Office of Woods concerning transplanting oaks in Dean Forest; and an 1896 report from the Deputy Surveyor of the Forest of Dean on his survey of the French State Forests, recommending natural regeneration and "High Forest" management for the Forest of Dean. Also laid in was a 1874 memorandum by Sir Robert Kingscote, Member of Parliament for Glacestershire, recommending that the Forest of Dean be enclosed in allotments, and giving a statistical history of mining, ship-timber growing, and the increase in inhabitants in the Forest, describing the inhabitants' wretched living conditions. These laid-in items have been housed separately and are located at MS 147.

Glenbervie was interested in techniques and statitistics. Although oaks are his primary concern in the volume, he touches on other trees, flora, and fauna. This manuscript appears to be unfinished.