ABSTRACT
Henry Crabb Robinson was born in Bury St Edmund’s, the youngest son of a tanner. He was trained up as a lawyer, joined an attorney’s office in Colchester and, aged twenty-one, he moved to a solicitor’s in London. Back in London, he became foreign editor at The Times, remaining in journalism until 1813 when he was called to the bar. He helped to found University College, London and the Athenaeum, bequeathing to the former an important collection of drawings by John Flaxman. Robinson kept a diary throughout his life and was an assiduous pursuer of famous people. In Germany in 1801 he made a point of searching out Goethe and Schiller in Weimar; and in England he made the acquaintance of all the leading intellectuals, writers and artists of his day. Robinson’s preferences are remarkable, however, for not intruding on his relations with either Coleridge or Wordsworth.
