Robinson, one of the great diarists, was a friend of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Lamb, Hazlett, and later Carlyle; and a great admirer of German writers, Goethe in particular (cf. Ox. Comp.). His diary and letters give a "truthful and unrivalled picture of social and literary life and literary men, both in this country and on the continent, during the first half of this [19th] century