Henry Crabb Robinson (1777–1867): The friend of almost every literary man of his day, first met Southey at a dinner at Dr Aikin’s in March 1808. Robinson had gone to Spain in 1808 as a special war correspondent of The Times, and through the connections he made at that time he was able to help Southey find materials he needed for the Edinburgh Annual Register. The two men remained on friendly terms, visiting each other in Keswick and London, despite an increasing divergence in their political views from 1811–1812 onwards, as Southey became an opponent of constitutional reform.