Volume 1: Preface; 1. 1789. Family and childhood; 2. 1790–5. Articled clerk at Colchester; 3. 1795. Interval at Bury; 4. 1796–9. Unsettled life in London - correspondence with Robert Hall; 5-9. 1800–5. In Germany; 10. 1805–6. In London - acquaintance with Mrs. Barbauld, and C. and M. Lamb; 11. 1807. In Holstein, as Times correspondent; 12. 1807–9. In London, as foreign editor of the Times - acquaintance with Wordsworth - at Corunna, as Times correspondent; 13. 1810. In London - acquaintance with Coleridge and Flaxman; 14. 1811. In London - debating societies - Coleridge's lectures - Southey - resolution to study for the Bar; 15. 1812. In London - studies for the Bar - lectures by Coleridge and Hazlitt; 16. 1813. Acquaintance with Talfourd - Madame de Staël in London - circuit - takes chambers; 17. 1814. European politics - practice at the Bar - tour in France - La Fayette - French courts of justice - Madame de Staël - Benjamin Constant - Schlegel - 'The Excursion'; 18. 'The Excursion' - Buonaparte's escape from Elba - death of H. C. R.'s father - tour in Belgium and Holland - visit to Waterloo - progress at the Bar. Volume 2: 1. 1816. Flaxman - Lamb - the Clarksons at Playford - Wordsworth - Southey - De Quincey - Coleridge; 2. 1817. On circuit - treason trials - Coleridge and Tieck - journey to Paris - Home's trials; 3. 1818. Lectures by Hazlitt and Coleridge - visit to Germay - the court at Weimar - Knebel - on circuit; 4. 1819. Clarkson - J. P. Collier and Mr. Walter - on circuit - Benecke - new chambers; 5. 1820. On Elton Hammond; 6. Flaxman - Lamb - Swiss tour with the Wordsworths; 7. 1821. Mrs. Barbauld - Flaxman - tour to Scotland; 8. 1822. Wordsworth's memorial poems - visit to Paris - Charles and Mary Lamb in Paris; 9. 1823. Southey - Wordsworth, Coleridge, Moore, Lamb, and Rogers - Abernethy - acquaintance with Irving - Schlegel - Flaxman; 10. 1824. Sir John Franklin - Coleridge and Irving - Athenaeum club opened - Lady Morgan - tour in Normandy - visit to the Trappists; 11. 1825. Julius Hare - Sir James Stephen - Blake's Conversations; 12. 1926. Blake - Lamb - Irving - Coleridge - tour in Ireland - journey with O'Connell - visit to Derrynane - Wordsworth - visit to Dawson Turner - Macaulay - Death of Flaxman; 13. 1827. Death of Blake - Lamb at Enfield; 14. 1828. Goethe - opening of the London University - repeal of Test and Corporation Acts - Bishop Stanley - H.C.R. quits the Bar; 15. 1829. Antiquarian Society - Linnaean Society - Lamb's hoax and confession - with lamb at Enfield - Mrs. Clarkson - Wordsworth; 16. 1829. Croker - tour in Germany - visits to Benecke, Knebel, Goethe, Tieck, &c.; 17. 1829–31. In Italy - winter in Rome - tour in Sicily - stay in Florence; 18. 1831. In England again - the Reform Bill - visits to Lamb and the Clarksons - Jeremy Bentham. Volume 3: 1. 1832. Reform Bill - Goethe's death - Lady Blessington - fatal accident to W. Pattison and his bride; 2. 1833–35. Hudson Gurney - first railway journey - at the Lakes - Scotch tour with Wordsworth - visit to Heidelberg - theological talks with Benecke - death of Lamb - first Christmas at Rydal; 3. 1836. Dr. Arnold - Sydney Smith - W. S. Landor and Wordsworth; 4. 1837–8. Italian tour with Wordsworth - journey to the west of England with Wordsworth - copyright in America - Clarkson and Wilberforce controversy - journey to Paris with Southey; 5. 1839–40. At Rydal - H. C. R. removes to 30 Russell Square - visit to Playford - The Non-con Club - tour to Frankfort; 6. 1841. Death of H. C. R.'s nephew, and of many old friends; 7. 1842. Christmas at Rydal (1841) - death of Dr. Arnold - Christmas at Rydal (1842) - talks with Faber; 8. 1843–4. On church questions - correspondence with Quillinan - Christmas at Rydal - visit to Playford - Archaeological Association; 9. 1844. Dissenters' Chapels Act; 10. 1845. At Rydal - Rogers - Wordsworth - Robinsoni