E. I. Watkin (1888-1981), writer and translator, was the grandson of Herbert Ingram, founder of The Illustrated London News. Watkin was also the friend of the historian of culture Christopher Dawson (1889-1970). Watkin's diary reveals the thoughts, conversations, and events in the life of an eccentric young man of wealthy background in Edwardian England. The selection published is a travel account of Watkin's visit to the Dawson family in rural Yorkshire at Hartlington Hall, near Burnsall. It reveals that the nineteenth century chivalric revival still had a hold on the minds of the educated classes in the Edwardian period. The selection affords glimpses into the family life of the Dawsons and their love of books. It also records Watkin's voracious reading habits, his impressions of the Yorkshire countryside, and his precise observations of the harmony of natural and human landscapes that he found there.
