The architecture of C. R. Cockerell was remarkable for its vigorous eclecticism and its freedom from the shackles of convention. His brilliance was based upon a depth of assimilation and a range of observation not known in an architect since ‘old Sir Wm Chambers’. Chambers was Cockerell’s idol and, like Chambers, he left for posterity a daunting mass of papers. Without a single building to his credit these would establish Cockerell as an important architectural writer and theorist. The astonishing variety of his interests is clearly displayed in the diaries which at present belong to Mr and Mrs B. J. Crichton of Plas Trefor, Isle of Anglesey - lineal descendants of S. P. Cockerell.