He had in 1814–16 made a continuation of Robert Dodsley's Collection of English Plays, and in 1829 he became part proprietor and editor of The Athenaeum magazine, the influence of which he greatly extended.

In 1846 he resigned the editorship, and assumed that of The Daily News, but contributed to The Athenaeum papers on Alexander Pope, Edmund Burke, Junius, and others.

Thanks to his grandson, Dilke is also acknowledged as the author of The Source and Remedy of the National Difficulties, published anonymously in 1821, which exercised an important influence on Marx.

[3] Around October 1816, Dilke and his friend Charles Armitage Brown moved into a pair of semi-detached houses later called Wentworth Place in Hampstead, London.

After her death and that of his daughter-in-law in 1853, he devoted increasing time to the upbringing of his grandson and namesake, the future cabinet minister and the 2nd Baronet.