[5][6] This included five stories from Grimms' Fairy Tales, that were heavily based on the earlier translations by Edgar Taylor and David Jardine.
[7] His Lives of Eminent and Illustrious Englishmen (1834–1837) aimed to teach English history through biographies of its leading figures.
It was patronised by royalty and Henry Brougham, and though it initially won praise, the biographies of its later volumes were less well connected, and began to rely heavily on extracts from the subjects' memoirs.
[27] His Gazetteer of the World (1850–1856) was considered his greatest and principal work, and he was in the process of preparing an improved edition of it at the time of his death.
[2][25] In addition to his main works, he wrote short biographies of his friend Reverend John Morell Mckenzie,[28] Church of Scotland minister John Brown Patterson,[29] and seventeenth century Church of England cleric Jeremy Taylor.