Based in Chelsea, like the rest of his family, Burgess exhibited many works at the Royal Academy between 1809 and 1839,[2] the Suffolk Street Gallery, and the New Water-Colour Society in London.

The subtitle is: Views of the general Character and Appearance of Trees Foreign & Indigenous as connected with picturesque Scenery.

Burgess and Hullmandel were among the earliest practitioners of lithography in England, which in this series replicates the tonal variations of a sepia ink wash drawing very effectively.

Burgess's attention to the qualities of light exhibited in these prints links him to his contemporaries John Constable and J. M. W. Turner.

The British Museum has a lithograph of his portrait as a young man,[9] seated to right in armchair, holding portfolio and pencil, with facsimile signature, after a vignette by Sir William Charles Ross.