While a young man he supplied short articles on antiquarian subjects to the ‘Mirror,’ ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ and other publications, the result of research in libraries and of frequent rambles through many districts of England.
[1] Thorne contributed, under Knight's direction, many topographical articles to the second series of the ‘Penny Magazine,’ and wrote large portions, besides supplying many illustrations, of the four volumes, entitled ‘The Land we live in.’ Knight's series of weekly and monthly volumes comprised Thorne's volumes of ‘Rambles by Rivers.’ The first, describing ‘the Duddon, Mole, Adur, Arun, Wey, Lea, and Dove,’ appeared in 1844, with numerous woodcuts from the author's drawings.
In these descriptions, as in all Thorne's writings, history and antiquity are pleasantly blended with ‘gleanings of fairy and folk lore.’ He was working editor of the two volumes on geography in ‘The Imperial Cyclopædia,’ 1852, and of the ‘English Cyclopædia,’ with its supplements, and for twenty-five years he wrote for the ‘Companion to the British Almanac.’ The reissue (1873) of the ‘Passages of a Working Life,’ by Charles Knight, contained an ‘introductory note’ by Thorne.
They were the result of ‘personal examination and inquiry,’ and must be consulted by every student of the scenery, or of the historic associations, of the buildings and remains for twenty miles around London.
After a painful illness, lasting for nearly twelve months, Thorne died at 52 Fortess Road, Kentish Town, on 3 Sept. 1881, leaving a widow and several children in poor circumstances.