In his fight with poverty he was put to strange shifts, becoming cellarman at a tavern and clerk to a lawyer, reciting and singing at a small theatre, and compiling a collection of common songs.

[1] After some slight successes as a writer, a Salisbury publisher commissioned him to compile an account of Wiltshire and, in conjunction with his friend Edward Wedlake Brayley, Britton produced The Beauties of Wiltshire (1801; 2 vols., a third added in 1825), the first of the series The Beauties of England and Wales, nine volumes of which Britton and his friend wrote.

Among other works with which Britton was associated, either as author or editor, are Historical Account of Redcliffe Church, Bristol (1813); Illustrations of Fonthill Abbey (1823); Architectural Antiquities of Normandy, with illustrations by Pugin (1825–1827); Picturesque Antiquities of English Cities (1830); Descriptive Sketches of Tunbridge Wells and the Calverley Estate (1832); and History of the Palace and Houses of Parliament at Westminster (1834–1836), the joint work of Britton and Brayley.

In 1852, aged 80, he offered to sell his collection of books, manuscripts, drawings and models relating to Wiltshire, and distributed a catalogue amongst his friends in the county; George Poulett Scrope and William Cunnington III formed a committee at Devizes and raised £150 to purchase the collection, which was at first housed at Devizes Town Hall.

[7] Britton died in London on 1 January 1857,[1] and was buried in West Norwood Cemetery where his monument, a vertical 10' slab of brown granite, was designed to be as permanent as Stonehenge.

[9] Britton was lampooned for his inaccuracy in historical matters by Richard Harris Barham, writing under the name Thomas Ingoldsby, in two mock-antique ballads (with spurious annotations) entitled Relics of Antient Poetry.