Work for the Illustrated Shakespeare of Robert Chambers took him to Edinburgh, where he found a good friend in William Nelson, the publisher.

[3] In 1863 he is listed as living at Bellfield House in Duddingston Village on the southern outskirts of Edinburgh.

[3] Halswelle lived his later years at Stoner House, Steep, near Petersfield in Hampshire, where he was a ruling councillor of the Primrose League.

A painting in oil of the River Thames above Maidenhead was included in Henry Tate's gift to the nation, and went to the Millbank Gallery.

In 1884 some of his views of the Thames, Six Years in a Houseboat, were shown in London; and he wrote a book under the same title.