As bishop of Hereford Dr Hampden made no change in his long-formed habits of studious seclusion, and though he showed no special ecclesiastical activity or zeal, the diocese certainly prospered in his charge. Among the more important of his later writings were the articles on Aristotle, Plato and Socrates, contributed to the eighth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, and afterwards reprinted with additions under the title of "The Fathers of Greek Philosophy" (Edinburgh, 1862). In 1866 he had a paralytic seizure, and died in London on 23 April 1868.