Watts-Dunton edited Borrow's "Lavengro" in 1893 and "Romany Rye" in 1903. In 1903 he also published "The Renascence of Wonder", a treatise on the romantic movement. His "Studies of Shakespeare" appeared in 1910. But it was not only in his published work that Watts-Dunton's influence on the literary life of his time was potent. His long and intimate association with Rossetti and Swinburne made him a unique figure in the world of letters. His grasp of metrical principle and of the historic perspective of English poetry brought him respect as a literary critic.