Hatton's sheer versatility, his multifarious skills and interests, his energy and the exuberance of his good nature, characterised one of the extraordinary musicians of his age: and yet these same qualities led some to disparage his brilliance. His biographer for the "Encyclopædia Britannica" of 1911 wrote: 'Hatton excelled in the lyrical forms of music, and, in spite of his distinct skill in the severer styles of the madrigal, etc., he won popularity by such songs as "To Anthea", "Good-bye, Sweetheart", and "Simon the Cellarer", the first of which may be called a classic in its own way. His glees and part-songs, such as "When Evening's Twilight", were reckoned among the best of their class; and he might have gained a place of higher distinction among English composers had it not been for his irresistible animal spirits and a want of artistic reverence, which made it uncertain in his younger days whether, when he appeared at a concert, he would play a fugue of Bach or sing a comic song.' Yet he was not irreverent: the lasting value of his own ballads and songs, of which he composed more than 150, the merits of his arrangements of the English songs, his role as composer to Kean and accompanist to Mario, Reeves and Santley, and his service over a long period to Boosey both as publishers and as promoters of the Ballad Concerts, tell their own story of his unique place in English music.