When I am dead, I hope it may be said: His sins were scarlet, but his books were read.

This is evidenced in poems such as "West Sussex Drinking Song" "The South Country" and even the more melancholy "Ha'nacker Mill". G. Belloc placed a memorial tablet in the Cathedral at nearby Cambrai.

Among his best-remembered poems are "Jim who ran away from his nurse and was eaten by a lion" and "Matilda who told lies and was burnt to death". Chesterton.