He collaborated with Lord Esher in editing the correspondence of Queen Victoria (1907). His poems and volumes of essays, such as From a College Window, and The Upton Letters (essays in the form of letters) were famous during his time; and he left one of the longest diaries ever written, some four million words. Extracts from the diaries are printed in Edwardian Excursions. From the Diaries of A. C. Benson, 1898–1904, ed. David Newsome, London: John Murray, 1981. His literary criticisms of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Fitzgerald, Walter Pater and John Ruskin, rank among his best work. Today, he is best remembered as the author of the words of one of Britain's best-known patriotic songs, Land of Hope and Glory, written for the coronation of King Edward VII.