In the spring of 1866, Browne announced his invitation to lecture in England and to write a series for the celebrated English humor magazine, Punch (which had been the model of Vanity Fair, particulalry after Browne became its editor).

Arriving in the summer, Browne was acclaimed "The Lion of the Season". He was elected to two posh writing clubs, the Savage Club and the Garrick Club. He wrote a friend in America, "This is the proudest moment of my life."

Receipts for his lectures were lucrative, and his lectures were cordially reviewd by the London Times and London Standard. A reviewer in the Times noted that his jokes, which "he lets fall with an air of profound unconsciousness, are of that true Transatlantic type, to which no nation beyond the limits of the States can offer any parallel".

In penny song books appeared the lines:

			Oh dear, rackety oh,
			Just take a peep at Artemus' show.

Browne's autumnal contributions to Punch were posthumously collected as Artemus Ward in London. They included an account of visiting the Tower of London and a visit to the tomb of Shakespeare (which he pronounced "a success").

Browne made many warm friend in England. A particularly close new friend was the playwright, T. W. Robertson, whose play Ours (1866) was reportedly billed in America as an "Original Drama by T. W. Robertson and Artemus Ward", although no evidence exists to show that Browne's part was significant.

News of Browne's collapse, illness, and death appeared in newspaper headlines across the country.

There were almost as many 19th century editions of Browne's work in England as in America. And his reputation survived into the 20th century. On the anniversary, 1934, of Browne's birth, he was commemorated with a frontpage article in the London Times Literary Supplement, noting thar American humor's "earliest missionary among us was Artemus Ward ... an original. That, and the multitude if oeoplehe moved to laughter are perhaps his chief claims to a modest place in the annals of humor".

In The Oxford Book of Quotations, Ed. Elizabeth Knowles, 1955, Browne is the second most quoted American writer, with 27 citations -- more than that if Twain (24), and one less than the most quoted (28) American writer, Oliver Wendell Holmes.