Decimus was a polymath and a philomath and extremely erudite in both arts and sciences, as was demonstrated by the diversity of his library - a part of which was auctioned off by his nieces after his death.
The sale catalogue listed 347 separate lots, some of which ran into many volumes.
The collection bore witness to the range of his intellectual interests.
It contained the Proceedings of the Camden Society complete in 135 volumes and transactions of many of the learned societies of which Burton was a member, as well as a complete set of the Histoire Naturelle (70 vols.)
of G. L. L. Buffon and Bernard Germain de Lacépède.
The architectural texts comprised mostly standard works on classical architecture, such as the five volumes of Colen Campbell, Vitruvius Britannicus by John Woolfe and James Gandon, James Gibbs's Book of Architecture, and William Kent's The Designs of Inigo Jones.
Alongside these, there were numerous topographical views and surveys of cities and counties in the collection.
There were also some foreign-language texts, including volumes by Charles Percier and Jean-Baptiste Rondelet, a complete set of Giovanni Battista Piranesi's works, and several dictionaries.
The absence of an educative grand tour early in his career meant that his books and casts were the sources for his early designs, which are technically formal and academic in style.
However, later on he did travel extensively in Europe and North America.
His first tours were of France and Spain, in 1826.
He toured Holland in 1846 and Germany in 1850.
He toured Italy, including Venice.
He toured Canada and the United States, after departing Liverpool for Halifax, Nova Scotia, with his cousin Thomas Chandler Haliburton, a Tory MP and author.
Burton collected an extensive collection of casts, which informed his work, over 200 of which he donated to the Victoria and Albert Museum, which displayed 18 of the same in its British Galleries.
Amongst Burton's possession on his death were an oil painting of St. John, copied by Sir Joshua Reynolds from a work by Raphael; a model of the Temple on the Ilissus at Athens; a statuette of an Angel copied from an original by Thorwaldsen; framed drawings of 'A Royal Palace' by Joseph Gandy ARA (b. 1771), who had been described as 'an English Piranesi'; and a bronze lamp suspended from a snake's mouth.
Although he was the leading exponent of Greek revival architecture, Burton was uniquely and significantly influenced by Ancient Roman architecture.
It was in his Georgian neoclassical work that he attained the acme of his excellence.
Dana Arnold (2002) described his Neoclassical work thus:
"His use of the orders is always correct, but he showed a lack of pedantry in their application that sets him apart from some of his more doctrinaire contemporaries, such as Hamilton and Smirke.
From Nash he had learned to combine the classical and the picturesque, and it is the picturesque that is predominant in much of his later work".

In his later career, Decimus designed buildings in the Gothic revival style, the old English style and in the cottage orné style.
His Gothic revival designs are unoriginal as he had little sympathy for the style.
Decimus was a polymath and a philomath and extremely erudite in both arts and sciences, as was demonstrated by the diversity of his library - a part of which was auctioned off by his nieces after his death. The sale catalogue listed 347 separate lots, some of which ran into many volumes. The collection bore witness to the range of his intellectual interests. It contained the Proceedings of the Camden Society complete in 135 volumes and transactions of many of the learned societies of which Burton was a member, as well as a complete set of the Histoire Naturelle (70 vols.) of G. L. L. Buffon and Bernard Germain de Lacépède. The architectural texts comprised mostly standard works on classical architecture, such as the five volumes of Colen Campbell, Vitruvius Britannicus by John Woolfe and James Gandon, James Gibbs's Book of Architecture, and William Kent's The Designs of Inigo Jones. Alongside these, there were numerous topographical views and surveys of cities and counties in the collection. There were also some foreign-language texts, including volumes by Charles Percier and Jean-Baptiste Rondelet, a complete set of Giovanni Battista Piranesi's works, and several dictionaries. The absence of an educative grand tour early in his career meant that his books and casts were the sources for his early designs, which are technically formal and academic in style. However, later on he did travel extensively in Europe and North America. His first tours were of France and Spain, in 1826. He toured Holland in 1846 and Germany in 1850. He toured Italy, including Venice. He toured Canada and the United States, after departing Liverpool for Halifax, Nova Scotia, with his cousin Thomas Chandler Haliburton, a Tory MP and author. Burton collected an extensive collection of casts, which informed his work, over 200 of which he donated to the Victoria and Albert Museum, which displayed 18 of the same in its British Galleries. Amongst Burton's possession on his death were an oil painting of St. John, copied by Sir Joshua Reynolds from a work by Raphael; a model of the Temple on the Ilissus at Athens; a statuette of an Angel copied from an original by Thorwaldsen; framed drawings of 'A Royal Palace' by Joseph Gandy ARA (b. 1771), who had been described as 'an English Piranesi'; and a bronze lamp suspended from a snake's mouth. Although he was the leading exponent of Greek revival architecture, Burton was uniquely and significantly influenced by Ancient Roman architecture. It was in his Georgian neoclassical work that he attained the acme of his excellence. Dana Arnold (2002) described his Neoclassical work thus:
"His use of the orders is always correct, but he showed a lack of pedantry in their application that sets him apart from some of his more doctrinaire contemporaries, such as Hamilton and Smirke. From Nash he had learned to combine the classical and the picturesque, and it is the picturesque that is predominant in much of his later work".
In his later career, Decimus designed buildings in the Gothic revival style, the old English style and in the cottage orné style. His Gothic revival designs are unoriginal as he had little sympathy for the style.
Decimus Burton