Revised Version era
The first direct channel of influence was the Revised Version era itself. Westcott’s memoir records his role in arranging for a preparatory conference before the first New Testament revision meeting, and Hort’s memoir explains that the revisers had private copies of the Cambridge text in hand. Even though the revisers did not bind themselves to every Westcott-Hort reading, the intellectual framework of the work was already present.
Later printed editions
The second channel of influence was through later printed Greek editions. Once Westcott and Hort entered the mainstream of textual criticism, later editors did not need to agree with them everywhere for their influence to remain decisive. The terms of the debate had shifted.
Translation culture
The third channel was translation culture itself. Translators after 1881 increasingly worked in a world where the received text was no longer the uncontested default. That shift in scholarly atmosphere may be the most important influence of all, because it affected not just one edition but the assumptions under which many later decisions were made.