Fred Pickering, articled to a Manchester attorney, found the law distasteful and, because he had had a few poems printed, broke with his father, married a penniless girl and went to London where he hoped to make his living by writing. He gave up his first position because he considered it beneath his deserts and hunted in vain for a suitable one. A year later, his funds completely exhausted, he appealed to his father for help and returned to Manchester with his wife and baby, where he entered an attorney’s office at thirty shillings a week.