On leaving university he worked in his father's office, then thanks to his knowledge of Hindustani was recruited by Sir George Jessel, the Master of the Rolls, to go to India to take evidence in a case.
[1] On returning to London he decided on a career in the law and entered at Lincoln's Inn, suspending his studies during the Franco-Prussian War to act as reporter for the Daily News.
While a student and while practising in the Court of Chancery, he also worked as drama and opera critic for the Pall Mall Gazette, and also contributed to Routledge's Magazine and other periodicals.
While in jail he wrote, as "The Man in the Iron Mask", an item for the Evening News criticising the medical system there, which was taken as a personal attack by the visiting surgeon, Dr O'Connor, who sued the newspaper and was awarded £500.
In 1883 he was sued for libel for an article in that paper describing how Moss Samuel Solomon had been caught spying on the ladies' dressing-room at the Theatre Royal by the actresses concerned.
[2] His widow Elizabeth Linklater had a residence "Colwyn", at Dandenong Road, Windsor when she died on 16 December 1941, aged 84 years.