 He was educated at Sherborne School, Sherborne, Dorset and New College, Oxford, where he won the Newdigate Prize for Poetry for a ballad on the subject of Gordon of Khartoum in 1888.In 1892, he wrote the first biography of the poet Alfred Tennyson, which was published by William Heineman.In 1894, he contributed to the first issue of the magazine "The Yellow Book".