The son of a prosperous family, he was educated at Eton and Cambridge and was expected to follow a conventional career in the law or in the church, but he concluded that his vocation was the theatre. From his schooldays he had written comic plays, and from 1860 until the end of the 19th century, he produced a series of more than 200 Victorian burlesques, farces, pantomimes and other stage works. His early successes included the burlesques "Ixion", "or the Man at the Wheel" (1863) and "The Latest Edition of Black-Eyed Susan"; "or", "the Little Bill that Was Taken Up" (1866). Also in 1866, he adapted the popular farce "Box and Cox" as a comic opera, "Cox and Box", with music by Sullivan. The piece became a popular favourite and was later frequently used by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company as a curtain raiser; it remains regularly performed today.