At an early date he tried his hand at writing, and in 1851 attracted the attention of Charles Dickens, who published articles and stories by him in "Household Words" and subsequently in "All the Year Round", and in 1856 sent him to Russia as a special correspondent. About the same time he got to know Edmund Yates, with whom, in his earlier years, he was constantly connected in his journalistic ventures and also become a lifelong friend of the penny dreadful publisher Edwin Brett. In 1860, over his own initials "G.A.S.", he began writing "Echoes of the Week" for the "Illustrated London News", and continued to do so till 1886, when they were continued in a syndicate of weekly newspapers almost to his death. William Makepeace Thackeray, when editor of the "Cornhill", published articles by him on Hogarth in 1860, which were issued in column form in 1866; and in the former year he was given the editorship of "Temple Bar", which he held till 1863.