He began his schooling at Newton Abbot College, Devon, in 1873 and completed it at Clifton College, Bristol, in 1882. Shaw Sparrow, a fellow student, described Q as absorbing "Greek and Latin as a sponge drinks water." From Clifton, Q won an entrance scholarship in classics to Trinity College, Oxford, where he studied from 1882 to 1887. As a scholar he earned a first class in Classical Moderations in 1884, and he contributed verse parodies to
The Oxford Magazine. He also enjoyed boating, rowed in the Trinity first boat, and became captain of the college boat club.
Unfortunately, his university career was almost ended by the death of his father in October 1884. Q's father left considerable debts, but the intervention of his maternal grandfather permitted him to complete his university education. He received only a second class in his final examinations in summer 1886, but he was appointed to a college lectureship in 1886-1887.
By 1887 Q's grandfather could no longer support him, so in order to assist his mother, two brothers, and two sisters Q began writing novels.
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