To London - Ainsworth meets Charles Lamb and his Circle

In 1824, Ainsworth left Manchester to pursue his legal training in London. Although he made a sincere attempt to apply himself to his studies, London’s literary scene proved to be a stronger attraction than the intricacies of conveyancing, and he never returned to his native city, except as a visitor. As soon as he arrived in the Capital, Ainsworth contacted Charles Lamb, who immediately took to the young man, and introduced him to his circle of literary friends. His early impressions of London are well documented in the many letters he wrote to Crossley, and this one from 1825 reveals the uneven struggle between literary social life and the law:

'Little Charles Lamb sends me constant invitations. I met Mrs. [Mary] Shelley at his house the other evening. She is very handsome; I am going to the theatre with her some evening….'

Later in the same letter, he turns his attention, with less enthusiasm, to the family business:

'Before I have completed my year I hope to make myself sufficiently useful…I wish I knew more of common law.'

Ainsworth seems to have been quickly accepted by Lamb’s circle and was by all accounts a lively and opinionated conversationalist. Another friend of Lamb’s described him as ‘forward, talking young man’ and went on ‘he will be a pleasant man enough when the obtrusiveness of youth is worn away a little.' He was eventually admitted as an attorney in the King’s Bench, but never returned to Manchester to practise law, and the family firm eventually lost the Ainsworth name, becoming Crossley and Sudlow.