But the law, though it was the only path open to him, was not the one which suited his genius, or his object in life.

To the last he worked hard and faithfully, but with doubtful reputation as to his success, and certainly against the grain.

And this was not the worst.

To make up for the loss of that start in life of which his father's untimely death had deprived him, he became, for almost the rest of his life, the most importunate and most untiring of suitors.
In 1579 or 1580 Bacon took up his abode at Gray's Inn, which for a long time was his home.

He went through the various steps of his profession.
He began, what he never discontinued, his earnest and humble appeals to his relative the great Lord Burghley, to employ him in the Queen's service, or to put him in some place of independence: through Lord Burghley's favour he seems to have been pushed on at his Inn, where, in 1586, he was a Bencher; and in 1584 he came into Parliament for Melcombe Regis.