As a small child she was considered delicate and for her health spent much time in the country. She travelled with her mother and other family to Italy, where she made an agonizing recovery from an illness caused by worms that nearly ended her life. After returning with her mother to England, she rejoined a lively menage of children who lived at Devonshire House and Roehampton, her cousins, the children of William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire: by his first marriage, to Lady Georgiana Spencer, three children, Lady Georgiana ("Little G"), Lady Harriet Cavendish ("Hary-o"), and Lord Hartington ("Hart", later the 6th Duke of Devonshire); and by his mistress and second wife, Lady Elizabeth Foster, two children, Augustus Clifford and Caroline St Jules, later wife of George Lamb (politician and writer). During childhood she became particularly close to Lady Harriet, who was only three months older. Her behaviour grew increasingly troublesome to her family, she experimented with sedatives like laudanum and had a special governess to control her.