 She spent much of her childhood at St Paul 's Walden and at Glamis Castle , the Earl 's ancestral home in Scotland . She was educated at home by a governess until the age of eight , and was fond of field sports , ponies and dogs . When she started school in London , she astonished her teachers by precociously beginning an essay with two Greek words from Xenophon 's Anabasis . Her best subjects were literature and scripture . After returning to private education under a German Jewish governess , Käthe Kübler , she passed the Oxford Local Examination with distinction at age thirteen . 
