 He had already been introduced to classical literature by his father, reading Herodotus at the age of six.His mother Margaret would always read to the children – who by now included all four brothers and Philippa Tooth whom the Chenevix-Trenches looked after while her parents remained in India – at bedtime, including G. K. Chesterton, Kipling, and Greek and Roman myths.Towards the end of his life Chenevix-Trench described how this had inspired him, and said that "the words still sing in my mind like music".