Some attributed the disability to a peasant's curse, whilst others have speculated it was due to Lady Kavanagh taking laudanum during her pregnancy.
[3] Kavanagh refused to treat her son differently to his siblings, and with the help of local doctor Francis Boxwell, raised him as a normal child.
[1] With the help of the surgeon Sir Philip Crampton, she has a mechanical wheelchair constructed for Arthur, and also encouraged him to ride horses and engage in other outdoor activities.
As an antiquarian, Kavanagh also wanted to visit Egypt and the Holy Land, setting off on the long journey from Marseilles in October 1846.
[4] In Cairo, she hired two feluccas with Arab crews, and visited archaeological sites along the Nile, such as Thebes, Karnak, and the Nubia region.
[1] She visited harems and a slave market and recorded the journey's incidents in her diary, including her son Arthur's accidental near drowning when he fell off their boat whilst fishing.
[2] Whilst visiting Jerusalem in Easter 1847, she bore witness to a confrontation over the control of holy places between Roman and Orthodox Catholics priests.