In 1938, the pair married; he was a cousin of her sister-in-law Fidelity Cranbrook (née Seebohm, second wife of the fourth Earl).
[1] She had previously been engaged to James Lees-Milne, an expert in English country houses, and they remained on good terms.
[1] The Hills lived in Warwick Avenue, Maida Vale, and later in Richmond.
[1] She researched her family tree and became intrigued by Captain Edward Trelawny, a friend of the poets Byron and Shelley.
Her brothers were John, 4th Earl of Cranbrook, booksellers Edward and Robert, and Anthony, whose son was the writer Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy.