Robert, an aspiring diplomat, was relatively poor for a member of the British upper classes, although his father Edward Bulwer-Lytton was a well-known writer and was raised to the peerage in 1866.

[1] The Delhi Durbar of 1877 was held beginning on 1 January 1877 to proclaim Queen Victoria as Empress of India.

[1] Her daughter Emily retained an interest in Indian culture after the family's return to England and was converted to theosophy.

He seemed to make a good impression as when he died suddenly in Paris in 1891 he was given, unusually, a state funeral in France.

She became Queen Victoria's Lady-in-Waiting (Lady of the Bedchamber) in 1895 taking the post left vacant by Susanna, Duchess of Roxburghe.

She was asked personally by the Queen and she received £300 per year and served with eight other aristocratic maids of honour.

[9] When the Queen died, Edith rode with the body on the funeral journey from London to Windsor.

The house was designed circa 1901 by her son-in-law Sir Edwin Lutyens, in Arts and Crafts style.

[12] Her daughter Constance suffered a stroke in 1912 and returned to live at Homewood,[13] remaining there until shortly before her death in 1923.

[16] Another granddaughter, Elisabeth Lutyens, mentioned Edith's life at Homewood when recalling her own childhood in her autobiography A Goldfish Bowl (1972).