Lady Anne was a daughter of
William King-Noel, 1st Earl of Lovelace, and the Hon.
Augusta Ada Byron, the world's first
computer programmer. Her maternal grandparents were the poet
Lord Byron and
Anne Isabella "Annabella" Noel-Byron, 12th Baroness Wentworth (née Milbanke). In childhood, she was known as Annabella, after the grandmother for whom she was named. Lady Anne was fluent in
French,
German,
Italian,
Spanish and
Arabic, a skilled violinist and a gifted artist who studied drawing with
John Ruskin. She also had a lifelong love of horses, dating from childhood, and was an accomplished
equestrienne. Her interest in the
Arabian horse, combined with Wilfrid's interest in Middle Eastern politics, led to their mutual interest in saving the Arabian breed and thus their many journeys. Lady Anne travelled extensively in the Middle East and is particularly noted as the first European woman to ride through the Arabian desert to reach the city of
Ha'il. The books
Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates and
A Pilgrimage to Nejd are attributed to her and were based on her journals, but were extensively edited by her husband. Her own voice comes through more clearly in her published journals. She owned a violin made by
Stradivarius, since known as the
Lady Blunt Stradivarius, though she was not the original owner. It was extensively refurbished in 1864 by
Jean Baptiste Vuillaume, from whom she purchased the instrument upon recommendation of her instructor,
Leopold Jansa. She possessed the instrument for 30 years, selling it in 1895. Lady Anne's 1869 marriage to Blunt was not a happy one. Her many pregnancies produced a single surviving child,
Judith Blunt-Lytton, 16th Baroness Wentworth. Anne never ceased to grieve over her miscarriages and the babies who died soon after birth. Although a fond father to Judith when she was a child, Blunt made no secret that he would have preferred a son. Lady Anne and Wilfrid differed over management of their horses, with Wilfrid, though the less talented horseman, often prevailing on management decisions. At times, this meant leaving valuable bloodstock in
Egypt under the care of inept managers who neglected the horses to the point that some died of exposure and thirst. In England, his theory that Arabian horses should live under "desert conditions", even in a cold, damp climate, often meant the animals lived with insufficient
fodder and were exposed to the elements to an unnecessary degree. Blunt also had many mistresses, often simultaneously. However, in 1906, when his mistress Dorothy Carleton (later adopted as his niece) moved into their home, Lady Anne, unable to tolerate what she termed an "oriental" lifestyle, left him. The Blunts agreed to a formal separation and the Stud was divided. Lady Anne signed a Deed of Partition drawn up by Wilfrid. Under its terms, Lady Anne kept Crabbet Park and half the horses, while Blunt took Caxtons Farm, also known as Newbuildings, and the rest of the stock. Following the separation, Lady Anne spent several months each year at her
Sheykh Obeyd estate near
Cairo, a 32-acre (129,000 m2) apricot orchard the Blunts had purchased in 1882 and set up as a breeding farm for the horses they owned in Egypt. Her daughter Judith lived full-time at the Crabbet estate with her own husband and children. Finally, leaving the stud under the management of Judith, Lady Anne left England permanently in October 1915 and spent the remaining years of her life at Sheykh Obeyd. == Legacy ==