Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff was elected the Liberal MP for Elgin in 1857, and, between 1868 and 1880, served as Under Secretary of State for India and then for the Colonies under Gladstone. Between 1881 and 1886, he was Governor of Madras. On returning to Britain he was knighted.

Grant Duff was described by his daughter Clara as a “very vital, rather ugly red-bearded man” and that “many people still remember what a charming picture he made in his puce coat, sitting in his sunny library at York House, with a great grey Persian, Lavender, sitting on his shoulder.”

He bought York House in Twickenham in October 1876 and was host to many famous writers and politicians of the time. His diaries are full of anecdotes and jokes, and are far too lightweight for Ponsonby who scornfully does not even bother to provide a single quotation. He lived there from time to time until 1897 when he sold the property to the Duc d’Orleans.

 He participated in local affairs, both parochial and political, when in Twickenham. In 1888 he took part in the celebrations of the bicentenary of the birth of Alexander Pope

Sometimes described today as a Victorian polymath, he presided at the committee meetings and extended hospitality to the literary figures who were involved: Austin Dobson, Edmund Gosse, Richard Garnett and others. He also presided at the opening of the exhibition in August.