Barbara Barnes, Edna Walling's niece recalls:

This lesbianism thing in connection with her. Yes she was a lesbian, but what sort of lesbian I'm very interested to know. I was very close to her, spent weekends there and was associated with her, with her women friends and also men. They were working relationships I think, more than they were - definitely essential just because of the physicality of living. But the sexuality, I was never aware of it and I was never aware of them concealing anything from me and I was aware of the closeness of those friendships. Don't know about this, about the lesbian aspect from a sexual point of view except that I know that Aunt wore jodhpurs and man's clothing and men's hats. But I'm sure from the perfectly practical reason that if you're a gardener and climbing through fences and all the rest of it it's much easier to be dressed in trousers rather than a skirt. I know that from my own experience that that's the way. But in those days there weren't trousers made for women, but there were jodhpurs as acceptable attire for women. Though Aunt didn't ride, she loved horses and so she just took to wearing jodhpurs as suitable gear.