16. After Mary’s death, her son found she had kept a strange memento of his father in her writing desk.
In 1826, Percy Florence’s half-brother, Charles died of tuberculosis. Percy was now Sir Timothy Shelley’s heir- and inherited the baronetcy from him in 1844. Mary had the satisfaction of seeing her son married and settled comfortably. The last years of her life were spent living in comfort at Field Place, The Shelley’s ancestral home. Those last years, were, however, plagued with illness. Finally, in February 1851, Mary died at the age of 53. She was buried with her mother and father who were moved from St Pancras graveyard to St Peters church in Bournemouth, so they were near to Sir Percy and his wife’s new home.
After his mother had been dead for a year, Percy Florence finally decided to open her portable writing desk. Inside he found various sentimental mementos of Mary’s life. There were locks of her dead children’s hair, one of the notebooks she had shared with Shelley and a copy of his poem Adonais. One of the pages of the verse was wrapped around a silk parcel. When he opened the package, Percy Florence found he was holding the charred remains of his father’s heart.
Where Do we get This Stuff? Here are our Sources:
Chambers Biographical Dictionary, ed. Magnus Magnusson, Chambers, 1990
Shelley, The Pursuit, Richard Holmes, Harper perennial 2005
Mary Shelley, Muriel Spar, Carcanet, 2013
The Strange, True Tale of Frankenstein’s Creator Mary Shelley, Catherine Reef, Clarion Books, 2018
Germany’s Most Monstrous Castle, Lindsey Galloway, BBC Travel, October 29, 2016