'Upon one memorable exception, only, she was called upon by the Prince; and, indeed, expressly sent for to Brighton, to give her opinion on a step of great political importance which he was about to take, but her influence, then, had been, some time, on the wane. He told her that he had sent for her to ask her opinion, and that he demanded it of her, with regard to the party to which he was about, as Regent, to confide the administration of the country. At his commands, she urged in the most forcible manner that she was able, his adherence to his former political friends. Knowing all his engagements to that party, she used every argument and every entreaty to induce him not to sever himself from them. "Only retain them, Sir, six weeks in power. If you please, you may find some pretext to dismiss them at the end of that time; but do not break with them without some pretext or other." Such was her request to him. He answered, "It was impossible, as he had promised"; but, at the same time, she observed that he seemed much overpowered by the effort it cost him. Finding that resistance to a determination so fixed was unavailing, she asked to be allowed to return to Brighton, which she did; but, previously to leaving him, she said that, as he had done her the honour of imposing upon her his commands of freely declaring her sentiments upon this occasion, she hoped he would permit her, before she left him, to offer one suggestion, which she trusted he would not take amiss.
'She then urged upon him, as strongly as she was able, the disadvantages which must accrue to his future happiness from treating his daughter, the Princess Charlotte, with so little kindness. "You, now, Sir," she said, "may mould her at your pleasure, but, soon, it will not be so; and she may become, from mismanagement, a thorn in your side, for life." "That is your opinion, Madam," was his only reply.
'I must, here, also add that, not only with the Royal Family, but, also, with the Princess Caroline, Mrs. Fitzherbert was always on the best terms. As to the Princess Charlotte, Mrs. Fitzherbert said, the Prince was much attached to her for some years; indeed, he was generally fond of children and young people, and it was only when the Princess Charlotte became the subject of constant altercation betwixt him and those who took part with Queen Caroline, that he, at last, began to see her with more coolness. Upon one occasion, Mrs. Fitzherbert told me, she was much affected by the Princess Charlotte throwing her arms round her neck, and beseeching her to speak to her father, that he would receive her with greater marks of his affection; and she told me that she could not help weeping with this interesting child.'
She spent the latter part of her life almost entirely at Brighton, beloved by the townsfolk for her goodness and charity, and whilst she lived her servants invariably wore the Royal livery. She died in 1837, and was buried in the Old Catholic Church[80] at Brighton, where a handsome monument was erected to her memory by the Hon. Mrs. Lionel Dawson Damer, whom we have known as Miss Mary Seymour. It bears the following inscription:
'In a vault near this spot, are deposited the remains of Maria Fitzherbert. She was born on the 26th July, 1756, and expired at Brighton, on the 29th March, 1837. One, to whom she was more than a parent, has placed this monument to her revered and beloved memory, as a humble tribute of her gratitude and affection.'
On her wedding-finger are three rings, in allusion to her three marriages.
The Prince was more or less at Brighton in 1808, 1809, and 1810, when came the death of the Princess Amelia, and the mental aberration of the poor old King. On February 11, 1811, the Prince of Wales was sworn in as Regent, and for the next two or three years Brighton saw little of him; only the Pavilion was always growing bigger. Marlborough House was purchased, in 1812, for £9,000, and in 1813 a series of improvements and additions were made, which lasted till 1818. In 1814 the King of Prussia and the Emperor of Russia came to England on a visit—the former, in passing through Brighton, spending ten minutes at the Pavilion for refreshment, and the latter going all over it, besides walking on the Steine.
Queen Charlotte paid a visit to the Prince Regent at the Pavilion on October 24, 1814, accompanied by the Princesses Elizabeth and Mary, and they stopped until the 29th, visiting, during their stay, various parts of the town, and expressing themselves much satisfied with the situation and appearance of the place, and the general respectability and conduct of the inhabitants. Before her Majesty left the town, she ordered £50 to be distributed among the poor, and became the patroness of the Dollar Society for their relief, towards which both she and the Princesses liberally subscribed.
They paid another visit to Brighton the next year, as the Gentleman's Magazine for 1815 records:
'Brighton. Dec. 14.—Her Majesty and the two Princesses arrived on a visit to the Prince Regent, at the Pavilion. The principal inhabitants, having received permission, went to Patcham, dressed in buff and mounted, to escort her Majesty; a dutiful address was presented on the occasion, to which her Majesty returned a gracious verbal answer. Her Majesty, on entering Brighton, seemed to be highly pleased with the attention paid her, and repeatedly bowed to the gentlemen who escorted her. The Prince Regent remained from three o'clock until the arrival of his august mother, outside the gate of the Pavilion, with the Duke of Clarence and several of the nobility, to receive the Queen and Princesses.—On the 16th, her Majesty, accompanied by the Duke of Clarence, with the two Princesses, in a carriage, passed through the principal streets of the town, notwithstanding the dampness of the atmosphere, and was every where received with the most marked respect and homage.'