In these public scenes she assumed a dignity which well became her, but which she was as well pleased to lay aside as soon as the occasion which called for it had passed. Nothing gave her more gratification, for instance, after receiving congratulatory addresses from corporations and other similar bodies, which she did with mingled stateliness and courtesy, than to not only change her dress of ceremony for a more ordinary one, but to take off her stays! The latter odd fashion was not favourable to a figure which was now far removed from the grace which had distinguished the Princess in her earlier years. It can be scarcely said that in this year she lost one friend more by the death of her mother. The declining years of the aged Duchess of Brunswick had been years of sorrow. She had long been a sufferer from confirmed asthma, and in March 1813 she was attacked by an epidemic which was fatally prevalent throughout the metropolis. It was attended by, or rather consisted of, cough and difficulty of breathing. This attack aggravated her other sufferings; but, though confined to her bed, she was not considered in danger when her daughter saw her for the last time, on the 22nd of March 1813. The Princess remained with the Duchess several hours, and took leave without suspecting that she was never again to see her mother alive. At nine that night the Duchess was seized with violent spasmodic attacks, under which she rapidly sunk; and, at seventy-six years of age, the ‘Lady Augusta,’ who was born in St. James’s Palace, died in a modest lodging-house, and was quietly interred in Westminster Abbey. It is due to the Prince Regent to say that on the occasion of the death of the Duchess of Brunswick he exhibited becoming and courteous feeling, by suggesting to the Princess Charlotte that she should pay a visit to her mother, to condole with her on this bereavement. It was suggested that after the funeral would be the most appropriate season for such a visit; but the Princess, with quicker wit or more ready sympathy, repaired at once to her mother’s residence, and thus afforded her a gratification which was probably the more appreciated as it was the less expected. This was more sympathy than she received at the hands of some persons, who probably conceived that by behaving rudely to her they should be paying court to a higher power. Thus, in the course of the summer the Princess went to sup at Mr. Angerstein’s. Lord and Lady Buckinghamshire were there. ‘The latter behaved very rudely, and went away immediately after the Princess arrived. Whatever her principles, political or moral, may be, I think,’ says Lady Charlotte Campbell, who tells the anecdote, ‘that making a curtsy to the person invested with the rank of Princess of Wales would be much better taste and more like a lady than turning her back and hurrying out of the room.’