 In 1840 and 1842 , mother and son travelled together on the continent , journeys that Mary Shelley recorded in Rambles in Germany and Italy in 1840 , 1842 and 1843 ( 1844 ) . In 1844 , Sir Timothy Shelley finally died at the age of ninety , " falling from the stalk like an overblown flower " , as Mary put it . For the first time , she and her son were financially independent , though the estate proved less valuable than they had hoped . 
