Quick note on a strange occurrence the other day…
I was leaving home in the morning, heading for the bus stop to go in to the university. As I approached the end of our street, and the turn onto the more major cross-street, I was surprised to see a Victorian hearse pass.
Two beautiful grey horses in fancy tack and bridle (complete with the feather head dress) drawing an elaborate, gilded and ornamented, glass sided wagon containing what appeared to be a coffin. The whole affair was driven by two men in formal dress — coat and long tails, top hat, the whole bit. It was a vision out of a Dickens novel, for sure.
This surprising conveyance was followed by just two dark, limousine-style cars. (And then a red London city bus.)
I assume that it was really a funeral arrangement of some sort. I was just surprised to see it trotting down a city street in what is not precisely an upper-class or elaborate area. I think of horse and carriage as being something that people hire for weddings and other romantic occasions, not for funerals. And there wasn’t a long line of mourners following. (Though the tradition of a huge number of cars following a slow hearse and paralyzing traffic for miles around may be more of a US thing. I don’t know.) It just felt… Out of place, I guess, in the middle of a neighborhood of early 20th century row houses filled with immagrents and making its way through dense traffic.
