The British Hearse and the British Funeral

Nigel Scott’s seminal work charts the history of two vital yet little lauded British institutions: the funeral, and the means of transportation used to get there. From the early country hearses which consisted of a simple farm cart converted for the purpose, to the over-wrought fussy finery of the Victorian age and eventually the ushering in of the motor hearse in the early twentieth century, it is these diverse vehicles that have often defined the funerals to which they travelled, be they of famous folk such as Lord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, Sir Walter Scott and Thomas Hardy, or the largely unremembered but none the less worthy dead. For, like it or not, the funeral in British culture has always been, and always will be, an occasion. For as the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould one remarked, ‘There is no form of enjoyment more relished by a West Country man or woman than a “buryin”.’ Painstakingly researched over many years and drawing together a unique collection of more than 100 rare photographs and illustrations from archives all over Britain, The British Hearse and the British Funeral is an invaluable reference work for the historian and a fascinating social history of our nation from a unique perspective.