From humble working-class exequies to the massive outpourings of grief at the State funerals of Wellington and Queen Victoria herself, this book covers an immense canvas. It describes the change in sensibility that led to a new tenderness towards the dead; disposal of the dead as part of the great sanitary reforms of the epoch; the history of the urban cemeteries with their architecture and landscapes; the ephemera of death and dying (including wreaths, mourning-cards and jewelry, elaborate hearses crowned with ostrich-feather plumes, mourning-dress, and much more); State funerals as national spectacles; and the utilitarian reactions towards the end of the 19th century. Beautifully illustrated. Over 100 illustrations.