the funeral for maria kilvert (several dreadful struggles)

in 1870 it is the day of the funeral for maria kilvert.  

'the coffin had been brought downstairs and was waiting in the hallway covered with the black velvet sweeping soft pall, white bordered. boom went the great bell of the cathedral. church was over...

boom went the great bell again. the coffin went out immediately and the pall bearers filed out in pairs after it., taking their places and holding each his pall tassel on either side...

the bearers had been selected not at all with reference to their fitness for the task... the coffin seemed very heavy. as the procession moved across college green to the cloister arch, the men struggled under the weight and the coffin lurched and tilted to one side over the short bearer...

... there was a dreadful struggle at the steps leading up from the cloister to the door. the bearers were quite unequal to the task and the coffin seemed crushingly heavy. there was a stamping and a scuffling, a mass of struggling men swaying to and fro, pushing and writhing and wrestling while the coffin sank and rose and sank again. once or twice I thought the whole mass of men must have been down together with the coffin atop them and some one killed or maimed at least...

in the choir there was another dreadful struggle to let the coffin down. the bearers were completely outweighted, they bowed and bent and nearly fell and threw the coffin down on the floor. when it was safely deposited we all retired to seats right and left...' 

later the will is read (kilvert's father is not so badly off as at first appeared - he does better than a few rose bushes). it now seems to horsemouth that kilvert's worrying about his father and mother being done done is a projection, kilvert himself could do with being richer, with having some prospects.

kilvert shows considerable comic timing in these passages (and those concerning the disgruntled and unwelcoming servants of the house). it is the most liberty plomer (his editor) allows him.

at the end (that evening) a peal of bells. 

''that is for miss kilvert,' whispered the officious ladies' maid to me in the porch.' 

up the field the deer is back picking its way cautiously along the hedge (horsemouth wonders where it is getting in). horsemouth supposes it is after the windfall apples. 

horsemouth wants to get on with re-doing the fencing round the hen's enclosure. the wire is old and prone to fray and break. his plan is to wander into the village with a rucksack and pick up some more wire. he'd also like to get some more small paving slabs (to finish off the path round the raised beds).