concerning to ourselves. The servants of the family,
it seems, had told their friends, and those their's, that though, living,
their dear young lady could not be received nor looked upon, her body was
permitted to be brought home. The space of time was so confined, that
those who knew when she died, must easily guess near the time the hearse
was to come. A hearse, passing through country villages, and from
London, however slenderly attended, (for the chariot, as I have said,
waited upon poor Mrs. Norton,) takes every one's attention. Nor was it
hard to guess whose this must be, though not adorned by escutcheons, when
the cross-roads to Harlowe-place were taken, as soon as it came within
six miles of it; so that the hearse, and the solemn tolling of the bell,
had drawn together at least fifty, or the neighbouring men, women, and
children, and some of good appearance. Not a soul of them, it seems,
with a dry eye, and each lamenting the death of this admired lady, who,
as I am told, never stirred out, but somebody was the better for her.

These, when the coffin was taken out of the hearse, crowding about it,
hindered, for a few moments, its being carried in; the young people
struggling who should bear it; and yet, with respectful whisperings,
rather than clamorous contention. A mark of veneration I had never
before seen paid, upon any occasion in all my travels, from the
under-bred many, from whom noise is generally inseparable in all their
emulations.

At last six maidens were permitted to carry it in by the six handles.

The corpse was thus borne, with the most solemn respect, into the hall,
and placed for the present upon two stools there. The plates, and
emblems, and inscription, set every one gazing upon it, and admiring it.
The more, when they were told, that all was of her own ordering. They
wished to be permitted a sight of the corpse; but rather mentioned this
as their wish than as their hope. When they had all satisfied their
curiosity, and remarked upon the emblems, they dispersed with blessings
upon her memory, and with tears and lamentations; pronouncing her to be
happy; and inferring, were she not so, what would become of them? While
others ran over with repetitions of the good she delighted to do. Nor
were there wanting those among them, who heaped curses upon the man who
was the author of her fall.

The servants of the family then got about the coffin. They could not
before: and that afforde