NEED TO KNOW:
‘anthem’: a choral hymn or song
‘passing bells’: a church bell or other bell rung when someone has died
‘orisons’: prayers (spoken aloud)
‘bugles’: brass musical instruments like a small trumpet, traditionally used by fox-hunters or by soldiers to give signals to other huntsmen or soldiers
‘shires’: British counties where the soldiers’ homes were – men from a particular county (e.g. Lancashire, Gloucestershire, Norfolk) were often grouped in regiments with their county’s name
‘candles’: traditionally carried by choirboys at church services, including funerals
‘speed’: send onward with good wishes – people used to wish travellers ‘Godspeed’ (like ‘fare well’) as they began a journey
‘pallor’: paleness of face – a sign of shock or grief
‘pall’: a cloth covering draped over a coffin or a tomb
‘drawing down of blinds’: it was (and in places still is) the custom to close the curtains of a house when someone who lived there had just died – as both a mark of respect and a way of telling the neighbourhood what had happened