That the funeral business was an excellent trade can hardly be
doubted. One writer in Leisure Hour in 1862 describes the
business as extortionate. In numberless instances the interment
of the dead is in the hands of miscreants, whom it is almost
flattery to compare to the vulture, or the foulest carrion bird.
. . the morality is, in their hands, to use a plain word,
robbery.The bereaved were often led into spending more than was
either necessary or desirable and paying inflated prices for no
purpose other than to increase the profits of those in the
industry. But not everyone profited from a funeral. When a
funeral became a major event, it had ramifications for tradesmen
as well. A linen-draper, writing to The Times (4 June 1830),
noted that when King George IV took ill, his very successful
trade in "coloured silks, prints, ribands, and every kind of
fancy and coloured goods" had stopped and he went on to say that
"all my hopes are blighted." Three weeks later, the King died
and a period of general mourning w