Horse and Buggy Age in New England

From Chapter 1: "In the horse and buggy age the finest privately owned vehicle in the New England city where I live was Charles Dillon's hearse. This hearse was a reduced replica of Grant's Tomb. Drawn by a perfectly matched pair of coal-black horses, people used to turn and gaze with admiration at the mobile mausoleum as it rolled slowly down the street bound for one or another of our cemeteries."