How does Connie Willis use imagery in Doomsday Book?

Example of Imagery:

"We can hear the plague. The villages toll the death knell after burial, nine strokes for a man, three for a woman, one for a baby, and then an hour of steady tolling. Esthcote had two this morning, and Osney has tolled continuously since yesterday. The bell in the southwest that I told you I could hear when I first came through has stopped. I don't know whether that means the plague is finished there or whether there's no one left alive to ring the bell."