} There were no cars, buses, trains, smog, cigarette smoke, pollution from airports, power plants and city dumps. I'd imgine keeping your clothes clean then, would be far easier than it is now.

Perhaps not, because there were horses in large numbers (with associated droppings), there was certainly smog in London - far more than there is today, and people didn't bath so often. For an idea of how filthy it was, read the opening of `Bleak House'.

White clothing then, as ever, was a status symbol.