]
] Perhaps not, because there were horses in large numbers (with associated droppings),

True, but while horse droppings may have been icky to step in....one power plant or steel mill or nuclear processing station of today, would far out weigh the effect of horse droppings of the 1800's. How many cases were there in the 1800's of babies being born with no arms, or other horrific birth defects, or horrible cancerous tumours cropping up in the inhabitants of towns that just "happended" to be down river of a chemical plant ? Not many. After all where is the Love Canal or the Chernobyl of the 1800's ?

( I hope this doesn't seem to "political" for board supervisors. I am trying to express an opinion on environmental matters of the 1800's, not make a political statement, which I know is frowned upon here )

there was certainly smog in London - far more than there is today, and people didn't bath so often.

True, sanitation was sorely lacking in JA's time, but I am refering to overall pollution, not just the lack of proper bathing habits or a decent sewer system.

For an idea of how filthy it was, read the opening of `Bleak House'.

I have read Bleak House but I don't think is is fair to compare lifestyles during Dickens time and Jane Austens. Dickens was born in 1812, only a year before JA began publishing her novels. When Dickens was writing, the Industrial Revolution was in full swing. There was huge migration to towns and cities by country folk, whose rural lifestyles and jobs were all but obliterated by the "progress" brought by on the Industrial Revolution. This influx of poor, under-educated people led to the creation of some of the worst urban slums London has ever seen, which Dickens depicts only to well. This horrible urban problem had yet to explode in JA's time.

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

I agree, pure white is, even if you were mega rich. However pale, lightish fabrics with no significant pattern or embellishment were still the norm for young women to wear, they were cheaper to produce and to buy.