] I'd imgine keeping your clothes clean then, would be far easier than it is now. Although, once they DID get dirty, all my sympathy lies with the poor maids who had to do the laundry in the days before washing machines.

And there you have it. Cleanliness takes work, and work in those days meant servants. If JA is to be believed, ladies were out and about a good deal more than you imply -- the Bennet girls traipsing about the countryside, and the Dashwoods paying calls around London. The world is made of dirt, and a woman in a long dress who goes out in it will invariably get dirty, not to mention the lingering olfactory effect of the healthy glow of exercise. The same is even more true for men. The ability to change into clean clothes at need is a matter of having a maid regularly standing over the washpot. People who could afford to stood out clearly from those who couldn't.

This story is off topic, but I love it anyway. During the Great Depression, when $2,500 a year was a middle class income, one of the Vanderbilts was told that an acquaintance's income had been reduced to $50,000. "Fifty thousand dollars a year," he replied. "You can't keep clean on fifty thousand dollars a year!"