So You Idealize Victorian England? The Reality Was Rather More… Smelly Than You Might Have Thought

“To the modern sensibility, even the most carefully turned-out Victorian — male or female — reeked. Heavy perfumes covered bodily smells; onion juice was a popular hair tonic; dental hygiene was primitive and certainly not concerned with freshness of breath. Households were poorly ventilated, so various cooking smells clung to fabrics and damp walls.”