ILLUSTRATION: FEMKE DE JONG
If we were to transport ourselves into an English town or city in the 18th century, we would be struck by a panoply of pungent pongs and perfumes. But for the Georgian gents and ladies who populated Jane Austen’s novels, these smells would hardly be worth mentioning. People got used to the smells around them very quickly. So, whilst the unsanitary streets of Georgian towns would have offended our 21st-century noses, they elicited very little comment from people at the time.