Bathtubs were not the norm and, where they did exist, were normally used at the end of the day (we will examine them in detail towards the end of the book). They were largely used by men. Modesty played a large part in this. Men might have felt happy wandering along the corridor of a wealthy house in a bathrobe, but far fewer women did – they would have felt much too vulnerable and exposed. In the few working-class homes that employed a tin bath in front of the fire, men
