From the mid-1790s, Beau Brummell’s celebrity status popularised wearing clean clothing and bathing. It was much needed in an era where many people including notaries and aristocrats, such as Charles James Fox and the Duke of Norfolk (Charles Howard 1746–1815), were notoriously filthy. When the Duke was complaining one day to a gentleman that he had tried everything possible to cure his rheumatism Brummell supposedly replied, ‘Pray, my Lord, did you ever try a clean shirt?’
