gentility carrying nosegays
Can't go for this explanation. They had enough to do when going down the street. They wore swords, gloves, and hats (which had to be doffed when encountering an acquaintance) and often carried their handkerchief (lace-trimmed) in their hand. Given the fact that ordinary people (i.e., other than the wealthy) didn't bath very often and no one, not even kings, had their silk and velvet clothes cleaned very often or very thoroughly, body odor was taken for granted which we, in these supposedly politer times of ours, would find insupportable. Then there was bad breath -- people had bad teeth much more than we do and I don't believe they brushed, except for maybe a few effete aristocrats. And given the absence or sewerage systems, or only a primitive form of it, the use of the jakes or the chamber pot by everyone, people were accustomed to the omnipresent stench, to some degree or other, of feces, offals and garbage. I imagine they were so used to the all-encompassing cloud of foul smells from various sources that they didn't notice smells which we would find intolerable if we were carried back in time. It would have been an unusually powerful stench which would get them upset enough to take measures to counter them, and which, to us, would be enough to knock us down.
I too am grateful for modern sewerage systems, as well as washing machines and personal deodorants, but I wonder if we have taken this too far. The other day I found myself curling up my nose as I passed a flowerbed which had been treated to a fresh covering of mulch, which was very fragrant, and I had to remind myself not to be such an urban mollycoddle.
