Clean and decent: The history of the bath and loo and of sundry habits, fashions & accessories of the toilet, principally in Great Britain, France & America

Who would have supposed that the Romans had lagged hot-water pipes? That Queen Elizabeth I had a valve water-closet? That Louis IV had cushions in his bath? This informative and hilarious book leads the reader to believe that more may be learned about the past from bathrooms than from battlefields, and that patterns of social history are mirrored in the bathwater.