Dear LPG readers,

Here is a question. Have you noticed just how many fragranced candles we buy these days? They make excellent presents for our older friends who have everything, because they need replacing once lit. So, you can re-purchase them next year with the confidence that you will not be adding to any clutter issues they might have. But have you noticed how expensive they are now? Not so long ago, they were also a cheap gift, but no longer. I remember a time, not that long ago, when you might have hesitated to buy one for a friend in case they thought they were receiving it because you believed their house smelled. 

What we do know about times gone by hints that the UK must have been a pretty smelly place throughout parts of history, even though not all people threw the contents of the chamber pots out of their windows. The nursery rhyme ‘Ring of Roses’ carries the line ‘a pocket full of poses’ which is supposed to reference the fact that during the great plague of London in 1665 people would carry flowers around when they went out in a bid to protect themselves from the plague which they thought had more to do with the smell of our green and pleasant land than anything else. 

Most of it was much greener then because the industrial revolution had not yet arrived, but that must have been a challenging place for the noses of the local population too. Even during my lifetime, I, a child who grew up in London, cannot help but remember school skating lessons. The coach took us to Streatham Ice Rink, and we shared that coach with the Horse-Riding Class. On the way there, they were dropped off before us and, during the return journey, they would be picked up afterwards. I can still remember the trouble we skaters had each week, having experienced the fresh smell of ice, as we anticipated the return of the horse-riding class and the mucking-out smell they brought into the coach on the return journey each week.

On one occasion, my parents booked a stay at a rural bed and breakfast as part of a weekend getaway, and as soon as we arrived, I knew that the smell was not for me. I remember we had some food in the car boot and, in our collective opinion, the farmyard smell that came with it was so bad that my siblings and I begged our parents not to open the boot until we left, fearing our snacks would be contaminated. By the next morning, our noses had become somewhat accustomed, and breakfast included cereal, which my siblings and I were looking forward to, until our host mentioned that the milk came straight from the cow! Ironically, we skipped that course but had no problem with the eggs and bacon, which also came from the farm. 

Smells are part of life, and many we have learnt to accept because they act as introductory effects that our other senses appreciate. The smell of a good dinner is acceptable at the right time, though most noses would not enjoy it when they are preparing for a bath, for example.
One conclusion from all this is that many other smells affect us both positively and negatively, which is why it has become more acceptable to give smelly presents. 

UT, Hither Green.

UT shares some information about the realities for our noses over the years…

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