Women's Clothing and Public Conveniences in the Victorian Era

Before the 1890s, women had to make use of dank alleyways and try somehow to find some privacy and relieve themselves in the city streets. The Victorian version of a shee-wee, something called a Bordeaux-Lou, was more like a gravy boat, a sauce boat. This may be apocryphal, I suspect it is, but apparently in France there was a preacher who gave excessively long sermons,. These little Bordeaux were brought by women and hidden in their muffs, and then taken out and used under their skirts so that they could continue to listen to the sermon.