I. Those who never raise the dress, but walk through thick and thin, with real or affected indifference to mud. These are generally country ladies, who have never been abroad and but little in town.
    II. Those who raise the dress, but allow the mass of underclothes, like the mud-carts in Regent Street, to collect the mud and beat it up to the middle of the leg. This class is the most common.
    III. Those chosen few, who, without offending the rules of modesty, which of course must take precedence of all others, know how to raise both dress and petticoats, so as to protect both.

[a categorization of women by ...]
Edward John Tilt, Elements of Health and Principles of Female Hygiene, 1852

see also London by Day and Night - click here

A Great Bore in an Omnibus

AT this wet and dirty season of the year, men sitting in an omnibus frequently sustain some little inconvenience, in having every now and then their knees brushed by a lady who gets into the vehicle, with her enormous skirts, on which she has swept up a lot of mud in the streets, and necessarily wipes it off upon their trousers. It is high time that omnibuses should be made four times as broad as they are now, in order that the extravagant apparel of the female passengers may be consistent with the comfort and cleanliness of the others, who may be unwilling to ride outside to oblige a lady, or unable to do so even with the view of avoiding a nuisance.

Punch, December 14, 1861

GENTLEMAN. "I am not going to wade through that Mud."
CAD. "Bill, pull up a bit nearer to the near side for a Swell as Cleans his own Boots."

Punch, March 15, 1862

see also W.J.Gordon in article The Cleansing of London - click here