That was the good stuff. During many parts of our past history, weekly bathing in a river would have qualified a girl as delightfully clean. According to history.com :
"The Western European belief that baths were unhealthy did not help matters, either. Although neat freak Henry VIII bathed often and changed his undershirts daily, he was a royal rarity. “Louis XIV took two baths in his life, as did Queen Isabella of Castile,” Herman says. “Marie-Antoinette bathed once a month.” The 17th century British King James I was said to never bathe, causing the rooms he frequented to be filled with lice.
I think by the time the 19th century came around, bathing and decent hygiene were a bit more popular.