recipe for ensuring that one's breeches were whiter than white,and crisper than crisp ;-)

Brush well and damp with clean water. Then apply the mixure all over very throughly but lightly. Isinglass half an ounce, Powedered pumice one ounce. White Soap 2oz.Pipe clay 3 cakes. Starch a large spoonful. Sweet oil 6 spoonfuls. Mix well wirh boiling water to a thick cream. Let the breech dry slowly and throughly, then dust well with a cane, stretch to proper shape on breech trees and iron with a box iron , take care not to scorch.

Dorothy Hartley, Water in England(1964)