After the passage of the Health Act of 1848, living conditions slowly started improving. Before that date, overcrowded slums with little or no sanitation were common. Streets were often filthy, drains were blocked and sewers overflowed. Even within more affluent middle class homes, the air smelled bad: Cooking smells combined with the stench of commodes and the rancid odour of cheap candles made of animal fat. Before the introduction of slow burning pastilles, urns of potpourri and herb-strewn flagstone floors were the housewife's best defense in the battle against bad odours. But pastilles more effectively masked pungent smells because they were both longer lasting and stronger. The pastille itself could be bought commercially or made to one's own recipe. No wonder Staffordshire's potters made wonderful pastille burning cottages, imaginatively covered in sweet scented flowers, to add fragrance to the air and to delight the eye.