In James Clavell's ShÅgun, one of the characters from England is upset when his Japanese captors try to give him a bath, because he thinks that the bath will make him sick.
He eventually comes around to the idea of bathing, and even cites a phobia of bathing as something that he sees as a backwards part of English culture.
Is there a historical basis for the idea that people in England used to be afraid of bathing?
Before the middle ages bathing was common, but when public bath houses came along the church didn't like it and spread stories that public bathing led to immorality and disease. Eventually they outlawed public baths. People started to think that bathing opened the pores which allowed disease in. They also thought that disease could leave the body through the pores after bathing and infect others through the air. Poor people limited themselves to washing their hands, and the wealthy only bathed a few times a year. They also believed that washing the face could damage eyesight.