Why did the Victorian Elite Snub Indoor Plumbing?

Prior the American Civil War, both sides of the Atlantic were dirty. It wasn’t until the 1880s that the middle class in US cities began having water pumped into their houses, though the first bathrooms were frequently found in basements as plumbing rarely extended beyond one floor. On the other side of the sea, Charles Dickens was an oddball for having an up-to-the-minute bathroom installed in 1851. Most people were content with sponge baths. Bathing your whole body everyday had yet to truly catch on.
Oddly, the middle class and nouveau riche rushed to adopt this new technology, while the elites hung back. Soon, snobbishness had them turning up their noses at indoor plumbing.

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