Ah, those (American) Victorian prudes

One of the most famous stereotypes of Victorian prudishness, courtesy of an appalled Captain Frederick Marryat in A Diary in America (1839):

Note that the good captain thought such "delicacy" was ridiculous, not a sign of feminine purity.  For many British audiences, American "Victorianism" was, in effect, a form of mimicry (or what we now call "cultural cringe").