Laides' drawers (pardon the expression!) used to comprise two separate legs a long time ago: they tied at the waist, and you didn't have to take 'em off to -- what do you Americans say? -- to go to the bathroom. (Although you would to take a bath.) And if you check put your Hogarth, you'll find they were covenient for other things too. If an 18th C woman with a time machine fancied a quick 'un with an ancient Brit, she'd hardly have been missed ...
Steve

P.S.
There was a young curate of Salisbury
Whose antics were quite halisbury-scalisbury:
He'd run around Hampshire
Without any pampshire
Till his bishop said he must walisbury!