Toilet facilities were quite rudimentary in Shakespeare's day. The simple pot or pewter chamber pot (a wide jug with a handle) was probably the most common toilet receptacle. Shakespeare refers to the chamber pot by its nick-name, 'the jordan', in both 1 Henry IV and 2 Henry IV. The origins of this word are obscure but possibly derive from the flasks of holy, Jordan water brought back from the Holy Land by medieval pilgrims. One bad habit was to empty the contents of the chamber pot or to urinate directly into the hearth. The contents of the chamber pot were normally disposed of into a cess-pit or into the common dung heap. Urine, or 'chamber lye', was sometimes collected and used as an alkaline for laundry purposes. Garden privies, consisting of a wooden seat with a hole cut in it were also used over a cess-pit or an open sewer/stream. These were referred to by such euphemisms as 'the house of office' and the 'jakes'. Wealthy households used close stools which were upholstered box stools with a removeable receptacle, usually a pewter pan, for the collection of urine and faeces. Close stools were used in bedchambers or in a special closet called a 'stool room' or 'privy', or placed behind a screen for privacy. In large houses and castles such rooms were referred to as 'garderobes' (from the French for 'cloakroom') and consisted of a seat over a chute leading directly to a moat or stream. Sir John Harrington invented the water closet before 1600 but it was not in general use until much later.