Although he is an expert in landscaping, Smythe is rather dim in every other respect. Mrs Perkins knows this very well so it feels only natural to take him completely in hand when he makes a serious error like traipsing through her kitchen getting the floor muddy. If he can’t learn a simple thing like removing his boots then he deserves to be stripped and scrubbed clean in an old bath like an animal. Smythe is highly conscious that at any moment someone else in the house could walk right in with him standing here buck naked and humiliated.