I see.
Well, about pee places: Sharpe lives in the Napoleonic era and finds himself in Middle- Earth. I´m not sure but as far as I know Tolkien never made any comments about toilets.
May be even Gondor is much more simple (or advanced) concerning this as we think ( remember all the jokes about Aragorn not washing himself very often :-))
So Richard could use a chamber pot for not being able to find the place he´s looking for? :-)
Or he doesn´t recognize it (advanced possibility). :-)