It's quite toasty temperature wise in the South East at the moment so lots of us will be following the advice.and taking on board lots of liquid. Unfortunately on a hot day back in May 1764 one Thomas Thetcher was not so lucky for he died of drinking cold small beer. The advice on the gravestone is that he should either have drunk strong beer or none at all!
It seems strange that he should have died from drinking what was essentially a very weak, low alcohol beer when that's what everybody had been imbibing since the Middle Ages and was considerably safer than the polluted water of the time. Perhaps he was already unwell with his violent fever. We shall never know, but the story of his demise has survived and can be seen outside Winchester Cathedral. Thetcher is more commonly known as The Hampshire Grenadier and it is indeed a sad tale.
I went in search of this historical gem over my lunchbreak when we danced in the city last weekend.
Arilx
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