The Adventure of Dame Elizabeth Woodcock.

This was the cottage of Mrs Elizabeth Woodcock of Impington. She attended Cambridge market on Sat 2nd Feb 1799, and having disposed of her eggs and butter, started on her way home. Heavy snow had fallen when she set off on her horse. Stopping at the Three Tuns alehouse, she replenished her flask and herself with brandy. Halfway home, she fell off her horse and was unable to remount. Numbed with cold and much shaken, she took shelter under a hawthorn bush, where the snow drifted over her. Early Sunday morning, she heard church bells and voices, but was unable to attract attention. On the Monday, she made a flag from her red handkerchief, tied onto a twig, which she poked through the snow. This eventually led to her discovery by the Parish Clerk, the following Sunday, after a week had elapsed. The horse had wandered away. She did not live long after the adventure and was taken ill and died 24th July 1799 aged 43. Her burial notice says that she was in a state of intoxication when she was lost and her death was hastened (to say the least) by spirituous liquors afterwards taken, procured by the donations of numerous visitors. Although this is a sad story, I can't help picturing this woman, drunk on a horse, then the brandy helping her to survive, before helping to cause her death ! This lovely old cottage looks due for re-thatching.