DRINKERS have moaned about the price of beer and food abroad for more than 200 years, a newly emerged diary suggests.
Soldier Frederick Shaw let rip in France during the Napoleonic Wars in 1814.
His diary is believed to contain the first recorded gripe about overseas ale prices — at six pence a bottle.
He describes villages he passes through on the way to Paris and the friendly locals, before moaning about the cost in a “cookshop” he visits with two pals.
He writes: “They brought us a plate of giblets worth about one shilling to the best of my opinion.
“We not being satisfied called for another.
“We eat that and bread too and drank four bottles of beer and then called for the reckoning which was brought into our great astonishment was not less than nine shillings, the beer at six pence a bottle.”
Six pence in 1814 would be worth about £6 today.
Britain was part of an alliance pitted against Napoleon, who supposedly declined sex with his wife by saying, “Not tonight Josephine”.
Shaw’s 22-page diary is up for sale for £300 at Dominic Winter Auctions of Cirencester, Gloucs.
