[AnAmericanMother]

It was not uncommon for folks to fall into the privy and drown . . . it's even recorded here and there, such as the sad story of a "night soil man" (privy cleaner) known as Richard the Raker, who fell through the rotten boards of his privy seat "and died monstrously in his own excrement."

You can read all about it in this amusing book (I keep it in the half-bath for guests). It has photos of many surviving examples, plus a history of conveniences, public and private. I did not know before that the Romans used a sponge on a stick for sanitary purposes, and that there was a sad story in Seneca of a German mercenary who thought it was edible and died of it . . .

[SunkenCiv]

And it’s Scotland, so, y’know, drunk, trying to upchuck...

[HartleyMBaldwin]

A limerick I’ve remembered for many years:

There once was a young man named Clyde
Who fell in a privy and died.
Along came his brother
Who fell in another
And now they’re interred side by side.