> I can't understand how anyone who has ever tried well-water can believe that misconception about choosing beer over water. But for urban folk in the middle o

> I can't understand how anyone who has ever tried well-water can believe that misconception about choosing beer over water. But for urban folk in the middle of London, or New York, was the water they were consuming as fresh as what you're imagining when you think of "well water?" Even if it was drawn from nearby wells, and not from dirty cisterns, was their sewage system good enough to keep it from getting contaminated? I don't know so much about water cleanliness, and the article suggests it may not have been that dirty, but I wouldn't assume that it was all as clean as a perfect little rural well.