Britain's 500 Best Pubs
Book Review by Ben Daube
This is a fine book. Whether you like "real
(cask conditioned) ale", bottled lager, cider, or even if
you just like Britain, it's bound to catch your interest. And
once you start looking through it, you're likely to start salivating.
To review it with justice, though, one would have to sample a fair number of the places described. However, I was only in the country for 3 days. Furthermore, I was doing the driving and preferred to avoid blowing into breathalyzers, so I hope you will forgive me for a certain lack of thoroughness.
Public houses have always been a vital part of British society and Roger Prost has done a stalwart job of presenting some of the very best here. There are indices of pubs by name, by region or county (even a few bars in Brussells, Lille and Prague) but to me the most intriguing are the groupings to be found in the Contents - pub walks, top country pubs, great coaching inns, pubs for bed and breakfast, ancient pubs, cider houses, Inspector Morse's favorite pubs (with the help of author, Colin Dexter), pubs with real fires, and many more. My only complaint is that there isn't a map showing where they all are. Without one, it's tough to pinpoint wha t's available on your route. I had to cross-reference with my trusty 4-miles-to-the-inch AA Concise Road Atlas. Actually, for any kind of wandering around the country, I highly recommend this one too. £10 where you pick up your car rental.
We were in Oxford, so out we charged on the first night to the Turf Tavern.
"...breathtakingly ancient.. The pub has scarcely changed a jot since Thomas Hardy drank there."
Except that Hardy never foresaw the throngs of young international visitors and students who settle in for a summer evening of drinking. Oh well, close your ears and let the history envelop you.
Day two:
the Trout Inn.
"Water cascades over a weir, fish leap from the water, and in the distance there's a tremendous view of the Oxford skyline."
From the pub, you can see the ruins of the nunnery (to the right) where Henry II's mistress, the Fair Rosamund, stayed.
"When the king was in residence in the inn, he would wave a lamp from his bedroom window and Rosamund would travel through a tunnel to spend the night with him... The Queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, discovered the king's infidelity, and, with he aid of a lamp, lured Rosamund to the inn. As she came out of the tunnel, she was seized by the queen's men-at-arms and taken upstairs to be killed. She was offered the choice of poison or the knife, and chose poison... Today, the ale Sergeant Lewis bought for Morse is Draught Bass..."
Nearby, another many-Morse featured pub, the White Hart at Wytham.
"There are seats in the garden, when the old rural game of Aunt Sally is played... Bar food may include... a good range of fish (trout, tuna and salmon); beef in ale pie..."
It's worth noting that pub food has got a lot better in recent years, and it's often a great bargain. Here's a tip. Whenever you're faced with the overpriced stodge at a motorway service plaza, peel off to the nearest village, walk into the pub, and get a real meal deal. Example: Plastic-wrapped sandwiches for 3 at a service plaza: £6. At the village pub 2 miles away, three large bowls of soup, three generous sandwiches, one coffee: just over £5.
Day three.
of all Prost's Oxford area pubs, this one intrigued me the most. The Falkland Arms in Great Tew.
"A wonderful creeper-clad, 15th-century inn built of mellow Cotswold stone in a village of thatched cottages, the bar has an inglenook fireplace, a stone-flagged floor worn smooth over the centuries, high-back settles, oak panels and beams, and mullioned lattice windows..."
As with all the others, this one lived up to the description in the book.
Canadian wag and observer Ben Daube once went to the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas and brought his bicycle from Toronto.
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