stove seated in the hearth and chalked quotes from gentleman literati such as Orwell and Huxley. We felt snug with the nearby mountain of newspapers and the civilised murmurings of conversation coming from the young staff and their bar-seated friends.

We chose from chef's specials blackboard a starter of wild mushrooms fried with garlic and cream on crunchy bread roll. This was delicious: tender, moist complimented with a generous spray of rocket leaves. However the 'crunchy' bread roll that nestled the mushrooms seemed either fried or batter-baked itself.

The main course arrived to the sound of the soft vocals of a K C Turnstall - braised chump of beef with potato puree, roasted root vegetables and fine beans. This was most excellent with the beef positively melt-in-the-mouth, flavoursome potato and perfectly crunchy beans. The manageress brought big tubs of horseradish and mustard and we had a glorious time savouring every aspect of this dish. If any, the only quibble was that there could have been another spoonful of gravy towards the end but this is testimony to the dish's more-ishness. We left thinking a return visit should be soon.