January 2024. Cambridge.
I’d arrived in Cambridge at 5pm, and aimed to have left by 6. M um locks the door at 7, to keep out the Waterbeach undesirables.
Mum had given me a short shopping list for the Sainsbury’s by the station (bananas and mushrooms), but with 12 minutes spare after two rapid pints in the Kingston I reckoned I could sneak a half in the Devonshire.
Nine years ago, after my retirement party, the Devvy looked a little like this;
Now, it looked a little clearer;
This is one of Milton (of Waterbeach, confusingly) Brewery’s estate, all 3 in the Guide, the Devonshire the smallest of them.
A pub for folk who drink, rather than sip, I always feel.
I wondered if I’d ever blogged about the place before, apparently I did, after a session on the Marcus Aurelius with Mrs RM in 2016.
They had the Marcus on now, but I’m a sensible drinker, and stuck to the seasonal Mammon. Only 7%, a boy’s bitter.
It started off a bit thin, before the complex favours hit home (3.5).
Five lads of varying age at the bar talking politics, a few couples of varying age talking anything but politics.
A low key classic, still, a bit like Sheffield’s Harlequin. A “Withnail and I” pub.
And no, I’ve still never watched “Withnail and I”
retiredmartin 
You would rate the crow and crown in Withnail & I!
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You NEED to see Withnail and I
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I haven’t seen it but tbh don’t feel a need to do so Bill, having drunk many a pint of sometimes-vinegary Shipstone’s Basford Bitter at the Falcon with the late Viv MacKerrel in Nottingham.
The anecdotes that he told – on which the film was based – created pictures in the mind, of a clarity and colour that I really don’t want changing.
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I’ve never watched “Withnail and I,” either!
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I’m glad Milton have bought Mammoth back from extinction. Really like it!
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Me too. I said I hadn’t seen it for ages, hadn’t appreciated it was a seasonal as the Marcus is seemingly permanent.
I’d pop in more often when back in Cambridge but it’s not open lunchtimes and of course I now have a Bass outlet over the road ! (cheers for that).
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