retiredmartin

One last pub in Lodsworth to complete The Sussex Chapters (good band name) of the Guide.

A couple of miles from peerless Petworth, this is posh Sussex at its best.  Best walking, anyway.

I managed about five miles in the heat, bumping into exactly zero other walkers, before wilting and succumbing to the call of the pub.

Pubs here tend to suffer from the inevitable lurch to dining that Pints & Pubs notes here in another great area for walking.

The Hollist Arms isn’t quite on a par with the Pot Kiln, in fact I’d never heard of it before, but Petworth’s American visitors would no doubt reckon it the quintessential English country pub.

With fine dining, of course. Though outside of a smart (and empty at 2pm) restaurant the furnishing was more traditional.  The lunch menu was pleasingly simple and appealing, but at £7.25 for a cheese & salad ciabatta outside my principles, as well as my budget.

The only customers were what looked like an extended family group holding court in the raised garden.  Simon would have stayed put to eavesdrop on their fascinating conversations about share options and Jemima’s Oxbridge exam, but not me.

I had the inside of the pub to myself, as well as the attention of the exceptionally polite young barman who called me “Sir” five times in a five minute encounter.  I commend your parents, young man.

Beers from Upham, Dark Star, St Austell and a few yards down the road.

The Langham Best didn’t look great, wilting in the barrel if not on the bar; I sense there’s no particular loyalty to the local home-brew amongst the Languedoc lovers here.

But it improved enough to make it OK, and delightfully flat. Hardly a showcase for Langham, whose beers seem to dominate the nearby Chichester Spoons.

For five points, what is the device below.  It’s not an electric beer pump.