Some pretty rum things happen from time to time. Take for instance the aristocrat, a direct descendant of Nell Gwynne, if that is not too much of an anachronism, who thought he was a tulip and directed his gardeners to plant him and then water him.

Down in Devon in 1690 a chap called George Ley had a good day, a very good day indeed, at the card table and decided he would build a monument to the source of his riches, which has now become a listed building, and possibly more usefully, a pub. There is, as they say darkly, a history to all this, but our concern is with the quality of the service to their customers which, by all accounts is not at all bad.

The restaurant offers a range of refreshment and a decent three-course meal could be yours for some sixteen of your pounds sterling. Starters, a few of which can be taken as snacks in their own right, consist of homemade soup, crispy bacon salad with blue cheese dressing, or a large smoked trout fillet.

For mains consider the king size 16 oz T-bone steak, which will up the anti but not by as much as you might think. A surf and turf combination of a rib eye steak and scampi is good value, with a homemade steak and ale pie viewed as a rather better option than a Cornish pasty. Probably the best value of all is the Sunday roast lunch when for less than £6, or £3 for the children, you are offered a traditional roast with vegetables and roast potatoes.

There is somebody around here who is a graduate of the school of cholesterol, so why not go along with the steamed sponge pudding, or the Alabama hot chocolate fudge cake, to which can be added the local clotted cream, ice cream or custard, and have a ball. After all it only happens once. And how refreshing to enjoy a meal in a pub that has character and lacks most, if not all of the stereotype features that make many of our eating places almost indistinguishable from each other.