A Hampshire outing

I'm briefly in Hampshire for a family birthday, and this lunchtime visited the village of Stockbridge. It has a broad, picturesque main street and a few interesting pubs, a couple of which I have visited on previous occasions. Today I went into the Grosvenor Hotel to pass an hour. The walls are covered with fishing prints and a trout that was caught in 1941. Fishing is big around here, the River Test apparently being famous for it; I'm told George Bush comes here for the fishing, although I'm not sure that's a recommendation!

The Grosvenor is a Georgian building with a pillared portico where I assume coaches used to draw up and discharge their passengers. The hotel is suitable unaltered (well, not too much) in style. The beer wasn't very imaginative: Greene King IPA and Abbott, and Old Speckled Hen. I've found this kind of choice seems quite common around here. The Abbott was in good nick and the surroundings were suitably from an earlier time.

This is a lovely part of the country, with rolling countryside, postcard villages, loads of thatched cottages and many great pubs, which definitely make up for the fairly restricted range.