Stag's Head and Bear Inn, Coventry, United Kingdom, 1998

Notes from the collector: I combine these two since I got them more or less together on our sojourn to England. They are from around Coventy as one says. A friend and his wife took us to that area where we rented a car to go touring. He used to work in the area in automotive sales, but lamented now there were no major English car manufacturers owned by the English. The year was 1998. And the menus were certainly indicative of the forthcoming season. To digress - we stayed with our friends for a few nights in their quaint village called Ashby St. Ledgers which like most of England is filled with history. The Manor House was apparently the site of the hatching of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 with Guy Fawkes in attendance. A long time ago the Manor House was a gift to a nobleman from William the Conqueror. The church in the village dates back to the middle ages and open to the public for inspection. A bit unnerving walking down the aisles knowing there were people buried under the stone flooring. Our friends lived there some ten years and the neighbors still called them Mr. and Mrs. Smith.   old port