An Inspector Calls At... The Museum Inn, Farnham, Dorset

By The Inspector

PUBLISHED: 13:17 EST, 8 February 2013 | UPDATED: 13:17 EST, 8 February 2013

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So imagine you’re in rural France and fetch up in a place not dissimilar to the Museum Inn at Farnham, Dorset. French locals with reddening faces throng in the bar; young lovers feed each other at assorted wooden tables, and there’s such a glow that the howling wind outside is rendered speechless.

You’d soon be salivating about how the French know how to eat, drink and make merry. Heaven  forbid, but you might even be tempted to say: ‘Why can’t the British be more like the French?’

Well, all that and more is going on here at this long-established and historically interesting village inn, which has enjoyed something of a chequered recent past, changing hands every five minutes but hanging in there much to the bemusement of locals.

Historic: The Museum Inn, Dorset, is something of an attraction, finds The Inspector

My friend, who lives nearby, says it was once owned by Rod Stewart’s tour manager. Perhaps more interesting is that it was built by the father of modern archaeology, Gen. Augustus Lane Fox Pitt-Rivers (1827-1900), great-great-grandfather of William Fox-Pitt, an equestrian silver medallist at London 2012.

The General amassed a huge collection of goodies and set up the Pitt Rivers Museum. In its
heyday, it drew 12,000 visitors a year and started providing refreshments and accommodation to passers-by. ‘It is exceedingly clean and the food good,’ he recorded in his diary.

The same can be said today. My friend’s cheese souffle was ‘superb’, and although my game terrine was a touch chewy, I had no complaints about the fish and chips that followed.

We drank lots of red wine, but the bill was still reasonable. The dining room is far enough away from the buzzy bar to enable a proper conversation.

Colours are subdued, the atmosphere ebullient. On arrival, a friendly girl sorted out my room key, but as soon as we sat down for dinner, her demeanour changed. It was as if she wanted us to order
nothing at all, then tip her handsomely at the end of the evening.

We couldn’t quite make it out. There are eight bedrooms — four in the main building, four in the stables at the back. I was in Stable 6 — small, but tasteful. Wifi would have been a welcome bonus.

The same girl was on duty in the morning. She was full of the joys...until I was ready to order some scrambled eggs and smoked salmon. Fetching and carrying seemed to wipe the smile off her face, and my feeble attempts at small-talk made her look positively surly.

It was only when I checked out and said goodbye that she regained her spark. Mustn’t take these things personally, I told myself. And, anyway, you wouldn’t expect anything better in France.

The Museum Inn
Farnham, nr Blandford
Forum, Dorset
DT11 8DE
01725 516261, www.museuminn.co uk
Doubles from £120 B&B

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