Put the saddle on the horse to chase the fox. That was the line locals used to remember the order of the three pubs — the Pack Saddle, the Packhorse and the Fox — that weaved out from Reading into the Chilterns.
It’s a long time now since the Fox became an Indian restaurant, and then was flattened to make way for charmless houses.
The Saddle and Horse remain; both are beauties. The Packhorse particularly, a squat 17th-century farmhouse with a frontage from a century later. Inside it is cosy, wood floor and carpet, a roaring fire by a curved bar, dogs usually snoozing as walkers tap the mud from their boots.
Much of the place now is given over to food, and menus change daily: expect modern pub favourites (scallops, crispy squid, pork belly, lamb shoulder), to be eaten with local beers and good wine.
Mapledurham, Oxfordshire, brunningandprice.co.uk
