2.4: The Swan Hotel

The Swan Hotel is a very different establishment from the Potting Shed. Set above the town and above the station on the main railway line that brings visitors to the mountain country, it is an old stone inn standing alone at the start of moorland heath. The Barman, an old ‘India hand’, retired from colonial administration half a lifetime ago and, like many of his colleagues, used his pension to buy a pub, which he has run ever since.

Perhaps because it is quite remote, most of his customers are regulars and even live there. There are rooms upstairs, but the tradition is to sleep in the deep armchairs around the fire in the bar. Most of the regulars are frogs: Froggie, the loudest of them, his French friend Grenooyuh, young Stanli, a froglet, Bill the field-frog and, more recently, Popty Ping, a Welsh dragon who breathes fire but has never been heard to speak.

Although Alcock never does, sometimes members of the Potting Shed visit the Swan Hotel for an evening of revelry and Froggie, sometimes, descends to the valley to spend an evening in the guest space in the Potting Shed, always bringing a few ‘tinnies’ of Toads’ Tipple with him.

The Minkey, with seeming reluctance, takes his familiar stool behind and to one side of the bar. He surveys the pile of unwashed glasses in the sink.