Three men, Two Brewers and one Marlow mystery

Sandra Carter goes for a meal in a pub that inspired author

Jerome K Jerome. Or did it?

ARTISTS, poets and writers have flocked to Marlow over the centuries to draw inspiration from its idyllic setting beside the Thames.

One of them was Jerome K Jerome, who lived for a while on the edge of the town and featured it in his well loved Three Men in a Boat, published in 1889.

Did he write part of the book at The Two Brewers pub? One history book says he did, and off we went in his footsteps.

But when I asked the landlord, I was told Jerome probably didn't write here.

Then, during our meal there, the waitress volunteered the information that Jerome did write the book here. So I asked that repository of all things Marlovian, the Marlow Society, and its representative told me the story was probably not true.

So did he write here? Your guess is as good as mine. But he certainly loved the town -- as did other one-time residents, the poets Percy Bysshe and Mary Shelley.

Certainly The Two Brewers has been refreshing locals and artists alike since about 1755. We searched it out, tucked away in St Peter Street, behind the parish church and just a stone's throw from the river.

It's one of those old pubs that have transformed themselves from humble tavern to upmarket restaurant. There's still a small bar area where you can drink, but the rest of the heavily beamed building has been turned into three cosy restaurant areas. You can order at the bar and eat informally at the polished bar tables, or go for waitress service and the full linen-and-candles treatment, for the same price.

As non-smokers, we were shown to the former cellar -- a low, vaulted room full of character.

It's an interesting menu. My husband chose braised guinea fowl with root veg, pearl barley and port. The mixture of root veg, he said, surpassed his expectations, and the bird was excellent.

My roast cod with grain mustard mash, fine beans and roast tomato and fennel dressing was, well, okay. Mash a bit lumpy, beans barely cooked, cod modest.

The friend with us perhaps chose the winner, sauted kidneys with lardons of pancetta -- a great bowlful of tasty meat and juices. You can have some of the dishes, such as the kidneys, as a smaller-portion starter if you wish.

Vegetables have to be ordered as side dishes. The potato wedges were decidedly overdone.

So did The Two Brewers give us vibes of Jerome K Jerome? Tucked away amid handsome Marlow town houses close to Old Man Thames, it reflects a gracious era which I like to think of as more tranquil, when people like Jerome had time for the good things in life... like messing about in boats.

"Marlow is one of the pleasantest river centres I know of. It is a bustling, lively little town; not very picturesque on the whole, it is true, but there are many quaint nooks and corners to be found in it, nevertheless -- standing arches in the shattered bridge of Time, over which our fancy travels back to the days when Marlow Manor owned Saxon Algar for its lord, ere conquering William seized it to give to Queen Matilda, ere it passed to the Earls of Warwick or to worldly-wise Lord Paget, the councillor of four successive sovereigns.

"There is lovely country round about it, too, if, after boating, you are fond of a walk, while the river itself is at its best here."

(Jerome K Jerome

Three Men in a Boat)

Menu

Roast cod with grain mustard mash: £9.95

Braised guinea fowl with root veg and pearl barley: £9.95

Homecut wedges: £1.75

Market vegetables: £1.75

Total: £23.40

Restaurant rating

Echoes of Jerome K Jerome: It's easy to sense the ghosts of a more leisured age in this 244-year-old inn. This must be where Jerome thought up the line: "I like work... I can sit and look at it for hours."

Atmosphere: Olde worlde meets upmarket.

Food: Liked it, mostly.

The Two Brewers, St Peter Street, Marlow (01628) 484140

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.