Queen Elizabeth II, steadily extending the frontiers of the modern monarchy, made her first official visit to a pub Friday.
The queen's only other known experience with this fundamentally British institution occurred in 1981, when her car got stuck in a snowdrift and she spent an unexpected night at a pub in Gloucestershire.Friday's outing to the Bridge Inn in Devonshire was a well-planned part of the day's progress through this part of southwest England.
Hundreds of people turned out at the pink 11th century building to welcome the sovereign. The proprietors gave her a tour, brought the staff out to meet her and handed her a bottle of locally brewed ale.
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She took it home to her husband, Prince Phillip, in the trunk of her car.