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ONE of the most appealing words in the English language is "anticipation". Anticipation rolls easily off the tongue; there's a sense of expectation about its five syllables. "Hope" comes close as a synonym and "apprehension" is an also-ran, but there's nothing quite like the expectation of anticipation.
When we flicked through the new book The Inn Way To Black Sheep Pubs, by Mark Reid (Inn Way Publications, 5.95) we experienced every nuance of the word. This book of 25 circular walks in the Yorkshire Dales, calling at pubs serving Black Sheep ales, recognises the fact that nothing works up a good thirst like a good walk.
And a good pub walk has just got to take in Booze.
Booze is a hamlet in Arkengarthdale of about six houses, a couple of farms and is dotted with the derelict buildings of a bygone age.
Booze, 1,100 feet above sea-level, has handsome views over the dale. Booze is wide open to every isobar that sweeps across the landscape. Booze has solitude and a quietness broken only by the far- off bark of a busy sheepdog. Booze has anticipation written all over it because of its name, but what Booze doesn't have is a pub.
The nearest boozer to Booze is half-a-mile down the hill at Langthwaite - a whole half-mile of dry-throated anticipation.
The Red Lion is reckoned to be the world's most filmed pub - Langthwaite has provided the backdrop for TV's All Creatures Great And Small and films like A...