00:00England has some truly legendary pubs. There's the tavern on Dartmoor, where the fire hasn't
00:05gone out in nearly 200 years, and the Black Bull in Awif, said to be haunted by the ghost
00:12of Branwell Bronte, brother of the famous literary sisters, not to mention the Bear in Oxford.
00:19But by far and away, my favourite pub is Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese on Fleet Street in London.
00:26Rebuilt in 1667 after the Great Fire, many a famous figure has sat at its bar, from Sir
00:33Arthur Conan Doyle to Winston Churchill. But despite their notoriety, neither is the pub's
00:40most famous regular. Meet Polly the Parrot. Polly famously celebrated Armistice Day in 1918
00:50by mimicking the sound of a champagne cork popping. He did it more than 400 times, apparently
00:58collapsing from exhaustion. I can't imagine why. He rallied, however, and lived for another
01:05eight years, finally passing away on October the 30th, 1926, just over 100 years ago. Such
01:14was Polly's fame that more than 200 newspapers around the world published obituaries for him,
01:22including The Sun in Sydney, Australia. I'll drink to that. Cheers.
01:30Cheers.
