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Her Majesty pops in on a pub

March 27, 1998
Web posted at: 9:41 p.m. EST (0241 GMT)

TOPSHAM, England (CNN) -- As part of the ongoing effort to give the British monarchy more of a common touch, Queen Elizabeth II did something Friday that she hadn't done before in her 45-year reign -- make an official visit to a pub.

Wearing a blue coat and her usual matching hat, Her Majesty looked a bit tentative when she was handed a bottle of ale by the proprietor of the Bridge Inn. She did not open up the bottle for a royal sip.

After meeting the staff, the queen was given a case of the locally-brewed ale, which she took back to the palace for her husband, Prince Philip.

CNN's Jim Clancy reports 1 minute, 19 second VXtreme video

Though pubs are a fundamentally British institution, the queen's only other known experience in one occurred in 1981, when her car got stuck in a snowdrift and she spent an unexpected night at the Cross Hands Hotel, a pub in Gloucestershire.

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