Charles Lines Book of Warwick and the Brown Bear Inn

[Carolynxyz]

Hello
Does anyone have access to Charles Line's Book of Warwick?  I have been researching the Brown Bear Inn in the Market Square, Warwick, because my ancestor John Plant was a publican there around the turn of the 19th century.  He was the occupier in 1795 following the death of the landlady, Elizabeth Ayres, and he bought the inn in 1797.  He put it up for sale in 1806, because he wanted to give up business due to ill health.  He appears in the Survey of Warwick 1806 as the owner/occupier of the Brown Bear Inn.  I have found a description of the inn in a 1797 newspaper advert, and it seems to have been a substantial building, with ten sleeping rooms, two kitchens, dining room and parlour, cellars, stables etc.  I have no idea what it looked like, though.

There is apparently a photograph at the Warwickshire Record Office (PH406/113) but I live in Canada so cannot go to the record office to view it.  I could order it but unfortunately I can't justify 30 pounds sterling for one photograph!  I have been told there is a photograph in Charles Line's Book of Warwick.  Can anyone confirm this, please?  If there is more information about it in the book, I might see if I can find a cheap second hand copy.
Thanks for any information,
Carolyn

[GR2]

In his Rides Round Britain, John Byng describes staying at Warwick in July 1785. He put up at the Swan Inn on the 7th (The footnote says "Now the Warwick Arms Hotel"). In his entry for the following day, he says

"It should seem strange that there is not a tolerable inn at Warwick (for the other great inn looks like an hospital); but being no thoroughfare I suppose is the cause. This also makes it a dull town. It is well built and abundant of good houses, being a place of great retreat for people of moderate incomes, where they may form regular quadrille parties; but in my mind it is nothing equal to Ludlow, either in cheerfulness or cheapness.

Our beds were so bad that we were glad to quit them at six o'clock; but it was long ere we could get our breakfast, and a post-chaise at the door, which drove us in one mile to Guys Cliffe, of old and romantic story."

The footnote says the inn that looked like a hospital was The Three Tuns, now the Lord Leycester Hotel.

[Carolynxyz]

How fascinating!  I'd never heard of John Byng before.  Cobbett, Young, Fiennes, yes, but not Byng.  I'd love to see his whole entry for Warwick, as this is the exact time John Plant arrived in the town.  I suspect he was also a publican between 1786 and 1795 before he took on the Brown Bear, likely in the St Nicholas area, as this is  the church where he and Rhoda baptized their children.  I know he had a garden on Southam St (1806 Survey of Warwick) but I'm not sure where this is/was.  I need to ascertain what inns/public houses were in the St Nicholas area, I think.

I found Byng's description of Stratford on Avon on the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust website.  This shows pages from his diary.  Beautiful.  The website also has this to say about Byng:
The Honourable John Byng, later fifth Viscount Torrington, was an aristocrat who had strong opinions on a wide array of subjects.  He hated injustice, cruelty, had no time for new-fangled fashions and loathed social pretenses.  His diaries offer his thoughts on everything from absentee parsons and landlords, landscape gardening, food, inns, and enclosures - all of which he seems to detest!  His candour and attention to detail give us a fascinating insight into life, travel and tourism of the times.  He may not have been able to take to Trip Advisor to voice his opinions, but he knew what made a good inn and a good breakfast.

He sounds quite a character, but being an aristocrat, perhaps his opinions about the Swan Inn at Warwick were somewhat biased to start with.  Thank you for bringing him to my attention.
Carolyn