"The Bird Cage" is a delightful little pub which David discovered on the way back from one of his English promotions in the town of Thame, amid the Oxfordshire countryside. The pub name, set neatly into a bird cage sign, appears on the gable end of the building.
   It's not known how long this attractive architectural jumble has been used as a pub, but the building's roots go back to the 15th century. The atmosphere today is a great deal happier than it must have been during much of its past for it was used, for a time, as a prison to house French soldiers captured during the Napoleonic wars. The lower part held the soldiers and the upper area housed lepers, those unfortunate creatures who were treated as outcasts by fellow villagers.