James Wolfe died leading the British at the Battle of Quebec in the French and Indian War. Despite the loss of their leader, the British won the battle, leading France to cede Quebec to Britain. Wolfe had been born and raised in Westerham and his house, now known as the Quebec House, is now part of the National Trust.
Click image to download an 805-KB PDF of this menu.
This menu’s cover painting, by the mysterious Lendon, shows Wolfe standing on the village green with four buildings in the background and the village church looming behind them. I’m not certain if those four buildings actually existed in 1757, which would have been the last time Wolfe was in Westerham, but they certainly exist today and their modern versions were probably used by Lendon to make his painting.
The Tudor-style building on the right has a tea house and a gift shop called Chocs on the Green. The small building to the left of it calls itself a Design Gallery. The next building is a restaurant called Grasshopper on the Green. The large building on the left has a clothing store called Kate’s Collection and a home furnishings store called Vintage Home, which also goes up to second floor. There may also be apartments on the upper floors.
One thing not visible in the above photo is the church that, in Lendon’s painting, hovers like a ghost behind the Tudor building. Instead, as shown in the Wikipedia photo below, it is quite a bit to the right of the view shown in the above photo (which is from Google street view) and the painting. However, the steeple is an iconic image for Westerham, so Lendon must have wanted to include it in the picture even if he had to relocate it.
The statue in the center of this photo is, of course, of James Wolfe. Photo by Ross Burgess.
This dinner menu was used on the third Empress of Britain on July 22, 1960. It offered at least a nine-course meal, including a choice of eleven hors d’oeuvres, three soups, two fish, four entrées, a joint, a sorbet to cleanse the palette, a releve (which, as usual, is roast turkey) with potatoes and vegetables, salad, and dessert. Those not yet full could close with sardines on toast or fresh fruits. A menu suggestion on the left side implies that people would choose between the fish, entrées, joint, and releve, not have one of each.