The village of Cholsey, which stands just three miles south of Wallingford, is Agatha Christie country.

It’s here, in the north-west corner of St Mary’s churchyard that you will find her grave.

As a stile close to the crime writer’s final resting place marks the start of a mile-long walk, Uncle John and I had decided to make a day of it and take Barnaby to pay homage to Miss Christie and a beautiful part of Oxfordshire. The walk takes you past Lees Farm and a beautiful old barn, then over the railway line, along another track, through a dark tunnel under the railway line and back to the church. Actually Cholsey was in Berkshire until 1974, but that’s another story as the name of the county doesn’t matter to a dog — all Barnaby wants is space to run free, lots of delicious country smells and a little brook to splash about in — and this walk offered all those things and more.

With the sun illuminating the ripening corn and red kites flying overhead, it was a lovely walk and as we were so close to the Red Lion in Wallingford Road we stopped there for lunch.

The Red Lion, which is believed to be about 250 years old, is a large imposing whitewashed building with a small restaurant and two bar areas. It’s decorated with attractive hanging baskets and the large red stone lions that surround it leave you in no doubt as to what the pub is called.

Barnaby was allowed into a small bar area to the left of the main bar and actually behaved himself this time, well mostly. Maria the kindly barmaid prepared him a nice bowl of tea (£1.50) which kept him happy while we drank Brakspear’s Bitter, just the right tipple for lunchtime.

The menu is quite extensive, with several specials of the day as added extras. I went for prawn and avocado salad (£10.95) with a side dish of garlic bread (£2.50) which was so loaded with garlic butter it began dribbling down my chin.

The avocado was perfectly ripe and the prawns plentiful. I just wish that a homemade salad dressing had been offered rather than the over-sweet commercial varieties that were brought to the table.

Uncle John chose steak and ale pie (£9.95) which he really enjoyed despite the fact it came with one of those puff pastry toppings that are certainly not home-made, but look good. The five fresh seasonal vegetables served with it were impressive.