The recent opening of the Channel Tunnel has confirmed the status of south-east England as the gateway to the continent, but despite the region's close links with its foreign neighbours, it retains a quality of its own, with much that is typical of the quintessential English scene. Kent is traditionally known as the Garden of England, but the term could just as easily apply to Surrey and Sussex, with orchards, vineyards, hopfields and some of the country's greatest gardens to be found throughout the region. Also found here in abundance, and within easy reach of London or the coast, are romantic ruins, cathedral cities, roman remains, medieval cottages, magnificent castles and historic houses - many connected with such famous figures as Dickens, Kipling, Churchill and the Bloomsbury set - as well as a richly varied landscape ranging from wooded hills and undulating ridges to open heath land and precipitous cliffs.