Kent is the bit that points out eastwards just below London, and nearly hits France. It is the bit with the White Cliffs of Dover, which you need to swim from if you want to swim the Channel - 21 miles but you have to do double that because of the tides. It was once full of cherry gardens and market gardens which supplied London, and there are still cherries if you know where to go. And despite the Channel Tunnel links and urban spread, it is still green. Near Maidstone, the county town, there are some large megalithic tombs, like those in Wiltshire. There are old Saxon churches, some of which you can get into, with wall paintings, and trees two millenia old. There is Dover Castle, good for a potted history from the invasion of the Belgae to nuclear protestors...

Presumably, it was people from Kent, from the Celtic Kantion or the rim of the land, who settled Kent State - it always gives me a turn to see the references to that tragedy - there is a Kent University at Canterbury.

Penny