I think I should make it clear that there are NOT housing estates running endlessly from central London to Brighton (about 60 miles.)

There is a seemingly endless built up area that stretches south from London to the M25--

--by which point I imagine Drew and Helen had given up on looking at the view--followed by an area known as "The Green Belt".  Beyond that there is Gatwick/Crawley/Horsham sprawl--but with countryside beyond that, and then a large forest (Tilgate) followed by smaller towns (Haywards Heath, Burgess Hill) which are also surrounded by countryside.  These are then followed by The South Downs!

Behind which lurks Brighton, which is very built up--and has very strict rules about basically not being allowed to build anywhere that hasn't already been built on.

I don't know if this link works:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=south%20east%20england%20map%20satellite&svnum=10&um=1&h l=en&ndsp=20&oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=il

But if it does, you can see the "finger of smog" stretching down from London and ending at Crawley--and all the green below the M25.

</south of england information broadcast>

Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.