Of all the counties surrounding London, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire are most closely associated with the title ‘home counties’ and both contain large stretches of what is thought of as quintessential English countryside. The Chilterns dominate the south, a plateau-like maze of chalk hills covered with beechwoods, villages and fields rising from the Thames Valley to a steep northern escarpment, and at its foot the fertile farmland of the Vale of Aylesbury stretches northwards towards the River Great Ouse and the start of the Midlands beyond. Across the Thames lies the more densely populated East Berkshire, which nevertheless still boasts some wonderful countryside, including the landscaped parkland of Windsor Castle.