From Tony Pinkney, Morris Scholar: "In her 1886 essay 'A Day in Surrey with William Morris' Emma Lazarus is very conscious of being an American in England. She writes: "to American eyes no bit of rural England can be devoid of interest and charm; the most ordinary objects seem under a spell to bewitch us back into the dream-world of a previous existence".
How true this is!! How do you, the Brits, do it?! Over a century later, I was pondering this exact question and decided that trees must have something important to do with it. Americans don't really pay any attention to their trees. I think the British realize they are the "foundation" upon which the entire landscape builds.