The Southern and western part of England is more akin to Virginia than "New" England ever was. The language, the culture even the country side is more like the American South than Massachusetts and Connecticut. Even before the existence of the American colonies the people in this region of England loved the sport of hunting much more than the "puritans" of England. Religion was more orthodox, politics more conservative. Many American Southerners have said while touring Cornwall, Somerset, Sussex, etc. that the feeling of the countryside was like a deep natural homecoming.