THE WOODS IN MAY 137 



names only are inscribed. The names are Hilgay, 

 London, Roxwell and Finchfield. The Hilgay allusion 

 I am unable to interpret, but in London the book was 

 printed, at Roxwell the poet lived, and in the parish of 

 Finchfield, or Finchingfield, Brent Hall is situated. 

 The tradition, therefore, is probably right, and we may 

 think of Francis Quarles, when staying at Brent Hall, 

 as wandering in the adjacent wood and there composing 

 some of his strange conceits. And if he visited the Hall 

 in May he would not have failed to notice in the coppice, 

 to which the nightingales return every spring, the fine 

 yellow flowers of the oxlip. 



