HARRY LEROY TEMPLE.
Sir Hobbard de Hoy.
—A common term for a lad between boyhood and manhood is a hobbledehoy. I find an early use of this word in Tusser's Hundred Points of Husbandry, A.D. 1557, in his verses entitled Man's age divided here ye have, By Prenticeships from birth to grave.
"The first seven years bring up as a child,
The next to learning, for waxing too wild;
The next keep under Sir Hobbard de Hoy,
The next a man, no longer a boy," &c.
Can you tell me the origin of this curious term?
W. W. E. T.
Warwick Square, Belgravia.