_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?