Shooter's Hill, April 4.
_Howkey or Horkey_ (No. 17. p. 263.).--Does the following passage from
Sir Thomas Overbury's _Witty Descriptions of the Properties of sundry
Persons_, first published, I believe, in 1614, afford any clue to the
etymology of this word? It occurs in the description of a Frankling or
Yeoman:--
"He allows of honest pastime, and thinks not the bones of the
dead anything bruised or the worse for it, though the country
lasses dance in the church-yard after even-song. Rock-Monday,
and the wake in summer shrovings, the wakeful catches on
Christmas eve, _the hoky or seed-cake_, these he yearly keeps,
yet holds them no relics of Popery."
As I have not the book by me, and am only quoting from an extract, I am
unable to give a more precise reference.