Note 188 — Chapter III · SURNAMES OF OFFICE.
Reading edition
An ordinance of Edward III. declares that ‘men of arms, hoblers’ and archers (gentz darmes, hobelers et archers) chosen to go in the king’s service out of England, shall be at the king’s wages from the day that they depart out of the counties where they were chosen, till their return.’ (Stat. Realm, vol. i. p. 301.) Of the hobby itself, too, we have mention. Thus a list of the royal stud at Eltham, in the seventeenth year of Henry VIII., includes ‘coursers, 30; young horses, 8; barbary horses, 4; stallions, 8; hobbyes and geldings, 12.’ (Collection of Ordinances, p. 200.)