COMPLU HOBSONI LEX.t YOMPLURES (ita, Granta, refers) Hobsonus alebat In stabulo longo, quos locitaret, equos. Hac lege, ut foribus staret qui proximus, ille Susciperet primas, solus et ille, vices. Authunc, aut nullum-sua pars sit cuique laboris ; Aut hunc, aut nullum-sit sua cuique quies. Conditio obtinuit, nulli violanda togato; 509. First appeared in ed. 1734, p. 120. See Spectator, No. "Mr. Tobias Hobson, from whom we have the expression, is a very honourable man, for I shall ever call the man so, who gets an estate honestly. Mr. Tobias Hobson was a carrier, and being a man of great abilities and invention, and one that saw when the good profit might arise, though the duller men overlooked it. This ingenious man was the first in this island who let out hackney horses. He lived in Cambridge, and observing that the scholars rid hard, his manner was to keep a large stable of horses, with boots, saddles, and whips, to furnish the gentlemen at once, without going from college to college, to borrow, as they have done since the death of this worthy man. I say Mr. Hobson kept a stable of forty good cattle, always ready and fit for Proximus hic foribus, proximus esto viæ. Optio tam prudens cur non huc usque retenta est? Tam bona cur unquam lex abolenda fuit? Hobsoni veterem normam revocare memento; Tuque iterum Hobsoni, Granta, videbis equos. travelling; but when a man came for a horse, he was led into the stable, where there was great choice, but he obliged him to take the first horse which stood next to the stabledoor, so that every customer was alike well served according to his chance, and every horse ridden with the same justice. Somehow it became a proverb, when what ought to be your election was forced upon you, to say, "Hobson's Choice." This memorable man stands drawn in fresco, above an inn (which he used) in Bishopsgate-street, with a hundred pound bag under his arm, with this inscription upon the said bag: "The fruitful mother of an hundred more." Hobson's stable has furnished another epigrammatic copy of verses, in Lusus Westmonast. p. 161. "Minus sibi tribuit qui se nemini comparat. Hobsoni in stabulo duo consenuere caballi," &c. EQUES ACADEMICUS.1 ALCARI instruitur Juvenis; geminove vel CALC uno, Haud multùm, aut ocreis cujus, et unde, refert; Fors fortasse suo, fortasse aliunde, flagello; Quantulacunque suî, pars tamen ipse suî. Sic rite armatus, quinis (et fortè minoris) Conductum solidis scandere gestit equum. Lætus et impavidus, quà fert fortuna (volantem Cernite) quadrupedem pungit, et urget iter. Admisso cursu, per rura, per oppida, fertur: Adlatrant catuli, multaque ridet anus. Jamque ferox plagis, erectâ ad verbera dextrâ, Calce cruentato lassat utrumque latus. Impete sed tanto vixdum confecerit ille Millia propositæ sexve, novemve, viæ; This Poem first appeared in ed. 1734, p. 121, with the Title, Eques Extemporaneus.' A person of the name of Procter,' appears also in song, as filling the same office at Oxford, at the same time that Hobson did at Cambridge. See Carmina Quadrigesimalia, p. 81, by Thomas, 1716. 158 EQUES ACADEMICUS. Viribus absumptis, fessusque labore, caballus THR THRAX.‡ HREICIUM infantem, cùm lucem intravit et auras, Fletibus excepit moestus uterque parens. Threicium infantem, cùm luce exivit et auris, Extulit ad funus lætus uterque parens. Interea, tu Roma, et tu tibi, Græcia, plaudens, Dicitis, hæc vera est Thraïca barbaries. Lætitiæ causam, causamque exquirite luctus; Vosque "est quod doceat Thraïca barbaries." First appeared in ed. 1734, p. 122. 3 6 Est quod vos doceat.' Ed. 1734. |