"It is unseasonable and unwholesome in all months that have not an R in their name to eat an oyster."—Butler's Dyet's Dry Dinner, 1599.
"Hobson's Choice."
"Tobias Hobson was the first man in England that let out hackney horses.—When a man came for a horse he was led into the stable, where there was a great choice, but he obliged him to take the horse which stood next to the stable door; so that every customer was alike well served according to his chance, from whence it became a proverb when what ought to be your election was forced upon you, to say 'Hobson's
Choice.'"—Spectator, No. 509.