or John-at-the-Oaks, subs. (old).—Anybody; MR. THINGUMBOB (q.v.). Also JOHN-A-STILES or JOHN-AT-THE-STYLES.
d. 1529. SKELTON, Colyn Cloute, line 323.
| What care they though Gil sweate, | |
| Or JACKE OF THE NOKE. |
1635. GLAPTHORNE, The Hollander, in Wks. (1874), 94. ‘I know not how you stile him.’ ‘Not JOHN A STILES, the Knight of the post is it?’
1772. G. A. STEVENS, Songs, Comic and Satyrical, ‘Song the Last.’
| From JOHN O’ NOKES to Tom o’ Stiles, | |
| What is it all but fooling? |
1815. SCOTT, Guy Mannering (ed. 1829), ii. 13, 167. Adventures who are as willing to plead for JOHN-A-NOTES as for the first noble of the land.
