HOB OR NOB. Will you hob or nob with me? a question
formerly in fashion at polite tables, signifying a request or
challenge to drink a glass of wine with the proposer: if the
party challenged answered Nob, they were to chuse whether
white or red. This foolish custom is said to have
originated in the days of good queen Bess, thus: when
great chimnies were in fashion, there was at each corner
of the hearth, or grate, a small elevated projection, called
the hob; and behind it a seat. In winter time the beer
was placed on the hob to warm: and the cold beer was
set on a small table, said to have been called the nob; so
that the question, Will you have hob or nob? seems only
to have meant, Will you have warm or cold beer? i.e.
beer from the hob, or beer from the nob.