A country clodhopper: from the shoes of country farmers and ploughmen being commonly stuck full of hob-nails, and even often clouted, or tipped with iron. The Devil ran over his face with hobnails in his shoes; said of one pitted With the small pox.
·noun A clownish person; a rustic. II. Hobnail ·vt To tread down roughly, as with hobnailed shoes. ...
Webster's Dictionary of the English Language