Jeffrey made a scale drawing of a house and its lot. He used the scale 7 inches : 4 feet. If the actual width of the backyard is 48 feet, how wide is the yard in the drawing?

To find the width of the backyard in Jeffrey's drawing, we can use the scale he provided, which is 7 inches in the drawing corresponds to 4 feet in reality.

First, we need to set up a proportion based on the scale:

\[
\frac{7 \text{ inches}}{4 \text{ feet}} = \frac{x \text{ inches}}{48 \text{ feet}}
\]

where \(x\) is the width of the yard in the drawing.

Cross-multiply to solve for \(x\):

\[
7 \text{ inches} \times 48 \text{ feet} = 4 \text{ feet} \times x \text{ inches}
\]

Calculating the left side:

\[
7 \times 48 = 336
\]

So we have:

\[
336 = 4x
\]

Now, divide both sides by 4 to solve for \(x\):

\[
x = \frac{336}{4} = 84
\]

Thus, the width of the backyard in the drawing is:

\[
\boxed{84} \text{ inches}
\]