The name is absent

the measure of length. Thus 5^,5 × 40 = 220, which
taken in yards are one furlong, and which with
one yard’s breadth are -₂⅛ of an acre. Again, forty
times 5'5 yards with a breadth of δ^,5 yards (or 220
× 5'5) are 1210 yards square, ^,25 of an acre: twice
that, or forty times 5^,5 with a breadth of eleven
yards are '5 acre : and twice that, or 220 × 20 (that
is in modern surveying ten chains by one) = 4840
yards or the whole acre. The same thing may be
expressed in another way : we may assume a square
of 5^,5 yards, which is called a rod, perch, or pole :
forty of these make a rood, which is a furlong with
a breadth of 5^,5 yards ; and four such roods, or a
furlong with a breadth of twenty-two yards, are an
acre of the oblong form described above, and which
is still the normal or legal acre.

My hypothesis goes on to assume that such, or
nearly such, were the elements of the original cal-
culation : in fact, that they were entirely so, with
the substitution only of 5 for 5^,5 as a factor. It
remains to be asked why these numbers should be
fixed upon? Probably from some notion of the
mystical properties of the numbers themselves.
Forty and eight are of continual recurrence in
Anglosaxon tradition, and may be considered as
their sacerdotal or mythical numbers : forty divided
by eight gives a quotient of five ; and these may
have been the original factors, especially if, as there
is every reason to believe, the first division of lands
(whether here or on the continent matters not)
took place under the authority and with the assist-
ance of the heathen priesthood.

If this were so, the Saxon acre very probably

consisted of 5×5×40×4=4000 square yards¹;
in which case the rod would be 25 yards square,
and the furlong 200 yards in length. At the same
time as the acres must be considered equal for
all the purposes of useful calculation, 4000 Saxon
square yards = 4840 English, 5 Saxon = 5’5 En-
glish, and 200 Saxon = 220 English yards. Further,
the Saxon yard=l^,l English, or 39^,6 inches. This
1 imagine to be the metgyrde or measuring-yard of
the Saxon Laws². If then we take 5 × 5 × 40 yards
we have a block of land, 200 Saxon yards in length,
and five in breadth ; and this I consider to have
been the Saxon square Furlang or small acre, and
to have been exactly equal to our rood, the quaran-
tena of early calculations ³. There is no doubt what-
ever of the Saxon furlang having been a square as
well as long measure⁴; as its name denotes, it is the

ɪ I think, for reasons to be assigned below, that there was a small
as well as large acre : in which case the small acre was probably made
up of б × 6 × 40 = 1000 sq. y.

² The yard of land was a very different thing : this was the fourth
part of the Hide, the Virgata of Domesday.

⁸ This seems clear from a comparison of two passages already quoted
in a note, but which must here be given more at length. The law of
ÆtSelstan defines the king’s peace as extending from his door to the
distance on every side of three miles, three furlongs, three acres’
breadth, nine feet, nine palms, and nine barleycorns. The law of
Henrygives the measurements thus : “tria miliaria, et tree quarantenae,
et ix (? iiij acrae Iatitudine, et ix pedes etix palmae, etix grana ordei.”
Thus the furlang and quarantena are identified. But it is also clear
that the series is a descending one, and consequently that the furlang
or quarantena is longer than the breadth of an acre. If, as is probable,
it is derived from quarante, I should suppose three lengths and three
breadths of an acre to have been intended ; in fact that some multiple
of forty was the longer side of the acre.

⁴ In one case we hear of ^,δa bean-furlang, the furlong under bean-
cultivation. Cod Dipl. No. 124β.

H 2

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