Length
- ell
- The ell (Latin: ulna) was the basic unit of length, equal to 37 inches. The "Barony ell" of 42 inches was used as the basis for land measurement in the Four Towns area near Lochmaben, Dumfriesshire.
- Scottish inch
- As in England. A fraudulent smaller inch of 1⁄42 of an ell is also recorded.
- foot
- 12 inches.
- yard
- 36 inches. Rarely used except with English units, although it appears in an Act of Parliament from 1432: "The king's officer, as is foresaid, shall have a horn, and each one a red wand of three-quarters of a yard at least."
- fall
- 6 ells, or 222 inches. Identical to the Scots rod and raip ("rope").
- Scots mile
- 320 falls (1973⅓ yards), but varied from place to place. Obsolete by the 19th century. The Royal Mile in Edinburgh is longer than an English mile (1760 yards) but roughly the length of a Scots mile.
Read more about this topic: Scottish Weights And Measures
Famous quotes containing the word length:
“I have seen some whose consciences, owing undoubtedly to former indulgence, had grown to be as irritable as spoilt children, and at length gave them no peace. They did not know when to swallow their cud, and their lives of course yielded no milk.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“We praise a man who feels angry on the right grounds and against the right persons and also in the right manner at the right moment and for the right length of time.”
—Aristotle (384–322 B.C.)
“You will, I am sure, agree with me that ... if page 534 only finds us in the second chapter, the length of the first one must have been really intolerable.”
—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)