and iij fote make a yerde
and v quatirs of the yarde make an elle
v fote make a pace
cxxv pace make a furlong
and viij furlong make an English myle.
Thus, in 1500, the furlong was 125 × 5 = 625 feet, and the mile = 5000 feet = 1666·6 yards.
The mile was originally the Roman mile, 1000 paces or 5000 Roman feet, and = (5000 × 11·67)/(3 × 12) in. = 1621-1/3 yards. So in course of time our mile had become 5000 English feet.
But the linear unit for land measurement was not, as in the Roman system, a pertica or rod of 10 or 12 feet; it became very early, on the Teutonic system, a rod of 16 feet, with varieties, under French influence later on, of 18, of 21 and 24 feet.
In early Plantagenet times, not later than Edward I, the statute rod was fixed at 5-1/2 yards or 16-1/2 feet. Thus, while the rood, that is the field-furlong, was 40 rods or perches of 16-1/2 feet = 660 feet, the itinerary furlong, 1/8 mile, remained 625 feet, ‘xxxviij perchis sauf ij fote’ (Arnold’s ‘Chronicle’). This clashing of the new statute rod, and its multiple the rood or field-furlong of 40 rods, with the ancient itinerary furlong now only = 37·87 rods, was rectified in Tudor times, probably temp. Henry VII, but definitely by a statute of Elizabeth which raised the furlong to coincide with the rood. The mile thus became of its present length, 8 furlongs of 40 rods of 5-1/2 yards = 1760 yards = 5280 feet. The mile has then successively been:
| 1.—Roman mile | of | 5000 Roman feet | = 1621·3 | yards. | ||||
| 2.—Old English mile | „ | 5000 | English | „ | = 1666·6 | „ | ||
| 3.—New | „ | „ | „ | 5280 | „ | „ | = 1760 | „ |