Inch, from the same word, being the twelfth of a foot.
Yard, from the Saxon word gyrd, or girth, being originally the circumference of the body, until Henry I. decreed that it should be the length of his arm.
Halfpenny and Farthing. In 1060, when William the Conqueror began to reign, the Penny, or sterling, was cast, with a deep cross, so that it might be broken in half, as a Half-penny, or in quarters, for Fourthings, or Farthings, as we now call them.
OLD MUG-HOUSES.
The internal economy of a mug-house in the reign of George I. is thus described by a foreign traveller:—
At the mug-house club in Long-acre, where on Wednesdays a mixture of gentlemen, lawyers, and tradesmen meet in a great room, a grave old gentleman in his grey hairs, and nearly ninety years of age, is their president, and sits in an armed chair some steps higher than the rest. A harp plays all the while at the lower end of the room; and now and then some one of the company rises and entertains the rest with a song, (and by the by some are good masters.) Here is nothing drank but ale, and every gentleman chalks on the table as it is brought in: every one also, as in a coffee-house, retires when he pleases.
N. B. In the time of the parliament’s sitting, there are clubs composed of the members of the commons, where most affairs are digested before they are brought into the house.