1. Scotland

The Scots system was distinctly North German, influenced by English measures.

Linear Measures

The standard of length was the Scots Ell = 37·06 English inches. Originally three Rhineland feet at 12·353 inches, it was always described as containing 37 inches. The inch, at 1/37 of the ell, was slightly longer, by less than 2 in 1000, than the English inch. The penalty edicted in 1685 against the use of any other foot but that of 12 inches, while ‘three foot and an inch’ were a Scots ell, seems to show that a foot equal to one-third of an ell may have been used.

The rod or ‘fall’ was 6 ells; the acre was 160 square rods = 1·26 acre, and very nearly equal to the French arpent, which was equal to the Roman heredium. This is, however, a mere coincidence. The Scots acre comes, like the English acre, from North Germany. The type of the Scots acre is seen in the JÜck (yoke) of Oldenburg; this field-measure is 160 square ruthen; each ruthe is 18 feet square, presumably 18 Rhineland feet = 6 Scots ells, originally; though now of a lower standard which makes the JÜck = only 1·12 acre instead of the 1·26 acre of Rhineland standard.

Weights

There was an ancient weight, the Tron pound, of variable standard, about 20 Scots ounces. But its actual weight appears to have been 9622 grains, which is exactly 20 ounces of the original Arabic ounce = 481·18 grains. This was abolished by the Act of 1618, which ordered ‘that the standards be kept, two firlots by Linlithgow, the stone weight by Lanark, the ell by Edinburgh, and the pint by Stirling, as of old.’

The Lanark stone was 16 lb. of Scots Trois weight. An inscription on the standard still extant states that it was equal to 15 lb. 14 oz. English Troy, that is to the fictive long Troy pound of 7680 grains. The Scots pound, = 7609 grains, was divided into 16 ounces = 475·5 grains, divided into 16 drops.

The stone was blunderingly described (1618) as ‘the French Trois Stone containing sixteen Trois ounces.’ But it had nothing to do with French weight (in which the ounce = 472·12 grains); its standard was of the Dutch Troy (Trooisch) class, coinciding very closely with that of the Amsterdam pound = 7925 grains, the ounce = 476·5 grains.

When the 7600-grains lb. came to England as the standard of the Assize of Bread, it was known as the Scots or Dutch pound.

An Act of James I (1410), ‘That a Stone be made for weighing fifteen Trois pounds and divided into sixteen Scots pounds,’ leads to a suspicion that there was another Scots pound, of Rhineland standard; for 16 pounds or double marks of Cologne are very approximately equal to 15 long Troy pounds of English standard.

Troy oz., 480 grs. × 16/15 = 450 grs. = Tower oz.

One may thus surmise that the royal pound of Scotland, like that of England up to Tudor times, was of Cologne or Tower standard, and was superseded in course of time by the Amsterdam or Scots Trois pound.

Measures of Capacity

In 1410 it was ordered:

That the Boll be divided into 4 Firlots, and contain 29 inches within the boords, and above 27 and an half-inch even over, and in deepness 19 inches; that the Firlot contain in breadth even over 16 inches under and above within the boords, and in deepness 9 inches; that the Firlot contain 2 gallons and a pint, and the Pint to weigh, of the water of Tay 41 ounces or 2 pounds 9 ounces; so the Gallon weighs 20 pounds 8 ounces, the Firlot 41 pounds and the Boll 164 pounds.

This seems as clear as the water of Tay; unfortunately the three firlots mentioned in the first half of the quotation are three different firlots.

There is also a difficulty about the pint. An Act of James VI gives ‘the pint of Stirling two pounds and nine ounces Trois, of clear water,’ the same weight as above. But another and previous Act of the same king (1618) orders ‘that the Pint weigh three pounds seven ounces Trois of the running water of the Water of Leith’; and this pint is also called the Stirling Pint, Jug or Stoup, so there were two pints, as well as several firlots.

Of the two pints, the standard of one is still extant, which we will call the Stirling Jug or larger pint. It contains 104·2 cubic inches = 60·1 ounces of water, almost exactly 3 Imperial pints, and was 55 ounces or 3 lb. 7 oz. Scots of water. It was not an aliquot part of any of the firlots, but was itself a standard basis of measure, of which the firlot might be 18, 19, 21-1/4, &c. There is little doubt that it was one of the ‘Kanne’ of North Germany (Du. stoop); these kanne vary at the present day between 2·83 pints in Bremen and 3·2 pints in Hamburg. There was in Prussia until quite recently the Metze of 6 pints or 120·8 ounces, almost exactly twice the larger Stirling Jug.

The other pint, of 41 Scots ounces = 44-1/2 English ounces or 2-1/4 pints, was not a standard measure. It was merely a divisional unit, one-sixteenth of the above-described wine firlot containing 41 lb. Scots, or 44-1/2 English pounds, of water. This firlot was divided into 2 gallons = 20-1/2 lb. Scots, or 22-1/4 English pounds; and the gallon into 8 pints of 41 ounces Scots.

What was the origin of this firlot, or rather of the Boll, of which it was a fourth? There is only one measure with which it has any affinity: the half-Cargo of Marseilles,^[31] divided like it, sexdecimally. The two series run thus:

In the next reign, that of James II, about 1450, another Firlot appeared. It was to be ‘a general Mett, according to the Pint and Quart formerly given to the Burgh of Stirling for an universal standard, whereof each Firlot to contain eighteen Pints ... and that none use another measure.’

Which of the Stirling pints was the Standard? The smaller pint of 41 Scots ounces of water, or the Jug, the larger pint, of 55 ounces?

In this case it was certainly the larger pint; for 18 pints of this standard are very nearly equal to a firlot containing a Rhineland cubic foot of water, 1000 Troy ounces = 1886 cubic inches. Except the slight difference between Amsterdam and Scots Troy weight, this firlot was 62-1/2 lb. Scots, just as the English cubic foot was 62-1/2 lb. averdepois. It was 18 pints of 104·2 cubic inches = 1875·6 cubic inches = 54 Imperial pints or 6·76 Imperial gallons. This corresponds very closely to the Himt or cubic Rhineland-foot measure of North Germany, actually = 6·85 gallons.

This was a corn-firlot, and I recognise in it the firlot mixed up with the wine-firlot and only rescued by its stated dimensions corresponding to a capacity so different from the calculated contents of the latter. The dimensions given correspond to a capacity of 1809 cubic inches, a considerable divergence, but the old custom of ordering the gauge of bushel-measures in inches either whole or with simple fractions often caused considerable divergence from the calculated standard of capacity.

Progress through the Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland reveals to us more firlots, with the same anxiety which has been seen in English statutes for unity of standards, with the same attempts to conceal their plurality beneath plausible wording. Under James VI (and I of England) the Parliaments were anxious ‘that the measure and firlot of Linlithgow should be the only firlot for all his Majesty’s liedges.’ It was therefore ordered that the Pint of Stirling be 2 lb. 9 oz. Trois of clear water, and the Firlot of Linlithgow 19 pints.

It has been seen that the Act of James I which ordered the wine-firlot to be 41 lb. in 2 gallons of 20 lb. 8 oz. also stated that it was to contain 2 gallons and a pint; thus making it in one line 16 pints (of 41 ounces), in another 17 pints. The Act of James II ordered the firlot (presumably a corn-firlot) to be 18 pints, of 55 ounces. And then the Act of James VI made the firlot 19 pints, of 41 ounces = 48-3/4 lb. Scots or 53 English pounds. This capacity corresponds approximately to the Schepel of Oldenburg, now = 50 lb.

Yet another Act of James VI (1616) finds the Linlithgow standard of the Firlot to be true and to contain ‘twentie are pincts and ane mutchkin of just Sterline Jug and measure,’ but, in order to put an end to heaped measure, it orders a new firlot for malt, barley and oats, containing 31 pints Stirling Jug, and that the pint weigh 3 lb. 7 oz. Trois of the running water of the Water of Leith. Thus different Acts order firlots of 16, 17, 18, 19, 21-1/4, 31, pints; sometimes the pint is to be 41 ounces Scots, sometimes 55 ounces, and sometimes it is not mentioned which.

The firlot of 21-1/4 pints was probably an imported measure found to contain that number of pints; 21-1/4 × 104·2 gives 2214 cubic inches, = 7·98 Imperial gallons, for its capacity, a measure coinciding very closely with the Anker, which varies between 7·83 gallons in Oldenburg and 8 gallons in Lubeck (and 7·95 gallons in the Cape Colony). The Boll of 4 firlots = 4 bushels was equal to the Lubeck Ohm; and the term Anker was used in Scotland for the potato-firlot.

This firlot of 21-1/4 pints became the Edinburgh firlot; and it happens to coincide almost exactly with the Imperial bushel. It being fixed at 21-1/4 Stirling pints (of 104·2 c.i.) when 20-1/2 pints would have made it 2136 c.i., almost exactly the old English bushel (2150 c.i.), shows that it was not influenced by the latter; it was clearly an independent measure imported by trade. Its series was quaternary:

The lippy, as its sixteenth, came to mean a sixteenth generally. The word is a diminutive of the O.E. ‘leap,’ a basket, e.g. ‘seed-lip.’

The barley and oats firlot of 31 pints = 3230 cubic inches is the real Linlithgow firlot. It was the Edinburgh firlot increased to contain the same weight of malt, bear (barley) and oats as that contained of wheat.^[32] Its capacity was 11·6 gallons, and its Boll contained 46-1/2 gallons or 5·8 bushels. It was probably a Boll of about this capacity the dimensions of which, giving a capacity of about 43 gallons, were roughly stated in the Act of 1410 as those of the wine-boll.

The Chalder (of Culross) was 16 Edinburgh bolls.

I need scarcely do more than mention the smaller measures: to the Choppin (Fr. chopine), half a wine-pint; to the Mutchkin (Du. maatje), its quarter; to the Gill, its eighth, usually.

The measures of Scotland may be thus summarised: They appear to have all come from North Germany, except one from Provence.

The Ell was a length of 3 Rhineland feet, divided into 37 inches, approximately of English standard.

The Acre was a North German acker of 160 rods, each 6 Rhineland feet square.

The Pound was the Amsterdam standard of Troy = 7609 grains, multiplied and divided sexdecimally.

The old wine-boll = 17·8 gallons was the half-Cargo of Marseilles, divided into 16 pints of 41 Scots ounces.

The larger Stirling Jug was a North German ‘kanne’ of 104·2 cubic inches = 55 Scots ounces or 3 Imperial pints. It was the standard of corn-measure; the corn-firlots were multiples of it.

The common corn-firlot was a Rhineland cubic foot = 1000 Troy ounces or 18 Stirling Jugs. It was the North German Himt.

Another firlot was 19 lesser pints = 48-3/4 lb. Scots.

The Edinburgh Firlot of 21-1/4 Stirling Jugs or 2214 cubic inches was the North German Anker, become a corn-measure.

The Firlot of 31 Stirling Jugs was a wheat-firlot enlarged to hold about the same weight of oats.

2. Ireland

There are in Ireland many primitive Celtic measures worthy of study, if merely as showing the ways of thought of the people; but apart from these, the system of weights and measures, established for many centuries, has been the English system introduced in early Plantagenet times.

Some of these measures, relics of that time, long overlaid in England, are of interest; for instance, the gallon of 217 c.i. is one-eighth of the early wine-bushel = 1 cubic foot.

The Irish road and field measures, multiples of the seven-yard rod, have been noticed.

3. Wales

The general unit is the Cibyn (kibbin) = 4 gallons or 32 lb. of wheat, the English half-bushel or tuffet. It is divided into 4 quarts, and 16 cibyns make a Peg = 8 bushels or 1 quarter.

Measures on the English stone system are also used:

There is a Hobbet in England, but this is about a bushel.

The 5-span Ell survived in Wales for a long time as the Hirlath.