Cirencester Scene Magazine - Establishing Local Connections
Country Matters by The Hodge “They have measured many a mile,
To tread a measure with you on this grass.” William Shakespeare Love’s Labour Lost
Regular readers, (if such a thing exists), will be aware that I am not a fully paid-up member of the current yoof-culture, having been brought into this world in an earlier era. Thus my edu- cation did not touch on the mysteries of the metric system imported from our European neighbours. I am told by members of today’s younger generation that metric is so much easier than imperial but I cannot see it myself.
I fill up my car with litres of petrol and men- tally calculate, (another benefit of an old- fashioned education), how many gallons my £70-80 is buying and believe me, unless my maths is much awry, it ain’t many. When I first filled up my own car with petrol, the price was 4/10d (roughly 24p) a gallon and no, I’m not 120.
I struggle with metric because I cannot picture what metric measurements are and thus try and carry in my head approximate imperial equivalents. Thus hectares are a bit more than 2 acres each; a kilometre is 5/8 of a mile, a litre is a bit over two pints and so on. If some- one tells me something is 78mm, I calculate
that it is around 3” and immediately can see what 3” is in my head, 78mm being meaning- less, I’mafraid.
What could be more perfect on a hot sum- mer’s day than a pint of cask bitter? Not a half litre, nor any other metric nonsense but the perfect measure, being 1/8 of a gallon.
Having said that I’m not yet 120, some read- ers may be surprised to learn that when I went to school we learnt not just about the more common weights and measures, but also about things such as a rod, pole or perch; a chain and a furlong, (still commonly used in horse racing);.bushels and cloves. But what use is all that?
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Well, let me give you an example; the way that an acre of land was calculated. An acre was the area deemed to be ploughable by one man with a team of oxen in a working day. Today, a large John Deere tractor or its like will do many, many times that. The area was measured out thus: a chain measuring 22 yards long was laid along the headland and sticks marked either end. (A chain is also measured to be 4 poles, each 51/2 yards long but that is an unnecessary diversion for this little tale). From the marked headland, a distance of 10 chains was measured down the field, being 220 yards or 1 furlong (furrow long) and the ends also marked. That was the ploughboy’s task for the day, to fully plough that area with a single furrow plough and once achieved, he walked his oxen home
24 Please tell the advertisers you saw them in the Cirencester Scene Magazine
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