It Measure. —Seven pounds make a clove, 2 cloves a stone, 2 stones a tad, 6; tests a wey, 2 weys a sack, 12 sacks a last. The Pathway' points out the etymology of the word clove; : it calls them clams or nails." It is to be observed here that a sack is 13 tods, and a tod 28 pounds, so that the sack is 364 pounds. Jeake says this was arranged (31 Edward III., cap. 8) according to the lunar year of 13 months of 28 days each. The reason, no doubt, was, that the mul titudes of whose occupation the spinning of wool formed a part might instantly be able to calculate the supply for the year or month from the amount of the day's work ; a pound a day being a tod a month and a sack a year. But it would seem as if Sundays and holidays had to be made up on other days.
Tale or Reckoning.—If we were to collect every mode of counting, this would be the largest head of all. The dozen, the gross of 12 dozen, and the score, are the only denominations not immediately contained in the common system of numeration, which are universally received ; and in all cases, by a dozen, a score, a hundred, a thousand, &c., were signified different numbers, composed of the arithmetical dozen, score, &c., together with the allowances usually made upon taking quantities of goods. The " baker's for instance, which has passed into a proverb, arose from its being usual in many places to give 13 penny loaves for a shilling. The increased dozen, hundred, &c., were sometimes called the long dozen, long hundred, &c.; and this phrase is sometimes beard in our own day, when a dear price is called a " long price." The 12 dozen formerly called the small gross, and 12 small gram made the great gross. The hundred was more frequently 120 than 100, the thousand generally ten hundred. Ten thousand was frequently called a last; and it is to be observed that the word last was frequently (almost usually) applied to the highest measure of oue given kind. The shodd was always 60 ; the dicar, or dicker, always 10, as the name imports. In measuring paper (1594), the quire was 25 sheets, the ream 20 quires, and the bale 10 reams. By 1650 the prac tice of reckoning 24 sheets to the quire (now universal) had been intro duced as to some sorts of paper. The memory may be assisted by the phrase that a quire is the shilling of a ream, and a sheet is its halfpenny. Tale-fish, as those were called which were allowed to be sold by tale, were (22 Edw. IV., cap. 2) such as measured from the bone of the fin to the third joint of the tail 16 inches at least.
It is impossible for us to describe the various weights, measures, &c., which have found their way into use in the various counties. Dr. Young collected a list, which is printed in the second Report of the Commissioners on Weights and Measures (1820), to which we must refer for the various local barrels, bushels, hundreds, &c., and also for the awm, bag, bale, basket, bat, bay, beatment, billet, bind, bing, boll, bolt, bolting, bottle, bout, box, bucket, bunch, bundle, burden, cabot, cade, canter, caroteel, carriage, cart, cartload, case, cast, cheef, chest, clue, cord, corf, cran, cranock, cut, cyvar, cyvelin, lough, dish, dole, drop, dupper, erw, faggot, fall, fan, flask, fodder, fotmal, frazil, garb, gaup, glean, gunny, gwaith-gwr, hank, head, heap, hide, hobed, hoop, hutch, kyle, incast, ingrain, jar, jug, keel, keinple, kenning, kibin, kishon, kiver, knot, lay, leap, lispound, llath, llatheu gyvelin, llestraid, lug, maen, maise, mark, mast, math, measure, sneer, meiliaid, merk, mount, mug, oxland, pack, packet, paladr, pared, peccaid, peget, piece, pig, plough land, pocket, poke, pot, pwys, quintal, reel, sees, Haase, ridge, role, rope, roul, sack, saume, seater, sieve, skaiu, skin, skron, sleek, spindle, square, stacca, stack, staff, stang, stick, stimpart, stook, stored, sum, table, talshide, tankard, teal, thrave, thread, threave, timber, topeton, truss, tub, tunnell, vergde, vragina, waggon-load, wain, warp, web, weight, and windle.
The old Scottish measures vary even more in the different counties than the English. The standard foot was 12.0194 English inches, 3 feet 1 inch make an ell, 6 ells a fall, 40 falls a furlong, and 8 furlongs a mile (1976i yards). Again, 40 square falls make a rood, and 4 roods an acre. Hence the measures of length and surface are so connected that the Scottish land-chain is the 80th part of a mile, and its square the 10th part of an acre.
In Scotland, the English troy and averdupois weight obtained an early introduction, and were used with the Scottish troy weight, called also Dutch weight, and with the tron weight. The Dutch weight is as follows :—A drop is 29'722 English troy grains, 16 drops are an ounce, 16 ounces a pound grains), and 16 pounds a stone. This pound coincides with the old English pound already mentioned, very nearly. In the tron weight the divisions are as before ; but the drop is 37'5E8 English troy grains, and the pound 9622'67 of the same.