The Span-Ells of Western Europe are of two types, derived either from the English foot, or from a Netherlands foot which has disappeared and which was probably the Olympic foot. (See Holland, in the next chapter.) The Netherlands Ell appears then to be 3 spans of an Olympic cubit = 3 × 18·24/2, which is equivalent to 2-1/4 Olympic feet: 2-1/4 × 12·16: both = 27·36 inches. The Antwerp Ell was formerly = 27·396 inches, and that of Amsterdam = 27·216 inches. There has been shrinkage, probably through the influence of the English standard of the Flemish Ell, we having taken 3 of our own spans, = 27 inches, for this largely used trade-measure, and our standard having prevailed in foreign trade. So the Flemish Ell has tended more and more to the English standard. In Holland and its colonies it is = 27·08 inches. This is also the standard in Portugal. The lesser _pík_ or _drá_ of Constantinople, = 27 inches, was probably = 26·8 inches as in Egypt; it may have increased under the influence of the English or Flemish Ell. The Venetian braccio, = 26·9 inches, probably comes from this Turkish _pík_. In Northern France there was an Aune = 27·1 inches and another of 27 Amsterdam inches = 27·36 inches (the Amsterdam foot being of 11 inches). In Prussia there is, or was, an Ell = 26·257 inches. It was described as of 2-1/8 Rhineland feet; but it was almost certainly 3 Roman spans = 2-1/4 Roman feet (11·67 × 2-1/4 = 26·257 inches), brought into the Rhineland system by representing it as 2-1/8 Rhineland feet, which it is only approximately; 2-1/8 × 12·3563 being = 26·2617 inches. Nowhere out of England and Scotland is there found any Span-ell other than of 3 spans. The apparent exceptions are in Spain, where the Vara of 3 feet, = 1-1/2 Beládi cubit, is a 4-span ell, like our Yard, and in Occitania (Southern France), where the Cano is an 8-span fathom. ‘Ell,’ formerly Elne, meant at first the natural cubit or length of the forearm (L. _ulna_) from the finger tips to the bend of the arm or ‘el-bow.’ Originally of 2 spans, it came to mean a greater multiple of the span, or, as in the case of the German ells and the French aune, a multiple of the foot. Our Ells were: Flemish Ell 3 spans = 27 inches English Yard 4 „ = 36 „ Scots Ell 4 „ = 36 „ (Scots) English Ell 5 „ = 45 „ Long English Ell or Cloth-goad 6 „ = 54 „ The Flemish Ell was that of the Netherlands, brought to the standard of our inches. The Long English Ell or cloth-goad of 6 spans was a double Flemish ell. It has long been extinct. The Yard has survived, from its convenience as either of 4 spans or of 3 feet. The Scots Ell = 37·058 inches corresponded to the English yard; it was 3 feet Scots, i.e. of Rhineland standard, = 12·353 inches.