If this were so, the Saxon acre very probably consisted of 5 × 5 × 40 × 4 = 4000 square yards[159]; in which case the rod would be 25 yards square, and the furlong 200 yards in length. At the same time as the acres must be considered equal for all the purposes of useful calculation, 4000 Saxon square yards = 4840 English, 5 Saxon = 5·5 English, and 200 Saxon = 220 English yards. Further, the Saxon yard = 1·1 English, or 39·6 inches. This I imagine to be the metgyrde or measuring-yard of the Saxon Laws[160]. If then we take 5 × 5 × 40 yards we have a block of land, 200 Saxon yards in length, and five in breadth; and this I consider to have been the Saxon square Furlang or small acre, and to have been exactly equal to our rood, the quarantena of early calculations[161]. There is no doubt whatever of the Saxon furlang having been a square as well as long measure[162]; as its name denotes, it is the length of a furrow: now 220 (= 200 Saxon) yards is not at all too long a side for a field in our modern husbandry[163], and is still more readily conceivable in a less artificial system, where there was altogether less enclosure, and the rotations of crops were fewer. Five yards, or five and a half, is not too much space to allow for the turn of the plough; and it therefore seems not improbable that such an oblong block (200 × 5) should have been assumed as a settled measure or furlong for the ploughman, two being taken alternately, as is done at this day, in working, and forming a good half-day’s work for man and beast: the length of the furrow, by which the labour of the ploughman is greatly reduced, being taken to compensate for the improved character of our implements. ----- Footnote 159: I think, for reasons to be assigned below, that there was a small as well as large acre: in which case the small acre was probably made up of 5 × 5 × 40 = 1000 sq. y. Footnote 160: The yard of land was a very different thing: this was the fourth part of the Hide, the Virgata of Domesday. Footnote 161: This seems clear from a comparison of two passages already quoted in a note, but which must here be given more at length. The law of Æðelstán defines the king’s peace as extending from his door to the distance on every side of three miles, three _furlongs_, three acres’ breadth, nine feet, nine palms, and nine barleycorns. The law of Henry gives the measurements thus: “tria miliaria, et tres _quarantenae_, et ix (? iii) acrae latitudine, et ix pedes et ix palmae, et ix grana ordei.” Thus the furlang and quarantena are identified. But it is also clear that the series is a descending one, and consequently that the furlang or quarantena is longer than the breadth of an acre. If, as is probable, it is derived from _quarante_, I should suppose three lengths and three breadths of an acre to have been intended; in fact that some multiple of forty was the longer side of the acre. Footnote 162: