Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/559

 9* S- VI- DEC- 15. 1900-1 NOTES AND QUERIES. 4 63 This space of 240 square feet, originally the area of an actual baay, or division of a building, became in the en an arbitrary measure of surface, so that the floors of large halls are found to be multiples of it. For example, in 1238 Henry III. ordered achamberin Windsor Castle to be made of the len _th of 60 feet and of the width of 28 feet.* ‘This was exactly seven spaces of 240 square feet. In 1243 the same king ordered a new hall to be built at Ludgershall, which was to be 60 feet long and 40 feet widest This was exactly ten spaces of 240 sqilare feet. And it appears from the ‘ Close oll ’ of 1242 that “the justices of Ireland are directed to cause to be built in Dublin Castle a hall containing one hundred and twent feet in length and eighty feet in width, with sufiiycient windows and glass case- ments, after the fashion of the ball at Canter~ bury.”I This was exactly forty spaces of 240 square feet, or twent times the actus simplex. This building could' also be measured by the scru- pwlum of 10 feet square. Measurements like these occur so fre- quently that the force upon us the con- viction that, in the theory of mensuration, the superficial contents of English buildings were multiples or aliquot parts of an area of 240 square feet. It is true that there were exceptions to this rule, but, nevertheless, the rule ltself is well established. Sites of build- ings, messuages, tofts,§ cotagia, or cottage plots, and acres of 4,800 yards-all conform to it. Since the ancient linear measures are de- rived from natural objects of nearly uniform size, as the cubit from a part of the human arm, or the inch from three barleycorns, a re- sumption arises that the areal measures had a similar origin. Now a bay of 240 square feet was the space r uired to accommodate four oxen standin ihreast in the oxhouse whilst a half-bay of 120 square feet provided the necessary accommodation for a pair of oxen so standing abreast. This fact is estab- lished by Palladius, who, in his book on husbandry, attributed to the third or fourth century, says: “Eight feet are ample stand- ing-room for each pair of oxen, and fifteen T ‘ Liberate Roll’ in Turner, ut szgyra.,. 204. The 2,400 square feet contained in this halI)could also be measured by the scrupul-mn of 10 feet square ==l00 square feet. I Turner, -ut signra, p. 259. §_ “Cum iij to tis, quorum quodlibet continet in latitudine iiij perticatas et in lon itudine xx pedes” (‘ Feod. Prior. Dunelm.,’ Surteesgkloc.,  4). aking thgbgerch at 15 feet, each of these to ts containe 1, square feet, or five spaces of 240 square feet. feet for the breadth [of the oxhouse].”* A space which measures 8 feet by 15 feet is 120 square feet, or half a bay. Thus we see that every ox required a space of 4 feet by 15 feet; or 60 square feet ; every short yoke or pair o oxen required a space of 120 square feet ; and every long yoke of four oxen required a space of 240 square feet. And so the bay of 240 square feet became a customary unit which m¥ht take other forms. t is obvious that a room of 16 feet b 15 feet would be more convenient for buildi ing purposes than a room of 8 feet by 15 feet, and this lar er space, or an approximation thereto, is what we find in English buildings that still exist in which four oxen or cows stood in a bay. A breadth of 15 feet would not be too much in a building supported by “forks,” owing to loss of space at the sides. Two opposite sides of the building were measured by multi les of 4 feet, that being the necessary standiing-room for each ox. It appears, then, that the duodecimal ele- ment 1n the Roman measures of area arose from the fact that an ox required a breadth of 4 feet in the stall, so that either the length or breadth of the oxhouse must be a multiple of 4 feet. When the oxen stood crosswise the breadth, and not the length, of the oxhouse was, of course, a multi le of 4 feet. I said in the book already mentioned that “ the necessities or requirements of oxen had more to do with the sizes and forms of our ancient houses than any other factor.” I now go further, and express the opinion that the necessities or reguirements of oxen deter- mined the form o the Roman areal measures, from which the English areal measures are derived. The oxen fixedthe size and form of the oxhouse. and the superficial content of a division of the oxhouse in modern times called a bay, formed a unit of which all these areal measures were either multiples or aliquot parts. S. O. ADDY. _.___..T “ RECCHELEES.” (See ante, pp. 365, 434.) SEVERAL suggestions have been made as to the readirag recchelees in Chaucer’s ‘ Prologue,’ l. 179. I o not see how any doubt can exist " “Octo pedes ad spatium staudi singulis boum .aribus abundant et in porrectione xv ’ S De Re lhusticaj i. 21). I quote from Gesner’s e ition of the ‘ Rei Rusticse Scriptores,’ Leipzig, 1735. I have not found evidence to connect this statement of Palladius with the measured houses in ‘Boldon Book.’ The ieriod is a long one, but it is little lon er than the time intervening between the date of ‘gBo1don Book ’ and the present day.
 * ‘ Liberate Roll’ in Turner, ut supra, p. 193.