257 
of Edinburgh, Session 1883 - 84 . 
manifestly ancient course of most of them, it seems very unlikely 
that any notable alteration has taken place in their length since they 
were the first tracks through waste lands. 
After what has been remarked above, there does not seem any 
reason for not taking the statements of distances in various books 
and maps to be what they profess to be, that is, the ‘‘reputed” or 
“vulgar” long miles between the places in question, reckoned 
exactly like the statements of the same distances in statute 
miles. 
It may seem rather astonishing to see in all maps, until within 
recent years, such a careful definition of miles as “ statute miles, 
69 J to 1°”; but the need for this explicitness arose from the great 
confusion which existed between different miles. In Gibson’s 
edition of Camden (1695) there are no less than three mile scales 
on nearly all the maps ; these scales vary a good deal, but by 
measuring each of them, and a distance between two places on each 
map to give the true scale, the values of the three miles, “ great,” 
“middle,” and “small,” may be deduced.'^ On thus obtaining 
a value from each of the forty or more maps, and taking the mean 
result for each sort of mile, we find the miles to be respectively 
1290 ±16, 1167 ±14, and 1037 ±11 thousandths of the statute 
mile, t How these values are very exactly in the proportion of 10, 
9, and 8 ;l and since we cannot doubt but that 1037 was intended 
for the statute mile of 8 furlongs, it seems that these three miles were 
of 10, 9, and 8 furlongs respectively. 
Hext before this there is the great authority of Ogilby, the 
surveyor of England, to whom the first accurate road maps and 
measurements are due. He published his atlas, Itinerariimt Angliee, 
in 1675, stating the miles of “ horizontal distance ” {i.e., as the crow 
flies), of “vulgar computation” {i.e., the old long miles), and of 
“ dimensuration ” {i.e., the statute miles measured by his perambula- 
* The degrees on the borders of the maps cannot be trusted, as they bear 
no fixed relation to the miles, and the longitudes of the western counties are 
very erroneous. 
t Throughout this paper all miles will be thus stated in thousandths of the 
statute mile. 
7 Thus, 1290^10 = 129-0±l-6. 
1167-^ 9 = 129-7±r5 
1037± 8 = 129-6±l-4. 
