OF C O R N W A L L. 319 
In Cornwall the cuftomary perch for land-meafure is alfo eigh- Land- 
teen feet, though of late years moft gentlemen comply with the meafure ' 
ftatute- perch of fixteen feet and a half ; but the moft extraordinary 
meafure of all, is the Cornifh acre, which, according to Mr. Carew, 
(page 36, and Norden, page 26) contained two hundred and feventy 
ftatute-acres, which kind of account, fays Norden, (who was fur- 
veyor to Henry Prince of Wales, and Duke of Cornwall, temp. 
Jac. 1.) is not elfewhere in England. “ Commonly, fays Mr. Ca- 
rew c , thirty acres make a farthing land , nine farthings a Cornifh 
acre, and four Cornifh acres a Knight’s fee ; but this rule is over- 
ruled to a greater or lefs quantity, according to the fruitfulnefs or 
barrennefs of the foil.” Mr. Carew, it is not to be doubted, had 
his authority, though not cited ; but whatever it was, the Cornifh 
acre certainly varied much in different times and places from this 
aftigned ftandard ; for in the regifter of Lacy (Bifhop of Exeter, 
A. D. 1420, page 419), the Cornifh acre contained four ferlings 
[alias farthings ], each ferling conftfting of thirty acres ftatute- 
meafure, each Cornifh acre being deemed a tetiure , and containing 
no more than one hundred and twenty ftatute acres, as appears by 
the following recital : “ Item idem Thomas Abbas de Tavijloke xvi 
tenuras, & dim . confuetudmare prefati Manerii in libertatejn demi- 
jit , quarum quelibet continet in J'e unam Cornubicam terras, et que- 
libet Cornubica continet in fe nn ferlingas, et quelibet ferlinga xxx 
acras but even this meafure was not always precife and invariable, 
for in the fame regifter (pages 450 and 451) the feveral clofes con- 
tained in a ferlinga or farthing-land make up thirty-two acres, 
consequently a tenure or Cornifh acre of four fuch ferlinga s makes 
one hundred and twenty-eight acres. Neither was the ferlinga * 
always uniform ; for fometimes it confifted only of ten acres f . 
Certain it is that acres were anciently of different extent in dif- 
ferent places, and in general of greater extent than they are by the 
prefent computation ; the Irifh acre continued even to the laft cen- 
tury to contain three of the Englifh, but what were the precife 
contents of an acre among the Anglo-Saxons is uncertain s . The 
prefent dimenfions of an acre, viz. one hundred and fixty fquare perch 
of fixteen feet and a half, were fettled by the 3 1 oi Edw. I h , and in the 
fucceeding reign eight hundred fuch acres made a Knight’s fee, but in 
Cornwall at that time four Cornifh acres, containing one thoufand 
and eighty ftatute-acres, were required to make up one Knight’s fee 1 . 
What fhould be the reafon that our fore-fathers fo much exceeded 
the reft of this ifland in their land-meafure, I do not prefume to 
« Ibid. d As to the Knight’s fee. page 212. 
° Alias ferlingus, Spelman, page 212. ® Spelm. in voce acra. 
f Decem acre terre f daunt fecundum antiquam h Ibid, 
confuetudinem unam ferdellam, &c. Spelm. Glofl’. ' Carew, ibid. 
determine ; 
