Note 32 — PART I THE LOST CHAPEL

DCCXXXIII pedes circa (about 733 feet)—at first sight a hopelessly discordant measure, being 140 feet in excess of the first—yields on analysis an even more astonishing result. For 733 feet circa is 311 paces; but Romano-British paces—not mediæval! 311 paces of 2 feet 4-1/4 inches is 733 feet. The true Roman pace (single) is 2 feet 5 inches—occasionally less in Britain—so we see it in this case slightly shortened. And the qualification "circa" gives us the slight latitude which the computation requires.

It is as though our question, addressed to the previous informant, had been answered by another in a literal sense, according to his own knowledge of the measure, and without reference to the monkish standards. (See note in synopsis at end of vol., sub. "Ell" and "Passus.")