Furlong the fundamental unit of land measurement. A furlong was forty rods, an acre four by 40 rods, or four rods by one furlong, and thus 160 square rods. At the time, the Saxons used the North German foot, which was 10 percent longer than the foot of today. When England changed to the shorter foot in the late 13th century, rods and furlongs remained unchanged, since property boundaries were already defined in rods and furlongs. The only thing that changed was the number of feet and yards in a rod or a furlong, and the number of square feet and
Nicholas Furlong Nicholas Furlong Nicholas Furlong (born 1929) is an Irish farmer, journalist, author and historian from County Wexford. Nicholas Furlong was born in Wexford in 1929. He became a dairy farmer on the family farm at Mulgannon. His father also owned a Pub, located on Wexford town's main street. For many years he wrote a satirical column for the People Group under the pen name "Pat O'Leary" and wrote regular features in "The Irish Press", the Farmers Journal and Biatas (journal to the Irish Sugar Company). He is currently a columnist with Echo Group Newspapers. He is also a member of