The furlong is an ancient British unit of measurement, literally meaning the length of a furrow.
It’s the distance a horse can pull a plow without resting, which was calculated at exactly 220 yards, or 201.168 metres.
When the Romans introduced the mile to Britain, it was changed in length to accommodate a tidy eight furlongs.
This was done because all property and other precise distances such as that of a horse race were measured locally in furlongs.
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