I was always taught that, originally, a mile was the Roman legions' thousand paces - hence the name! (
mile= a thousand, hence the M for a thousand in Roman numerals)
This, naturally, resulted in a Roman mile being rather less than 1,760 yards. So, the next question, of course, is how did it get from the Roman mile to the statute mile? Can I phone a friend please?
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Breeding Per Dementia Unto Something Jolly Big, Toodle-pip