In Prussia there is, or was, an Ell = 26·257 inches. It was described as of 2-1/8 Rhineland feet; but it was almost certainly 3 Roman spans = 2-1/4 Roman feet (11·67 × 2-1/4 = 26·257 inches), brought into the Rhineland system by representing it as 2-1/8 Rhineland feet, which it is only approximately; 2-1/8 × 12·3563 being = 26·2617 inches.
Nowhere out of England and Scotland is there found any Span-ell other than of 3 spans. The apparent exceptions are in Spain, where the Vara of 3 feet, = 1-1/2 Beládi cubit, is a 4-span ell, like our Yard, and in Occitania (Southern France), where the Cano is an 8-span fathom.
‘Ell,’ formerly Elne, meant at first the natural cubit or length of the forearm (L. _ulna_) from the finger tips to the bend of the arm or ‘el-bow.’ Originally of 2 spans, it came to mean a greater multiple of the span, or, as in the case of the German ells and the French aune, a multiple of the foot.
Flemish Ell 3 spans = 27 inches English Yard 4 „ = 36 „ Scots Ell 4 „ = 36 „ (Scots) English Ell 5 „ = 45 „ Long English Ell or Cloth-goad 6 „ = 54 „
The Flemish Ell was that of the Netherlands, brought to the standard of our inches.
The Long English Ell or cloth-goad of 6 spans was a double Flemish ell. It has long been extinct.
The Yard has survived, from its convenience as either of 4 spans or of 3 feet.
The Scots Ell = 37·058 inches corresponded to the English yard; it was 3 feet Scots, i.e. of Rhineland standard, = 12·353 inches.
The Common English Ell, the tailor’s yard, ‘taylors yerde, virga cissoris,’ was probably the French aune = 46·6 inches, introduced under the Plantagenets from their French dominions and cut down to fit our ell system. This ell appears to have been carried abroad by trade. Both the 3-span Covado and the 5-span Vara of Portugal are identical with our ells, their spans being longer than the ordinary Portuguese spans and called _palmos avantejados_, long spans.
The four-foot Ell of Jersey and Guernsey was probably the French ell increased from 4 Roman feet to 4 English feet.
Of the foot-ells of Italy and Germany, several were exactly half our ell, while quite foreign to the native standards.
Both our Ell and our Yard were divided into 4 quarters and 16 nails. The Elizabethan standards, still extant, are so divided.