Country mile

Posted by R. Berg on June 16, 2001

In Reply to: Country mile posted by James Briggs on June 16, 2001

: : I assume walking a mile on country terrain takes longer than in urban terrain....so a country mile is longer than you might think....can anyone confirm this?

: In Britain we use 'a Welsh mile'. Its means much the same and, presumably, comes from the time when country folk walked everywhere. For them a 'mile' was not too far, but for the rest of the world it was a long way!

"Country mile" isn't in any of my reference books. I can imagine another possible origin: the supposed habit of country people of giving optimistically imprecise directions. "Oh, it's just a mile up the road--and you can't miss it."

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