inch field

plural inch fields

1. IrelandScotlandA field for pasturing cattle.

   Mr. Consadine had scarcely finished the sentence when he saw his cow-boy running up the street, shouting and crying aloud that the best cow in the inch field was lost and gone, and nobody knew what had become of her, or could give the least tidings of her.

   1828, T. Crofton Croker, Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South or Ireland, volume II, London: John Murray, page 312

   1 more example

   "Ay," said Mr. Barry, looking at it and smiling, "I know Dick Consadine well - he's a merry fellow, no doubt, and, if I mistake not, has got some capital good cows down on the inch-field of Carrickabrick; a sirloin of beef would be no bad thing for supper, my man, eh?"

   1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 540