OF SELBORNE. 251 
In a district so diversified as this, so full of hol- 
low vales and hanging woods, it is no wonder that 
echoes should abound. Many we have discovered 
that return the cry of a pack of dogs, the notes of 
a hunting-horn, a tuneable ring of bells, or the 
melody of birds, very agreeably ; but we were still 
at a loss for a polysyllabical articulate echo, till a 
young gentleman, who had parted from his com. 
pany in a summer evening walk, and was calling 
after them, stumbled upon a very curious one in a 
spot where it might least be expected. At first he’ 
was much surprised, and could not be persuaded 
but that he was mocked by some boy ; but, repeat- 
ing his trials in several languages, and finding his 
respondent to be a very adroit polyglot, he then 
discerned the deception. 
This echo, in an evening before rural noises 
cease, would repeat ten syllables most articulately 
and distinctly, especially if quick dactyls were 
chosen. The last syllables of 
“ Tityre, tu patule recubans” 
were as audibly and intelligibly returned as the 
first; and there is no doubt, could trial have been 
made, but that at midnight, when the air is very 
elastic, and a dead stillness prevails, one or two 
syllables more might have been obtained ; but the 
distance rendered so late an experiment very in- 
convenient. ' 
Quick dactyls, we observed, succeeded best ; for 
when we came to try its powers in slow, heavy, em. 
barrassed spondees of the same number of syllables, 
«‘ Monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens,” 
we could perceive a return but of four or five. 
