ECHOES. 253 



totally silent, though the object or hop -kiln remains : 

 nor is there any mystery in this defect, for the field 

 between is planted as a hop-garden, and the voice 

 of the speaker is totally absorbed and lost among the 

 poles and entangled foliage of the hops. And when 

 the poles are removed in autumn, the disappointment 

 is the same ; because a tall quick- set hedge, nurtured 

 up for the purpose of shelter to the hop -ground, 

 entirely interrupts the impulse and repercussion of 

 the voice : so that, till those obstructions are re- 

 moved, no more of its garrulity can be expected. 



Should any gentleman of fortune think an echo 

 in his park or outlet a pleasant incident, he might 

 build one at little or no expense. For, whenever he 

 had occasion for a new barn, stable, dog-kennel, or 

 the like structure, it would be only needful to erect 

 this building on the gentle declivity of an hill, with 

 a like rising opposite to it, at a few hundred yards' 

 distance; and perhaps success might be the easier 

 ensured could some canal, lake, or stream, intervene. 

 From a seat at the phonic centre, he and his friends 

 might amuse themselves sometimes of an evening 

 with the prattle of this loquacious nymph ; of whose 

 complacency and decent reserve, more may be said 

 than can with truth of every individual of her sex ; 

 since she is 



" Quae nee reticere loquenti, 

 Nee prior ipsa loqui, didicit resonabilis echo." 



The vocal echo ne'er withholds reply, 

 But ne'er intrudes. 



P.S. The classic reader will, I trust, pardon the 

 following lovely quotation, so finely describing echoes, 

 and so poetically accounting for their causes from 

 popular superstition : 



" Q,uae bene quom videas, rationem reddere possis 

 Tute tibi atque aliis, quo pacto per loca sola 



