314 ECHOES BAROMETER. 



want of moisture sufficient to let the light through, 

 and render the atmosphere transparent ; because he 

 had observed several bodies more diaphanous when 

 wet than dry ; and did never recollect that the air 

 had that look in rainy seasons. 



My friend, who lives just beyond the top of the 

 down, brought his three swivel guns to try them in 

 my outlet, with their muzzles towards the Hanger, 

 supposing that the report would have had a great 

 effect; but the experiment did not answer his ex- 

 pectation. He then removed them to the alcove on 

 the Hanger; when the sound, rushing along the 

 Lythe and Comb-wood, was very grand ; but it was 

 at the Hermitage that the echoes and repercussions 

 delighted the hearers ; not only filling the Lythe 

 with the roar, as if all the beeches were tearing up 

 by the roots, but, turning to the left, they pervaded 

 the vale above Comb-wood ponds ; and, after a pause, 

 seemed to take up the crash again, and to extend 

 round Harteley Hangers, and to die away at last 

 among the coppices and coverts of Ward-le-ham. 

 It has been remarked before, that this district is an 

 Anathoth, a place of responses, or echoes, and, there- 

 fore, proper for such experiments ; we may farther 

 add, that the pauses in echoes, when they cease, and 

 yet are taken up again, like the pauses in music, 

 surprise the hearers, and have a fine effect on the 

 imagination. 



The gentleman above mentioned has just fixed a 

 barometer in his parlour at Newton Valence. The 

 tube was first filled here (at Selborne,) twice with 

 care, when the mercury agreed, and stood exactly 

 with my own ; but being filled again twice at Newton, 

 the mercury stood, on account of the great eleva- 

 tion of that house, three-tenths of an inch lower 

 than the barometers at this village, and so continues 

 to do, be the weight of the atmosphere what it may. 



