ECHOES. 233 



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 

 inconvenient. 



Quick dactyls, we observed, succeeded best ; for when we 

 came to try its powers in slow, heavy, embarrassed spondees 

 of the same number of syllables, 



" Monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens " 



we could perceive a return of but four or five. 



All echoes have some one place to which they are returned 

 stronger and more distinct than to any other ; and that is 

 always the place that lies at right angles with the object of 

 repercussion, and is not too near, nor too far off. Buildings, 

 or naked rocks, re-echo much more articulately than hanging 

 woods or vales ; because, in the latter, the voice is as it were 

 entangled, and embarrassed in the covert, and weakened in 

 the rebound. 



The true object of this echo, as we found by various 

 experiments, is the stone-built, tiled hop-kiln in Gaily Lane, 

 which measures in front 40 feet, and from the ground to the 

 eaves 12 feet. The true centrum phonicum, or just distance, 

 is one particular spot in the King's Field, in the path to 

 JNTorehill, on the very brink of the steep balk above the 

 hollow cart-way. In this case, there is no choice of distance ; 

 but the path, by mere contingency, happens to be the lucky, 

 the identical spot, because the ground rises or falls so imme- 

 diately, if the speaker either retires or advances, that his 

 mouth would at once be above or below the object. 



We measured this polysyllabical echo with great exact- 

 ness, and found the distance to fall very short of Dr. Plot's 

 rule for distant articulation ; for the Doctor, in his History 

 of Oxfordshire, allows 120 feet for the return of each syllable 

 distinctly ; hence this echo, which gives ten distinct syllables, 

 ought to measure 400 yards, or 120 feet to each syllable ; 

 whereas our distance is only 258 yards, or near 75 feet to 

 each syllable. Thus our measure falls short of the Doctor's 

 as five to eight ; but then it must be acknowledged, that this 

 candid philosopher was convinced afterwards, that some 



