30 NATURAL HISTORY 



All echoes have some one place to which 

 they are returned stronger and more dis- 

 tinct 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 hang- 

 ing wood or vales ; because in the latter 

 the voice is as it were entangled, and em- 

 barrassed 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 Gally-Lane, which mea- 

 sures 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 Kings-field, in the path to Nore- 

 hill, 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 immediately, if the 

 speaker either retires or advances, that his 



