92 THE ECHOES OF SELBORNE 



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 a stone-built, tiled hop-kiln in Gaily 

 Lane, which measures in front forty feet, and from 

 the ground to the eaves twelve feet. The true 

 centrum phonicum, or just distance, is one particular 

 spot in the King's Field, in the path to Norehill, on 

 the very brink of the steep balk above the hollow 40 

 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 mouth would at once be above 

 or below the object. 



We measured this polysyllabical echo with great 

 exactness, and found our distance is two hundred and 

 fifty-eight yards, or near seventy-five feet to each 

 syllable. But, when experiments of this sort are so 

 making, it should always be remembered that weather 

 and the time of day have a vast influence on an echo ; 

 for a dull, heavy, moist air deadens and clogs the 

 sound, and hot sunshine renders the air thin and 

 weak and deprives it of all its springiness, and a ruf- 

 fling wind quite defeats the whole. In a still, clear, 

 dewy evening, the air is most elastic ; and perhaps 

 the later the hour the more so. 



One should have imagined that echoes, if not 

 entertaining, must at least have been harmless and eo 

 inoffensive ; yet Virgil advances a strange notion that 

 they are injurious to bees. This wild and fanciful 

 assertion will hardly be admitted by the philosophers 



