294 The Natural History of Selborne 



company in a summer evening walk, and was calling after them, 

 stumbled upon a very curious one in a spot where it might least be 

 expected. At first he was much surprised, and could not be per- 

 suaded but that he was mocked by some boy ; but repeating his 

 trials in several languages, and finding his respondent to be a very 

 adroit polyglot, he then discerned the deception. 



This echo in an evening before rural noises cease, would repeat ten 

 syllables most articulately and distinctly, especially if quick dactyls 

 were chosen. The last syllables of 



" Tityre, tu patul<e recubans , . ." 



were as audibly and intelligibly returned as the first ; and 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, 



" Msnstrum korrendum, informe, ingens . . ." 



we could perceive a return but of 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 Gally-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 Nore-hill, on the very brink of the 

 steep balk above the hollow cart-way. In this case there is no 



