NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 125 



spot where it might least be expected. At first he was 

 much surprised, and could not be persuaded 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, espe- 

 cially if quick dactyls were chosen. The last syllables of 



" Tityre, tu patulae 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 it's powers in slow, heavy, embarrassed 

 spondees of the same number of syllables, 



" Monstrum horrendum, 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 articu- 

 lately 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 40 feet, and from the ground to 

 the eaves 12 feet. The true centrum phonicum, or just dis- 

 tance, 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 cartway. In this case there is no choice of distance ; 

 but the path, by meer contingency, happens to be the 



