248 ECHOES. 



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 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 its 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 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 



