embarrassed spondees of the same number of sylla- 

 bles, 



" 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 wood or 

 vales ; because in the latter the voice is as it were 

 entangled, and embarrassed in the covert, and weak- 

 ened in the rebound. 



The true source 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 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 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. 



* "A monster grim, tremendous, vast and liigh." 



(Dryden's Virg. ^n. iii. 658.) 



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