NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 159 



this defect ; for the field between is planted as an hop-garden, and the 

 voice of the speaker is totally absorbed and lost among the poles and 

 entangled foliage of the hops. And when the poles are removed in 

 autumn the disappointment is the same ; because a tall quick-set 

 hedge, nurtured up for the purpose of shelter to the hop ground, entirely 

 interrupts the impulse and repercussion of the voice ; so that till 

 those obstructions are removed no more of its garrulity can be expected. 

 Should any gentleman of fortune think an echo in his park or outlet 

 a pleasing incident, he might build one at little or no expense. For 

 whenever he had occasion for a new barn, stable, dog-kennel, or the 

 like structure, it would be only needful to erect this building on the 

 gentle declivity of an hill, with a like rising opposite to it, at a few 

 hundred yards distance; and perhaps success might be the easier 

 insured could some canal, lake, or stream intervene. From a seat at 

 the centrum phonicum he and his friends might amuse themselves 

 sometimes of an evening with the prattle of this loquacious nymph ; of 

 whose complacency and decent reserve more may be said than can with 

 truth of every individual of her sex ; since she is 



quae nee reticere loqueuti, 



Nee prior ipsa loqui didicit resonabilis echo." 



I am, &c. 



P.S. The classic reader will, I trust, pardon the following lovely 

 quotation, so finely describing echoes, and so poetically accounting for 

 their causes from popular superstition : 



" Qute bene quom videas, rationem reddere possis 

 Tute tibi atque aliis, quo pacto per loca sola 

 Saxa paries formas verborum ex prdine reddaiit, 

 Palanteis comites quom monteis inter opacos 

 Quserimus, et magna disperses voce ciemus. 

 Sex etiam, aut septem loca vidi reddere voces 

 Unam quoip jaceres : ita colles collibus ipsis 

 Verba repulsantes itembant dicta referre. 

 Hsec loca capripedes Satyros, Nymphasque tenere 

 Finitimi fmgunt, et Faunos esee loquuntur ; 

 Quorum uoctivago strepitu, ludoque jocanti 

 Adfirmant volgo taciturna silentia rumpi, 

 Chordarumque sonos fieri, dulceisque querelas, 

 Tibia quas fuiidit digitis pulsata canentum : 

 Et genus agricolum late sentiscere, quom Pan 

 Pinea semiferi capitis velamina quassans, 

 Unco ssepe labro calamos percurrit hianteis, 

 Fistula silvestrem ne cesset fundere musam." * 



LUCRETIUS, Lib. iv. 1. 576. 



* "Whence may'st thou solve, ingenuous ! to the world 

 The rise of echoes, formed in desert scenes, 

 Mid rocks, and mountains, mocking every sound, 

 When late we wander through their solemn glooms, 

 And, with loud voice, some lost companion call. 

 And oft re-echoes echo till the peal 

 Rings seven times round ; so rock to rock repels 

 The mimic shout, reiterated close. 



" Here haunt the goat- foot satyrs, and the nymphs, 

 As rustics tell, and fauns whose frolic dance, 

 And midnight revels oft, they say, are heard 

 Breaking the noiseless silence ; while soft strains 

 Melodious issue, and the vocal band 



