OF SELBOENE 179 



ten syllables most articulately and distinctly, especially if quick 

 dactyls were chosen. The last syllables of 



" Tityre, tu patulse 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 saraie number of syllables, 



' ' Monstram 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 em- 

 barrassed 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 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 meer 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. 



We measured this polysyllabical echo with great exactness, and 

 found the distance to fall very short of Dr. Plot's rule for distinct 

 articulation : for the Doctor, in his history of Oxfordshire, allows 

 120 feet for the return of each syllable distinctly: hence this 

 echo, which gives ten distinct syllables, ought to measure 400 

 yards, or 120 feet to each syllable ; whereas our distance is only 

 258 yards, or near 75 feet, to each syllable. Thus our measure 

 falls short of the Doctor's, as five to eight : but then it must be 

 acknowledged that this candid philosopher was convinced after- 



