34 NATURAL HISTORY 



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 re- 

 moved 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 im- 

 pulse 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 in- 

 cident, 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 per- 

 haps success might be the easier ensured 

 could some canal, lake, or stream, inter- 

 vene. From a seat at the centrum phonicum 

 he and his friends might amuse themselves 

 SQmetimes of an evening with the prattle of 



