LXXX.] 
OF SELBORNE. 
217 
LETTEE LXXX. 
TO THE IIONOUllABLE DA INKS BARIUNGTON. 
" Forte puer, comitum seductus ab agmine ficlo, 
Dixerat, Ecquis adest ? et, Adest, responderat Echo, 
Hie stupet ; utque aciem partes divisit in omnes ; 
Voce, Veni, clamat magna. Vocat ilia vocantem." 
(Ovid, Met. iii. 379.) 
" The yonth being separated by chance from his faithful attendants, calls 
aloud, ' Is there any one here ? ' and echo answers, ' Here.' He is amazed, 
he casts his eyes on every side and calls with a loud voice, * Come ! ' where- 
upon echo calls the youth who calls." 
" She can't begin, but waits for the rebound, 
To catch his voice and then return the sound." 
(Dryden.) 
In a district so diversified as this, so full of hollow vales and 
hanging woods, it is no wonder that echoes slioiikl abound. 
Many we have discovered that return the cry of a pack of dogs, 
the notes of a hunting-horn, a tunable ring of bells, or the 
melody of birds, very agreeably : but we were still at a loss for 
a polysyllabical, articulate echo, till a young gentleman, who had 
parted from his company in a summer evening walk, and was 
calling after them, stumbled upon a very curious one in a spot 
where it might least be expected. At first he was much sur- 
prised, and could not be persuaded but that he was mocked by 
some boy ; but, repeating his trials in several languages, and 
finding his respondent 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 patuhB recubans — — — — " ^ 
^ " Beneath the shade which beechen boughs diffuse 
You, Tityrus, entertain your sylvan muse." 
(Drvdex's Virrf. Ed. i. 1.) 
