O F S E L B O R N E. 285 
My friend, who lives juft beyond the top of the down, brought 
his three fwivel guns to try them in my outlet, with their muzzles 
towards the Hanger, fuppofmg that the report would ha'/c had a 
great efieft ; but the experiment did not anfwcr his expecr uion. 
He then removed them to iht Alcove on I-Lmger ; when the 
found, milling along the Lythe and Comb-zi'ood, wixs very grand ; 
but it was at the Hermitage that the echoes and repercuffions de- 
lighted the hearers; not only filling the Lythc with the roar, as if 
all the beeches were tearing up by the roots; but, turning to the 
left, they pervaded the vale above Combzvood-ponds; and after a 
paufe feemed to take up the crafli again, and to extend round 
Hartcley -hangers, and to die away at laft among the coppices and 
coverts of PVard-le-hani. It has been remarked before that this, 
diftricfh is an anathoth, a place of rcfponfes or echoes, and there- 
fore proper for fuch experiments : we may farther add that the 
paufes in echoes, when they ceafe and yet are taken up again, 
like the paufes in muhc, furprife the hearers, and have a fine 
efFecfl on the imagination. 
The gentleman aboveaientioned has jufl: fixed a barometer in 
his parlour at Nezvton Faience. The tube was firft filled here (at 
Selborne) twice with care, when the mercurv agreed and fiood 
exaftly with my own ; bur, being filled ^g-- '-e t'vice atNeicfon, the 
mercury flood, on account of the great elevation of that houfe, 
three-tenths cf an inch lower than the baromecers at this village, 
and fo continues to do, be the weight of the atmofphere what it 
may. The plate of the barometer at Nezvton is figured as low 
as 27 ; becaufe in ftormy weather the mercury there will fome- 
times defcend below 28. We have fuppofed 'Neivton-houfe to. 
ftand two hundred feet higher than this houfe: but if the rule 
holds good, which fays that mercury in a barometer finks one-tenth 
of 
