THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 189 
In a district so diversified as this, so full of hollow vales and 
hanging woods, it is no wonder that echoes should 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 
surprised, 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 patulae 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 incon- 
venient. 
Quick dactyls we observed, succeeded best; for when we 
came to try its powers in slow, heavy, embarrassed spondees 
of the same number of syllables, 
*Monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens . . .’? 
we could perceive a return but of four or five. 
1 “Beneath the shade which beechen boughs diffuse, 
You, Tityrus, entertain your sylvan muse.” 
DRYDEN’s ViRGIL, £cl. i. 
2“ A monster grim, tremendous, vast and high.” 
DRYDEN’s VIRGIL, 42x, iii. 
