I90 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
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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, reécho much more articulately than hanging 
woods or vales; because in the latter the voice is as it were 
entangled, and embarrassed in the covert, and weakened in 
the rebound. 
The true object of this echo, as we found by various experi- 
ments, is the stone-built, tiled hop-kiln in Galley-lane, which 
measures in front forty feet, and from the ground to the eaves 
twelve feet. The true 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 mere 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 Oxford- 
shire, allows a hundred and twenty feet for the return of each 
syllable distinctly; hence this echo, which gives ten distinct 
syllables, ought-to measure four hundred yards, or one hun- 
dred and twenty feet to each syllable; whereas our distance is 
only two hundred and fifty-eight yards, or near seventy-five 
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 afterwards, that 
some latitude must be admitted of in the distance of echoes 
according to time and place. 
When experiments of this sort are making, it should always 
be remembered that weather and the time of day have a vast 
