Buildings, or naked rocks, re-echo much
more articulately than hanging wood 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 experiments, is
the stone-built, tiled hop-kiln in Galleylane, which measures in
front 40 feet, and from the ground to the eaves 12 feet. The true
centrum phonicum, 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 Oxfordshire, allows
120 feet for the return of each syllable distinctly: hence this echo,
which gives ten distinct syllables, ought to measure 400 yards, or
120 feet to each syllable; whereas our distance is only 258 yards, or
near 75 feet, to each syllable.
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