Some time since its discovery this echo is become totally silent,
though the object, or hop-kiln remains: nor is there any mystery in
this defect, for the field between is planted as an hop-garden, and
the voice of the speaker is totally absorbed and lost among the
poles and entangled foliage of the hops. And when the poles are
removed in autumn the disappointment is the same; because a tall
quick-set hedge, nurtured up for the purpose of shelter to the hop
ground, entirely interrupts the impulse and repercussion of the
voice: so that till those obstructions are removed no more of its
garrulity can be expected.
Should any gentleman of fortune think an echo in his park or outlet
a pleasing incident, he might build one at little or no expense. For
whenever he had occasion for a new barn, stable, dog-kennel, or
the like structure, it would be only needful to erect this building on
the gentle declivity of an hill, with a like rising opposite to it, at a
few hundred yards distance; and perhaps success might be the
easier ensured could some canal, lake, or stream, intervene.
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