The natural history of Oxford-shire, being an essay toward the natural history of England / By R[ob.] P[lot] LL.D.

  • Robert Plot
Date:
1677
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The natural history of Oxford-shire, being an essay toward the natural history of England / By R[ob.] P[lot] LL.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Reader with Tome of the fports of Nature, and entertain him a - while with the Nymph Echo ; a Miftrefs die is indeed that is ea- friy lpoke with, yet known to few: if therefore I take pains to acquaint him with her, I hope I (hall not perform a thanklefs of¬ fice. ; i 14. Firft therefore, that Philechus may not be out in his choice* whenever he attempts to court her in Oxford-flnre, he muft know that of thefe there are feveral forts, and may beft, I fuppofe, be diftinguifti’d by their Qbje&s, which are, 'Single, fuch as return the voice but once; and thefe again t (U either< are either Polyfyltabicat, fuch as return many fyllables* words, or a whole fentence, r Tonical, fuch as return the voice but once, nor that neither, except adorned with fome pe¬ culiar Mufical note. Manifold,, and thefe return fyllables and words, the fame oftentimes repeated, and may therefore be (tiled Taii~ tological Echo's, which are caufed - ' •••* , . , ^Simple, ether by double' Reflexion* 15. As for Poljjyllabical articulate Echo's, the ftrongeft and beft I have met with here, is in the Park at WoodfiocK9 which in the day time, little wind being ftirring, returns very diftin&ly feventeen fyllables, and in the night twenty ; I made experiment of it with thefe words, c: . —Qude nec reticere loquenti, Necprior ipfa loqui didicit refonabiUs Echo. • ' . In the day it would return only the laft verfe, but in the night a- bout twelve by the clock, I could alfo hear the laft word of the former Hemiftick. \Joquenti. ] The objeft of which Echo, or the Centrum phonocampticum, I take to be the hill with the trees on the fummit of it, about half a mile diftant from ffloodfiock, town, in the way thence to the Right Honorable the Earl of Rochejler s Lodge I And the true place of the Speaker, or Centrum phonicum.