Robert Merry's Museum, Vol. VIII, July to December, 1844Various
General
Robert Merry's Museum, Vol. VIII, July to December, 1844
Various
Children's literature -- Periodicals
Echoes reside, for the most part, in ruined abbeys, in caverns, and in
grottoes; they reverberate among mountains, whisper in the areas of
antique halls, in the windings of long passages and in the melancholy
aisles of arched cathedrals. There is an ancient portico near the
temple of Clymenos, in the district of Cythonias, which repeats every
given sound three times.
At Woodstock there was one which was said to have returned seventeen
syllables during the day, and twenty in the night. In the sepulchre of
Metella, the wife of Sylla, an echo repeated five different times, in
five different keys; and it is said that on the banks of a river, near
Coblentz, an echo recited seventeen times. He who spoke or sung could
scarcely be heard, and yet the responses were loud and distinct, clear
and various; sometimes appearing to approach, and at other times to
come from a great distance, much after the manner of an Æolian harp.
In the cemetery of the Abercorn family, at Paisley, in the county of
Renfrew, there is an echo exceedingly beautiful and romantic. When
the door of the chapel is shut, the reverberations are equal to the
sound of thunder. Breathe a single note in music, and the note ascends
gradually with a multitude of echoes, till it dies in soft and most
bewitching murmurs. If the effect of one instrument is delightful, that
of several in concert is captivating, exciting the most tumultuous and
rapturous sensations. In this chapel, lulled by ethereal echoes, sleeps
Margery, the daughter of Bruce, the wife of Wallace and the mother of
Robert, king of Scotland.
A singular echo is heard in a grotto near castle Comber, in Ireland.
No reverberation is observed till the listener is within fifteen
or sixteen feet of the extremity of the grotto; at which place a
most delightful echo enchants the ear. Most travellers have heard
of the eagle’s nest near Mucross Abbey, on the banks of the lake of
Killarney. This celebrated rock sends forth the most fascinating
repercussion. Sound a French or bugle horn, and echoes, equal to a
hundred instruments, answer to the call! Report a single cannon, and
the loudest thunders reverberate from the rock and die in endless peals
along the distant mountains.
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