[1] "Examination of Dr Hurd's Commentary on Horace's Epistles"
(_Misc. Works_, ed. John, Lord Sheffield, 1837, pp. 403-427).
HURDLE (O. Eng. _hyrdel_, cognate with such Teutonic forms as Ger.
_Hurde_, Dutch _horde_, Eng. "hoarding"; in pre-Teutonic languages the
word appears in Gr. [Greek: kurtia], wickerwork, [Greek: kurte], Lat.
_cratis_, basket, cf. "crate," "grate"), a movable temporary fence,
formed of a framework of light timber, wattled with smaller pieces of
hazel, willow or other pliable wood, or constructed on the plan of a
light five-barred field gate, filled in with brushwood. Similar movable
frames can be made of iron, wire or other material. A construction of
the same type is used in military engineering and fortification as a
foundation for a temporary roadway across boggy ground or as a backing
for earthworks.
HURDLE RACING, running races over short distances, at intervals in which
a number of hurdles, or fence-like obstacles, must be jumped. This has
always been a favourite branch of track athletics, the usual distances
being 120 yds., 220 yds. and 440 yds. The 120 yds. hurdle race is run
over ten hurdles 3 ft. 6 in. high and 10 yds. apart, with a space of 15
yds. from the start to the first hurdle and a like distance from the
last hurdle to the finish. In Great Britain the hurdles are fixed and
the race is run on grass; in America the hurdles, although of the same
height, are not fixed, and the races are run on the cinder track. The
"low hurdle race" of 220 yds. is run over ten hurdles 2 ft. 6. in. high
and 20 yds. apart, with like distances between the start and the first
hurdle and between the last hurdle and the finish. The record time for
the 120 yds. race on grass is 15(3/5) secs., and on cinders 15(1/5)
secs., both of which were performed by A. C. Kraenzlein, who also holds
the record for the 220 yds. low hurdle race, 23(3/5) secs. For 440 yds.
over hurdles the record time is 57(4/5) secs., by T. M. Donovan, and by
J. B. Densham at Kennington Oval in 1907.
HURDY-GURDY (Fr. _vielle a manivelle_, _symphonie_ or _chyfonie a roue_;
Ger. _Bauernleier_, _Deutscheleier_, _Bettlerleier_, _Radleier_; Ital.
_lira tedesca_, _lira rustica_, _lira pagana_), now loosely used as a
synonym for any grinding organ, but strictly a medieval drone instrument
with strings set in vibration by the friction. of a wheel, being a
development of the _organistrum_ (q.v.) reduced in size so that it could
be conveniently played by one person instead of two. It consisted of a
box or soundchest, sometimes rectangular, but more generally having the
outline of the guitar; inside it had a wheel, covered with leather and
rosined, and worked by means of a crank at the tail end of the
instrument. On the fingerboard were placed movable frets or keys, which,
on being depressed, stopped the strings, at points corresponding to the
diatonic intervals of the scale. At first there were 4 strings, later 6.
In the organistrum three strings, acted on simultaneously by the keys,
produced the rude harmony known as _organum_. When this passed out of
favour, superseded by the first beginnings of polyphony over a pedal
bass, the organistrum gave place to the hurdy-gurdy. Instead of acting
on all the strings, the keys now affected the first string only, or
"chanterelle," though in some cases certain keys, made longer, also
reached the third string or "trompette"; the result was that a diatonic
melody could be played on the chanterelles. The other open strings
always sounded simultaneously as long as the wheel was turned, like
drones on the bag-pipe.
The hurdy-gurdy originated in France at the time when the Paris School
or Old French School was laying the foundations of counterpoint and
polyphony. During the 13th and 14th centuries it was known by the name
of _Symphonia or Chyfonie_, and in Germany _Lira_ or _Leyer_. Its
popularity remained undiminished in France until late in the 18th
century. Although the hurdy-gurdy never obtained recognition among
serious musicians in Germany, the idea embodied in the mechanism
stimulated ingenuity, the result being such musical curiosities as the
_Geigenwerk_ or _Geigen-Clavicymbel_ of Hans Hayden of Nuremberg (c.
1600), a harpsichord in which the strings, instead of being plucked by
quills, were set in vibration by friction of one of the little steel
wheels, covered with parchment and well rosined, which were kept
rotating by means of a large wheel and a series of cylinders worked by
treadles. Other instruments of similar type were the _Bogenclavier_
invented by Joh. Hohlfeld of Berlin in 1751 and the Bogenflugel by C. A.
Meyer of Gorlitz in 1794. In Adam Walker's _Celestina_ (1772) the
friction was provided by a running band instead of a bow. (K. S.)
HURLSTONE, FREDERICK YEATES (1800-1869), English painter, was born in
London, his father being a proprietor of the _Morning Chronicle_. His
grand-uncle, Richard Hurlstone, had been a well-known portrait-painter a
generation earlier. F. Y. Hurlstone studied under Sir W. Beechey, Sir T.
Lawrence and B. R. Haydon, and in 1820 became a student at the Royal
Academy, where he soon began to exhibit. In 1823 he won the Academy's
gold medal for historical painting. In 1831 he was elected to the
Society of British Artists, of which in 1835 he became president; it was
to their exhibitions that he sent most of his pictures, as he became a
pronounced critic of the management of the Academy. He died in London on
the 10th of June 1869. His historical paintings and portraits were very
numerous. Some of the most representative are "A Venetian Page" (1824),
"The Enchantress Armida" (1831), "Eros" (1836), "Prisoner of Chillon"
(1837), "Girl of Sorrento" (1847), "Boabdil" (1854), and his portrait of
the 7th earl of Cavan (1833).
HURON (a French term, from _hure_, bristled, early used as an expression
of contempt, signifying "lout"), a nickname given by the French when
first in Canada to certain Indian tribes of Iroquoian stock, occupying a
territory, which similarly was called Huronia, in Ontario, and
constituting a confederation called in their own tongue Wendat
("islanders"), which was corrupted by the English into Yendat,
Guyandotte and then Wyandot. The name persists for the small section of
"Hurons of Lorette," in Quebec, but the remnant of the old Huron
Confederacy which after its dispersal in the 17th century settled in
Ohio and was afterwards removed to Oklahoma is generally called Wyandot.
For their history see WYANDOT, and INDIANS, NORTH AMERICAN (under
"Indian Wars"; _Algonkian_ and _Iroquoian_).