HORNPIPE, originally the name of an instrument no longer in existence, and now the name of an English national dance. The sailors’ hornpipe, although the most common, is by no means the only form of the dance, for there is a pretty tune known as the “College Hornpipe,” and other specimens of a similar kind might be cited. The composition of hornpipes flourished chiefly in the 18th century, and even Handel did not disdain to use the characteristic rhythm. The hornpipe may be written in 3⁄2 or in common time, and is always of a lively nature.
HORNSEY, a municipal borough in the Hornsey parliamentary division of Middlesex, England, suburban to London, 6 m. N. of St Paul’s Cathedral, on the Great Northern railway. Pop. (1891) 44,523; (1901) 72,056. It is chiefly occupied by small residences of the working classes. The manor, called in the 13th century Haringee (a name which survives as Harringay), belonged from an early date to the see of London, the bishops having a seat here. In 1387 the duke of Gloucester, uncle of Richard II., assembled in Hornsey Park the forces by the display of which he compelled the king to dismiss his minister de la Pole, earl of Suffolk; and in 1483 the park was the scene of the ceremonious reception of Edward V., under the charge of Richard, duke of Gloucester, by Edmund Shaw, lord mayor of London. The parish church of St Mary, Hornsey, retains its Perpendicular tower (c. 1500) and a number of interesting monuments. Finsbury Park, of 120 acres, and other smaller public grounds, are within the borough. Hornsey was incorporated in 1903 under a mayor, 10 aldermen and 30 councillors. Area, 2875 acres.
HOROWITZ, ISAIAH (c. 1555-c. 1630), Jewish rabbi and mystic, was born at Prague, and died at Safed, then the home of Jewish Kabbala. His largest work is called Shelah (abbreviated from the initials of the full title Shene luhoth ha-berit, “Two Tables of the Covenant”). This is a compilation of ritual, ethics and mysticism, and had a profound influence on Jewish life. It has been often reprinted, especially in an abbreviated form.
For an account of the Jewish mystics at Safed see S. Schecter, Studies in Judaism, series ii. (1908).
HORREUM, the Latin word for a magazine or storehouse for the storage of grain and other produce of the earth, and occasionally for that of agricultural implements. The storehouses of Rome were of the most extensive character, there being no fewer than 290 public horrea at the time of Constantine. They were used for the storage of food and merchandize of all kinds, being part of the great Roman system of providing food for the population, and they were supplied constantly with corn and other provisions from Africa, Spain and elsewhere.