HURDLE (O. Eng. hyrdel, cognate with such Teutonic forms as Ger. Hürde, Dutch horde, Eng. “hoarding”; in pre-Teutonic languages the word appears in Gr. κυρτία, wickerwork, κύρτη, 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 153⁄5 secs., and on cinders 151⁄5 secs., both of which were performed by A. C. Kraenzlein, who also holds the record for the 220 yds. low hurdle race, 233⁄5 secs. For 440 yds. over hurdles the record time is 574⁄5 secs., by T. M. Donovan, and by J. B. Densham at Kennington Oval in 1907.
HURDY-GURDY (Fr. vielle à manivelle, symphonie or chyfonie à 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 Bogenflügel by C. A. Meyer of Görlitz 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).