sillimanite, but kyanite appears also in hornfelses, especially in those which have a schistose character. The andalusite may be pink and is then often pleochroic in thin sections, or it may be white with the cross-shaped dark enclosures of the matrix which are characteristic of chiastolite. Sillimanite usually forms exceedingly minute needles embedded in quartz. In the rocks of this group cordierite also occurs, not rarely, and may have the outlines of imperfect hexagonal prisms which are divided up into six sectors when seen in polarized light. In biotite hornfelses a faint striping may indicate the original bedding of the unaltered rock and corresponds to small changes in the nature of the sediment deposited. More commonly there is a distinct spotting, visible on the surfaces of the hand specimens. The spots are round or elliptical, and may be paler or darker than the rest of the rock. In some cases they are rich in graphite or carbonaceous matters; in others they are full of brown mica; some spots consist of rather coarser grains of quartz than occur in the matrix. The frequency with which this feature reappears in the less altered slates and hornfelses is rather remarkable, especially as it seems certain that the spots are not always of the same nature or origin. “Tourmaline hornfelses” are found sometimes near the margins of tourmaline granites; they are black with small needles of schorl which under the microscope are dark brown and richly pleochroic. As the tourmaline contains boron there must have been some permeation of vapours from the granite into the sediments. Rocks of this group are often seen in the Cornish tin-mining districts, especially near the lodes.
A second great group of hornfelses are the calc-silicate-hornfelses which arise from the thermal alteration of impure limestones. The purer beds recrystallize as marbles, but where there has been originally an admixture of sand or clay lime-bearing silicates are formed, such as diopside, epidote, garnet, sphene, vesuvianite, scapolite; with these phlogopite, various felspars, pyrites, quartz and actinolite often occur. These rocks are fine-grained, and though often banded are tough and much harder than the original limestones. They are excessively variable in their mineralogical composition, and very often alternate in thin seams with biotite hornfels and indurated quartzites. When perfused with boric and fluoric vapours from the granite they may contain much axinite, fluorite and datolite, but the aluminous silicates (andalusite, &c.) are absent from these rocks.
From diabases, basalts, andesites and other igneous rocks a third type of hornfels is produced. They consist essentially of felspar with hornblende (generally of brown colour) and pale pyroxene. Sphene, biotite and iron oxides are the other common constituents, but these rocks show much variety of composition and structure. Where the original mass was decomposed and contained calcite, zeolites, chlorite and other secondary minerals either in veins or in cavities, there are usually rounded areas or irregular streaks containing a suite of new minerals, which may resemble those of the calc silicate hornfelses above described. The original porphyritic, fluidal, vesicular or fragmental structures of the igneous rock are clearly visible in the less advanced stages of hornfelsing, but become less evident as the alteration progresses.
In some districts hornfelsed rocks occur which have acquired a schistose structure through shearing, and these form transitions to schists and gneisses which contain the same minerals as the hornfelses, but have a schistose instead of a hornfels structure. Among these may be mentioned cordierite and sillimanite gneisses, andalusite and kyanite mica schists, and those schistose calc silicate rocks which are known as cipolins. That these are sediments which have undergone thermal alteration is generally admitted, but the exact conditions under which they were formed is not always clear. The essential features of hornfelsing are ascribed to the action of heat, pressure and permeating vapours, regenerating a rock mass without the production of fusion (at least on a large scale). It has been argued, however, that often there is extensive chemical change owing to the introduction of matter from the granite into the rocks surrounding it. The formation of new felspar in the hornfelses is pointed out as evidence of this. While this “felspathization” may have occurred in a few localities, it seems conspicuously absent from others. Most authorities at the present time regard the changes as being purely of a physical and not of a chemical nature. (J. S. F.)
HORNING, LETTERS OF, a term in Scots law. Originally
in Scotland imprisonment for debt was enforceable only in
certain cases, but a custom gradually grew up of taking the
debtor’s oath to pay. If the debtor broke his oath, he became
liable to the discipline of the Church. The civil power, further,
stepped in to aid the ecclesiastical, and denounced him as a
rebel, imprisoning his person and confiscating his goods. The
method declaring a person a rebel was by giving three blasts
on a horn and publicly proclaiming the fact; hence the expression,
“put to the horn.” The subsequent process, the warrant
directing a messenger-at-arms to charge the debtor to pay or
perform in terms of the letters, was called “letters of horning.”
This system of execution was simplified by an act of 1837
(Personal Diligence Act), and execution is now usually by
diligence (see Execution).
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 32 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.
HORROCKS, JEREMIAH (1619–1641), English astronomer,
was born in 1619 at Toxteth Park, near Liverpool. His family
was poor, and the register of Emmanuel College, Cambridge,
testifies to his entry as sizar on the 18th of May 1632. Isolated
in his scientific tastes, and painfully straitened in means, he
