portion of the old Mithradatic kingdom which lay between the Halys (roughly) and the borders of Colchis, Lesser Armenia, Cappadocia and Galatia-the region properly designated by the title "Cappadocia towards the Pontus," which was always the nucleus of the Pontic kingdom.

journeyman to Andrea del Sarto, and was remarked as a young | But it was also frequently used to denote (in whole or part) that man of exceptional accomplishment and promise. Later on, but still in early youth, he executed, in continuation of Andrea's labours, the "Visitation," in the cloister of the Servi in Florence -one of the principal surviving evidences of his powers. The most extensive series of works which he ever undertook was a set of frescoes in the church of S. Lorenzo, Florence, from the "Creation of Man to the Deluge," closing with the "Last Judgment." By this time, towards 1546, he had fallen under the dangerous spell of Michelangelo's colossal genius and superhuman style; and Pontormo, after working on at the frescoes for eleven years, left them incomplete, and the object of general disappointment and disparagement. They were finished by Angelo Bronzino, but have long since vanished under whitewash. Among the best works of Pontormo are his portraits, which include the likenesses of various members of the Medici family; they are vigorous, animated and highly finished. He was fond of new and odd experiments both in style of art and in method of painting. From Da Vinci he caught one of the marked physiognomic traits of his visages, smiles and dimples. At one time he took to direct imitation or reproduction of Albert Dürer, and executed a series of paintings founded on the Passion subjects of the German master, not only in composition, but even in such peculiarities as the treatment of draperies, &c. Pontormo died of dropsy on the 2nd of January 1557, mortified at the ill success of his frescoes in S. Lorenzo; he was buried below his work in the Servi.

PONTREMOLI, a town and bishop's see of the province of Massa and Carrara, Tuscany, Italy, in the upper valley of the Magra, 25 m. N. by E. of Spezia by rail and 49 m. S.S.W. of Parma, 843 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901), 4107 (town); 14,570 (commune). It has a 17th-century cathedral. The church of the Annunziata with its Augustinian monastery is interesting. There are also mineral springs. The town, which is well situated among the mountains, was an independent republic in the 12th and 13th centuries, and in 1495 was sacked by the troops of Charles VIII. of France. It was much damaged by an earthquake in 1834.

PONTUS, a name applied in ancient times to extensive tracts of country in the north-east of Asia Minor bordering on the Euxine (Black Sea), which was often called simply Pontos (the Main), by the Greeks. The exact signification of this purely territorial name varied greatly at different times. The Greeks used it loosely of various parts of the shores of the Euxine, and the term did not get a definite connotation till after the establishment of the kingdom founded beyond the Halys during the troubled period following the death of Alexander the Great, about 301 B.C., by Mithradates I., Klistes, son of a Persian satrap in the service of Antigonus, one of Alexander's successors, and ruled by a succession of kings, mostly bearing the same name, till 64 B.C. As the greater part of this kingdom lay within the immense region of Cappadocia, which in early ages extended from the borders of Cilicia to the Euxine, the kingdom as a whole was at first called "Cappadocia towards the Pontus (πрÒS Tη HóνT), but afterwards simply "Pontus," the name Cappadocia being henceforth restricted to the southern half of the region previously included under that title. Under the last king, Mithradates Eupator, commonly called the Great, the realm of Pontus included not only Pontic Cappadocia but also the seaboard from the Bithynian frontier to Colchis, part of inland Paphlagonia, and Lesser Armenia (see under MITHRADATES). With the destruction of this kingdom by Pompey in 64 B.C., the meaning of the name Pontus underwent a change. Part of the kingdom was now annexed to the Roman Empire, being united with Bithynia in a double province called "Pontus and Bithynia": this part included (possibly from the first, but certainly from about 40 B.C. onwards) only the seaboard between Heracleia (Eregli) and Amisus (Samsun), the ora Pontica. Hereafter the simple name Pontus without qualification was regularly employed to denote the half of this dual province, especially by Romans and people speaking from the Roman point of view; it is so used almost always in the New Testament.

This region is regarded by the geographer Strabo (A.D. 19–20), himself a native of the country, as Pontus in the strict sense of the term (Geogr. p. 678). Its native population was of the same stock as that of Cappadocia, of which it had formed a part, an Oriental race often called by the Greeks Leucosyri or White Syrians, as distinguished from the southern Syrians, who were of a darker complexion, but their precise ethnological relations are uncertain. Geographically it is a table-land, forming the north-east corner of the great plateau of Asia Minor, edged on the north by a lofty mountain rim, along the foot of which runs a fringe of coast-land. The table-land consists of a series of fertile plains, of varying size and elevation separated from each other by upland tracts or mountains, and it is drained almost entirely by the river Iris (Yeshil Irmak) and its numerous tributaries, the largest of which are the Scylax (Tchekerek Irmak) with many affluents and the Lycus (Kalkid Irmak), all three rising in the highlands near, or on, the frontier of Armenia Minor and flowing first in a westerly and then in a north-westerly direction to merge their waters in a joint stream, which (under the name of the Iris) pierces the mountain-wall and emerges on the east of Amisus (Samsun). Between the Halys and the Iris the mountain rim is comparatively low and broken, but cast of the Iris it is a continuous lofty ridge (called by the ancients Paryadres and Scydises), whose rugged northern slopes are furrowed by torrent beds, down which a host of small streams (among them the Thermodon, famed in Amazon story) tumble to the sea. These inaccessible slopes were inhabited even in Strabo's time by wild, half-barbarous tribes, of whose ethnical relations we are ignorant-the Chalybes (identified by the Greeks with Homer's Chalybes), Tibareni, Mosynoeci and Macrones, on whose manners and condition some light is thrown by Xenophon (Anab. V). But the fringe of coast-land from Trebizond westward is one of the most beautiful parts of Asia Minor and is justly extolled by Strabo for its wonderful productiveness.

The sea-coast, like the rest of the south shore of the Euxine, was studded with Greek colonies founded from the 6th century onwards: Amisus, a colony of Miletus, which in the 5th century received a body of Athenian settlers, now the port of Samsun; Cotyora, now Ordu; Cerasus, the later Pharnacia, now Kerasund; and Trapezus (Trebizond), a famous city from Xenophon's time till the end of the middle ages. The last three were colonies of Sinope, itself a Milesian colony. The chief towns in the interior were Amasia, on the Iris, the birthplace of Strabo, the capital of Mithradates the Great, and the burial-place of the earlier kings, whose tombs still exist; Comana, higher up the river, a famous centre of the worship of the goddess Ma (or Cybele); Zela, another great religious centre, refounded by Pompey, now Zileh; Eupatoria, refounded by Pompey as Magnopolis at the junction of the Lycus and Iris; Cabira, Pompey's Diospolis, afterwards Neocaesarea, now Niksar; Sebastopolis on the Scylax, now Sulu Serai; Sebasteia, now Sivas; and Megalopolis, a foundation of Pompey, somewhere in the same district.

The history of this region is the history of the advance of the Roman Empire towards the Euphrates. Its political position between 64 and 41 B.C., when Mark Antony became master of the East, is not quite certain. Part of it was handed over by Pompey to client princes: the coast-land east of the Halys (except the territory of Amisus) and the hill-tribes of Paryadres were given, with Lesser Armenia, to the Galatian chief Deiotarus, with the title of king; Comana was left under the rule of its high-priest. The rest of the interior was partitioned by Pompey amongst the inland cities, almost all of which were founded by him, and, according to one view, was included together with the seaboard west of Amisus and the corner of northeast Paphlagonia possessed by Mithradates in his new province

of Myvyr Morganwg, who used to style himself archdruid of | Cambridge, and from 1649 till the passing of the Act of Unifor Wales. The place became, for a time, famous as a meeting | place for neo-Druidic gatherings. Pontypridd was an insignificant village till the opening of the Taff Vale railway into the town in 1840, and it owed its progress chiefly to the development of the coal areas of the Rhondda Valley, for which district it serves as the market town and chief business centre. It also possesses anchor, chain, and cable works, chemical works, and iron and brass foundries. Pontypridd has, jointly with Rhondda, a stipendiary magistrate since 1872.

PONY (from the Lowland Scots powney, probably from O. Fr. pouleriet, diminutive of poulain, a colt or foal; Late Lat. pullanus, Lat. pullus, a young animal), a horse of a small breed, sometimes confined to such as do not exceed 13 hands in height, but generally applied to any horse under 14 hands (see HORSE). The word is of frequent use as a slang term-c.g. for a sum of £25; for a liquor measure or glass containing less than a half-pint; and in America for a literal translation of a foreign or classical author, a crib."

PONZA (anc. Pontiae), the principal of a small group of islands belonging to Italy. Pop. (1901), 4621. The group is of volcanic origin, and includes Palmarola (anc. Palmaria), Zannone (Sinonia), Ventotene (Pandateria, pop. in 1901, 1986) and San Stefano. It is situated about 20 m. S. of Monte Circeo and 70 m. W. of Naples, and belongs partly to the province of Caserta and partly to that of Naples (Ventotene). There is regular communication with Naples by steamer, and in summer with Anzio. The islands rise to a height of about 70 ft. above sea-| level. They are now penal settlements, and their isolated character led to their being similarly used in ancient times. A colony with Latin rights was founded on Pontiae in 313 B.C. Nero, Germanicus's eldest son, and the sisters of Caligula, were confined upon it; while Pandateria was the place of banishment of Julia, daughter of Augustus, of her daughter Agrippina the elder, and of Octavia, the divorced wife of Nero.

POOD, a Russian weight, equivalent to 40 lb Russian and about 36 lb avoirdupois. A little more than 62 poods go to the ton. The word is an adaptation of the Low German or Norse pund, pound.

mity (1662) held the rectory of St Michael le Querne, London. Subsequent troubles led to his withdrawal to Holland, and he died at Amsterdam in 1679. The work with which his name is principally associated is the Synopsis criticorum biblicorum (5 vols. fol., 1669-1676), in which he summarizes the views of one hundred and fifty biblical critics. He also wrote English Annotations on the Holy Bible, as far as Isa. lviii.-a work which was completed by several of his Nonconformist brethren, and published in 2 vols. fol. in 1683.

POOLE, PAUL FALCONER (1806-1879), English painter, was born at Bristol in 1806. Though 'self-taught his fine feeling for colour, poetic sympathy and dramatic power gained for him a high position among British artists. He exhibited his first work in the Royal Academy at the age of twenty-five, the subject being" The Well," a scene in Naples. There was an interval of seven years before he next exhibited his " Farewell, Farewell " in 1837, which was followed by the "Emigrant's Departure," "Hermann and Dorothea" and "By the Waters of Babylon." In 1843 his position was made secure by his "Solomon Eagle," and by his success in the Cartoon Exhibition, in which he received from the Fine Art Commissioners a prize of £300 sterling. After his exhibition of the "Surrender of Syon House " he was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1846, and was made an, academician in 1861. He died in 1879.

Poole's subjects divide themselves into two orders-one idyllic, the other dramatic. Of the former his "May Day (1852) is a typical example. Of both styles there were excellent examples to be seen in the small collection of his works shown at Burlington House in the Winter Exhibition of 1883-1884. Among his early dramatic pictures was "Solomon Eagle exhorting the People to Repentance during the Plague of 1665," painted in 1843. To this class belongs also the "Messenger announcing to Job the Irruption of the Sabeans and the Slaughter of the Servants" (exhibited in 1850), and "Robert, Duke of Normandy and Arletta" (1848). Finer examples of his more mature power in this direction are to be found in his "Prodigal Son," painted in 1869; the "Escape of Glaucus and Ione with the blind girl Nydia from Pompeii" (1860); and "Cunstaunce sent adrift by the Constable of Alla, King of Northumberland," painted in 1868. More peaceful than these are the "Song of Troubadours " (painted in 1854) and the" Goths in Italy" (1851), the latter an important historical work of great power and beauty. Of a less lofty strain, but still more beautiful in its workmanship, is the " Seventh Day of the Decameron," painted in 1857. In this picture Poole rises to his full height as a colourist. In his pastorals he is soft and tender, as in the" Mountain Path " (1853), the" Water-cress Gatherers " (1870), the "Shepston Maiden" (1872). But when he turns to the grander and more sublime views of nature his work is bold and vigorous. Fine examples of this style may be seen in the "Vision of Ezekiel" of the National Gallery, Solitude (1876), the "Entrance to the Cave of Mammon" (1875), the "Dragon's Cavern" (1877), and perhaps best of all in the "Lion in the Path" (1873), a great representation of mountain and

POOL. (1) A pond, or a small body of still water; also a place in a river or stream where the water is deep and still, so applied in the Thames to that part of the river known as The Pool, which reaches from below London Bridge to Limehouse. The word in Old English was pól, which may be related to pull or pyll, and the similar Celtic words, c.g. Cornish pol, a creek, common on the Bristol Channel and estuary of the Severn, on the English side in the form " pill." A further connexion has been suggested with Lat. palus, marsh; Gr. ŋλós, mud. (2) A name for the stakes, penalties, &c., in various card and other games when collected together to be paid out to the winners; also the name of a variety of games of billiards (q.v.). This word has a curious history. It is certainly adapted from Fr. poule, hen, chicken, apparently a slang term for the stakes in a game, possibly, as the New English Dictionary suggests, used as a synonym for plunder, booty. "Chicken-hazard" might be cited as a parallel, though that has been taken to be a corruption of " chequeen," a form of the Turkish coin, a sequin. POOLE, REGINALD STUART (1832-1895), English archaeWhen the word came into use in English at the end of the 17thologist and orientalist, was born in London on the 27th of century, it seems to have been at once identified with "pool," pond, as Fr. fiche (ficher, to fix), a counter, was with "fish," counters in card games often taking the form of "fish" made of mother-of-pearl, &c. "Pool," in the sense of a common fund, has been adopted as a commercial term for a combination for the purpose of speculating in stocks and shares, the several owners of securities pooling" them and placing them under a single control, and sharing all losses and profits. Similarly the name is given to a form of trade combination, especially in railway or shipping companies, by which the receipts or profits are divided on a certain agreed-upon basis, for the purpose of avoiding competition (see TRUSTS).

POOLE, MATTHEW (1624-1679), English Nonconformist theologian, was born at York, educated at Emmanuel College,

cloud form.

January 1832. His father was the Rev. Edward Poole, a wellknown bibliophile. His mother, Sopha, authoress of The Englishwoman in Egypt (1844), was the sister of E. W. Lane, the Arabic scholar, with whom R. S. Poole lived in Cairo from 1842 to 1849, thus imbibing an early taste for Egyptian antiquities. In 1852 he became an assistant in the British Museum, and was assigned to the department of coins and medals, of which in 1870 he became keeper. In that capacity he did work of the highest value, alike as a writer, teacher and administrator. In 1882 he was largely responsible for founding the Egypt Exploration Fund, and in 1884 for starting the Society of English Medallists. He retired in 1893, and died on the 8th of February 1895. Some of Poole's best work was done in his articles for the Ency. Brit. (9th ed.) on Egypt, Hieroglyphics

and Numismatics, and considerable portions have been retained | in the present edition, even though later research has been active in his sphere of work; he also wrote for Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, and published several volumes dealing with his special subjects. He was for some time professor of archacology at University College, London, and also lecturer at the Royal Academy.

His elder brother, EDWARD STANLEY POOLE (1830-1867),. who was chief clerk in the science and art department at South Kensington, was an Arabic scholar, whose early death cut short promising carcer. His two sons, Stanley Lane-Poole (b. 1854), | professor of Arabic in Trinity College, Dublin, and Reginald Lane-Poole (b. 1857), keeper of the archives at Oxford, lecturer in diplomatic, and author of various historical works, carried on the family tradition of scholarship.

present fairs on the Feasts of SS Philip and James and All Saints were granted in 1453. Poole, as the headquarters of the Parliamentary forces in Dorset during the Civil War, escaped the siege that crippled so many of its neighbours. When Charles II. visited the town in 1665 a large trade was carried on in stockings, though the prosperity of Poole still depended on its usefulness as a port.

POONA, or PUNA, a city and district of British India, in the Central division of Bombay. The city is at the confluence of the Mutha and Mula rivers, 1850 ft. above sea-level and 119 m. S.E. from Bombay on the Great Indian Peninsula railway Municipal area, about 4 sq. m.; pop. (1901), 153,320. It is pleasantly situated amid extensive gardens, with a large number of modern public buildings, and also many temples and palaces dating from the 16th to the 19th century. The palace POOLE, a municipal borough, county in itself, market town of the peshwas is a ruin, having been destroyed by fire in 1827. and seaport in the eastern parliamentary division of Dor- From its healthy situation Poona has been chosen not only setshire, England, 113 m. S.W. by W. from London by the as the headquarters of the 6th division of the Southern army, London & South-Western railway. Pop. (1901), 19,463 It but also as the residence of the governor of Bombay during the is picturesquely situated on a peninsula between Holes Bay rainy season, from June to September. The native town, along and the shallow irregular inlet of Poole Harbour. There are the river bank, is somewhat poorly built. The European quarter, several modern churches, a guildhall, public library and school including the cantonment, extends north-west towards Kirkee. of art. Poole Harbour, extending inland 6 m., with a general The waterworks were constructed mainly by the munificence breadth of 4 m., has a very narrow entrance, and is studded of Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy. Poona was never a great centre with low islands, on the largest of which, Brownsea or Branksca, of trade or manufacture though still noted for brass-work, is a castle, transformed into a residence, erected as a defence jewelry and other articles of luxury. Cotton-mills, paperof the harbour in Tudor times, and strengthened by Charles I. mills, a brewery (at Dapuri), flour-mills, factories of ice and Potters' clay is worked here. At low water the harbour is mineral waters, and dairy farms furnish the chief industries. entirely emptied except a narrow channel, when there is a Educational institutions are numerous. They include the depth of 8 ft. There are some valuable oyster beds. There government Deccan College, with a law class; the aided. Feris a considerable general coasting trade, and clay is exported gusson college; the government colleges of science and agriculto the Staffordshire potteries. Some shipbuilding is carried ture; high schools; training schools for masters and mistresses; on, and there are manufacturers of cordage, netting and sail-medical school; and municipal technical school. The recent cloth. The town also possesses potteries, decorative tileworks, iron foundries, agricultural implement works and flour-mills. Poole Park, containing 40 acres of land and 62 acres of water, was acquired in 1887 and 1889, and Branksome Park, of 40 acres, in 1895. The borough is under a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors. Area, 5333 acres.

Although the neighbourhood abounds in British earthworks and barrows, and there are traces of a Roman road leading from Poole to Wimborne, Poole (La Pole) is not mentioned by the early chroniclers or in Domesday Book. The manor, part of that of Canford, belonged in 1086 to Edward of Salisbury, and passed by marriage to William Longespée, earl of Salisbury, thence to Edmund de Lacy, earl of Lincoln, and with his heiress to Thomas, earl of Lancaster, and so to the Crown. Poole is first mentioned in a writ of 1224, addressed to the bailiffs and good men of La Pole, ordering them to retain all ships within their port. Entries in the Patent Rolls show that Poole had considerable trade before William de Longespée, earl of Salisbury, granted the burgesses a charter about 1248 assuring to them all liberties and free customs within his borough. The bailiff was to be chosen by the lord from six men elected by the burgesses, and was to hold pleas for breach of measures and assizes. It is uncertain when the burgesses obtained their town at the fee-farm rent of £8, 13s. 4d. mentioned in 1312. The mayor, bailiffs and good men are first mentioned in 1311 and were required to provide two ships for service against Robert de Brus. In 1372 the burgesses obtained assize of bread and ale, and right to hold the courts of the lord of the manor, the prepositus being styled his mayor. The burgesses were licensed in 1433 to fortify the town; this was renewed in 1462, when the mayor was given cognisance of the staple. Elizabeth incorporated Poole in 1569 and made it a separate county; Charles II. gave a charter in 1667. The corporation was suspended after a writ of quo warranto in 1686, the town being governed by the commission of the peace until the charters were renewed in 1688. Poole returned two members to parliament in 1362 and 1368, and regularly from 1452 to 1867, when the representation was reduced, ceasing in 1885. It is uncertain when the Thursday market was granted, but the

history of Poona has been painfully associated with the plague. During 1897, when the city was first attacked, the death-rate rose to 93 per 1000 in Poona city, 71 per 1000 in the cantonment, and 93 per 1000 in Kirkee.

The DISTRICT OF POONA has an area of 5349 sq. m. Population (1901), 995,330, showing an increase of 18% after the disastrous famine of 1876-1877, but a decrease of 7% in the last decade. Towards the west the country is undulating, and numerous spurs from the Western Ghats enter the district; to the east it opens out into plains. It is watered by many streams which, rising in the ghats, flow eastwards until they join the Bhima, a river which intersects the district from north to south. The principal crops are millets, pulses, oil-seeds, wheat, rice, sugarcane, vegetables and fruit (including grapes). The two most important irrigation works in the Deccan are the Mutha canal, with which the Poona waterworks are connected, and the Nira canal. There are manufactures of cotton, silk and blankets. The district is traversed by the Great Indian Peninsula railway, and also by the Southern Mahratta line, which starts from Poona city towards Satara. It is liable to drought, from which it suffered severely in 1866-1867, 1876-1877. and again in 1896-1897.

In the 17th century the district formed part of the Mahommedan kingdom of Ahmadnagar. Sivaji was born within its boundaries at Junnar in 1627, and he was brought up at Poona town as the headquarters of the hereditary fief of his father. The district thus was the carly centre of the Mahratta power; and when Satara became first the capital and later the prison of the descendants of Sivaji, Poona continued to be the seat of government under their hereditary ministers, with the title of peshwa. Many stirring scenes in Mahratta history were enacted here. Holkar defeated the last peshwa under its walls, and his flight to Bassein led to the treaty by which he put himself under British protection. He was reinstated in 1802, but, unable to maintain friendly relations, he attacked the British at Kirkee in 1817, and his kingdom passed from him.

POOP (Lat. puppis, stern), the stern or after-part of a ship; in the 16th and 17th centuries a lofty and castellated deck. The verb "to poop" is used of a wave breaking over the stern of a vessel

POORE (or POOR), RICHARD (d. 1237), English bishop, was | chiefly arose from the confusion and perplexity of jurisdiction a son of Richard of Ilchester, bishop of Winchester. About which existed in the one hundred and seventy parishes com1197 he was chosen dean of Sarum and, after being an un-prised within the city of London and the metropolitan district, successful candidate for the bishoprics of Winchester and of some of these containing governing bodies of their own; in some Durham, he became bishop of Chichester in 1214. In 1217 he the parish business was professedly managed by open vestries, was translated to Salisbury, where he succeeded his elder brother, in others by select vestries, and in addition to these there were Herbert Poore, and in 1228 to Durham. He died at Tarrant elective vestrics, while the majority of the large parishes were Monkton, Dorset, said by some to be his birthplace, on the 15th managed under local acts by boards of directors, governors of April 1237. Poore took some part in public affairs, under and trustees. These governing bodies executed a great variety Henry III., but the great work of his life was done at Salisbury. of functions besides regulating the management of the poor. Having in 1219 removed his see from Old to New Sarum, or The power, patronage and the indirect advantages which arose Salisbury, he began the building of the magnificent cathedral from the administration of the local funds were so great that there; he laid the foundation stone in April 1220, and during much opposition took place when it was proposed to interfere his episcopate he found money and forwarded the work in other by constituting a board to be annually chosen and freely elected ways. For the city the bishop secured a charter from Henry III. by the ratepayers, on which the duty of regulating the expenand he was responsible for the plan on which it was built, diture for the relief of the poor was to depend. The general a plan which to some extent it still retains. He had something management of the poor was, however, on a somewhat better to do with drawing up some statutes for his cathedral, he is footing in London than in the country. said to be responsible for the final form of the " use of Sarum," and he was probably the author of the Ancren Riwle, a valuable picture of contemporary life, manners and feeling" written in Middle English. His supposed identity with the jurist, Ricardus Anglicus, is more doubtful.