Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/480

Rh 460 P N P or about 1521, and died at a great age at Bragny on the Saone, another seat of his, on September 25, 1605. He was thus the last survivor as well as one of the eldest of the group. His early poems, the Erreurs Amoureiises, originally published in 1549, were augmented with other works in successive editions till 1573. Pontus de Tyard published Discours Philosophises in 1587, and appears to have been a man of extensive knowledge and just thought. He was, moreover, a courtier and official of some standing for many years, and, entering the church, was made count- bishop of Chalon-sur-Saone. In this high position he bore a character for political and religious moderation. On the whole his poetry is inferior to that of his com panions, but he was one of the first to write sonnets in French (the actual priority belongs to Mellin de St Gelais) ; and one of these, the beautiful Sonnet to Sleep (it has been noted that the poetical name of his mistress in the Erreurs is, oddly enough, Fasithea, the name of the nymph beloved classically by the god of sleep), is a very notable and famous piece. It is also said that Pontus de Tyard introduced the sestine into France, or rather reintroduced it, for it is originally a Prove^al invention. PONTYPOO.L, a town and urban sanitary district of Monmouthshire, England, situated on an acclivity above the river Avon Lwyd, on the Monmouthshire Canal, and on the Great- Western and Monmouthshire Railways, 8 miles north of Newport. The town-hall, in the Doric style, dates from 1856, the market-house from 1846, and the Baptist theological college from 1856. At one period Pontypool was famed for its japanned goods, invented by Thomas Allwood, a native of Northampton, who settled in the town in the reign of Charles II., but the manu facture has long been transferred altogether to other towns. The present prosperity of Pontypool is due to its &quot;situation on the edge of the great Pembrokeshire coal and iron basin. The earliest record of trade in iron is in 1588, but it was developed chiefly in the beginning of the 18th century by the Hanburys, the pro prietors of Pontypool Park. The town possesses large forges and iron-mills for the manufacture of iron-work and tin-plate. The population of the urban sanitary district (area 800 acres) in 1871 was 4834, and in 1881 it was 5244. PONTYPRIDD, sometimes also called NEWBRIDGE, a market town of Glamorganshire, Wales, situated on the Taff at its junction with the Rhondda, and on the Glamorganshire Canal, 12 miles north-north-west from Cardiff and 1 2 south from Merthyr-Tydfil. It receives its name from a remarkable bridge of one arch spanning the Taff, erected by William Edwards, a self-taught mason. The bridge is a perfect segment of a circle, the chord being 140 feet, and the height at low water 36 feet. A three-arched bridge was erected close to it in 1857. The principal buildings are the court-house, St Catherine s church, the masonic hall, and the town-hall. Near the town is a far-famed rocking stone 9 tons in weight, sur rounded by so-called Druidical remains. In the beginning of the century Pontypridd was an insignificant village, and it owes its progress chiefly to the coal and iron in the neighbourhood. It possesses anchor, chain, and cable works, chemical works, and iron and brass foundries. The population in 1881 was 12,317. PONZA, the principal island of a small volcanic group, the Pontian, Pontine, or Pontinian Islands (Insulx Pontise, Isole. Ponze), which lie 20 miles off the Circeian pro montory (Monte Circello), the northern end of the Gulf of Gaeta, on the west coast of Italy. The two smaller islands are Palmarola (ancient Palmaria) and Zannone (Simonia), neither inhabited. Ponza is 5 miles long and very irregular in outline ; its soil is fertile; and in 1881 it had 3828 inhabitants. The old fortress is used as a penal establishment. A Roman colony with Latin rights was settled on Pontia in 313 B.C. Under the empire the island was a place of banishment for political offenders. Nero, the eldest son of Germanicus, here perished by command of Tiberius ; here the sisters of Caligula were confined ; and here, or in Palmaria, Pope Sylvcrius died. A Benedictine monastery was built on Ponza, and in 1572 Cardinal Farnese, as commendatory of the monastery, claimed to exercise lordship over the island. From the duke of Parma, who obtained possession in 1588, the feudal authority passed with Elizabeth to Philip V. of Spain. Ferdinand IV. attracted the inhabitants of Torre del Greco to the island by gifts of land and money. During the first French empire it was occupied and fortified by the English and Sicilian forces. See Tricoli, Monografia per leisole del grvppo Ponziano, Naples, 1855; Mattei, L Archipelago Ponziano, Naples, 1857 ; and Doelter, Vorlaufige Mittheilung fiber den geol. Ban der Puntinischen Inscln, Vienna, 1875. POOLE, a market town, municipal borough, county in itself, and seaport of Dorsetshire, on the south coast of England, is picturesquely situated on a peninsula between Holes Bay and Poole Harbour, 30 miles east from Dorchester and 120 south-west of London. The churches are modern, and possess no features of special interest. Among the principal public buildings are the town-house, 1721; the guild-hall, formerly the market-house, 1761; the old town-hall, built in 1572; the custom-house; and the mechanics institute. On Brownsea Island in the middle of Poole Harbour is a small castle erected as a fortress by Elizabeth and strengthened by Charles I. At low water Poole Harbour is entirely emptied except a narrow channel, but at full tide the water covers an area about 7 miles long by about 4i broad. The quays lined with warehouses are about one mile in length, and can be approached by vessels of very large tonnage. There is a large general trade with the British colonies and the United States, and an important coasting trade, especially in corn to London, and Purbeck clay to the Staffordshire potteries. In 1883 the number of vessels that entered the harbour was 933 of 81,003 tons, the number that cleared 874 of 77,948 tons. Some shipbuilding is carried on, and there are manufactures of cordage, netting, and sail cloth. The town also possesses large potteries, decorative tile works, iron-foundries, engineering works, agricultural im plement works, and flour-mills. The area of the borough is 9111 acres, with a population in 1871 of 10,129, and in 1881 of 12,310 (5820 males and 6490 females). Poole derives its name from being nearly surrounded by a sheet of water. There was a Roman road between it and Wimbouine. It is not mentioned in Domesday, being included in Canford, but it enjoyed certain immunities before 1248, when it received a charter from William Longsword. In the reign of Edward III. it supplied four ships and 94 men for the siege of Calais. Much of its succeeding prosperity was due to the presence of Spanish merchants, and after the outbreak of war with Spain in the reign of Elizabeth its trade for a time declined. Its charter was extended by Elizabeth, who reincorporated it, and erected it into a county in itself. It has a sheriff elected annually, and a separate court of quarter sessions. It is divided into two wards, and is governed by a mayor, six aldermen, and eighteen councillors. It returned two members to parliament as early as the reign of Edward III., but one only from 1868 to 1885. See Hutchins, History of Poole, 1788; Sydenham, History of Poole, 1839; Hutchin.s, History of Dorset, 3d ed. POOLE, MATTHEW (1624-1679), author of a learned though now almost wholly antiquated Synopsis Criticoriim, Biblicorwn, was born at York in 1624, was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and from 1648 till the passing of the Act of Uniformity held the rectory of St Mary le Querne, London. Subsequent troubles led to his withdrawal to Holland. He died at Amsterdam in 1679. Besides the work with which his name is principally associated (Synopsis Criticorum Biblicorum, 5 vols. fol., 1669-76), he wrote Annotations on the Holy Bible, as far as to Isa. Iviii. ; the work was subsequently completed by several of his Nonconformist brethren, and published in 2 vols&amp;gt; fol. in 1683. He was also the author of numerous controversial tracts.