PONS ASINORUM (i. e.  Bridge of Asses), the fifth proposition in the 1st book of Euclid, so called for the difficulty many a tyro has in mastering it.

PONSONBY, SIR FREDERICK CAVENDISH, military officer; served in the Peninsular War; distinguished himself at Waterloo; lay wounded all night after the engagement; was conveyed next day in a cart to the village with seven wounds in his body; was a great favourite with the army (1783-1837).

PONTEFRACT (16), an ancient market-town of Yorkshire, 13 m.  SE. of Leeds; has a castle in which Richard II. died, and which suffered four sieges in the Civil War, a market hall, grammar school, and large market-gardens, where liquorice for the manufacture of Pomfret cakes is grown.

PONTIFEX MAXIMUS, the chief of the college of priests in ancient Rome, the officiating priests being called Flamens.

PONTIFICAL, a service-book of the Romish Church, containing prayers and rites for a performance of public worship by the Pope or bishop; also in the plural the name of the full dress of an officiating priest.

PONTINE MARSHES, a district, 26 m. by 17, in the S. of the Campagna of Rome, one of the three malarial districts of Italy, and the most unhealthy of the three, extending about 30 m. in length and 10 or 11 in varying breadth, is grazing ground for herds of cattle, horses, and buffaloes.  Many unsuccessful attempts have been made to drain these marshes.

PONTUS, the classical name of a country on the SE. shores of the Black Sea, stretching from the river Halys to the borders of Armenia; is represented by the modern Turkish provinces of Trebizond and Sivas.  Originally a Persian province, it became independent shortly after 400 B.C., and remained so till part was annexed to Bithynia in 65 B.C., and the rest constituted a Roman province in A.D. 63.

POOLE (15), a seaport of Dorsetshire, 5 m.  W. of Bournemouth; has a trade in potters’ and pipe-clay, with considerable shipping.

POOLE, MATTHEW, English controversialist and commentator, born at York, educated at Cambridge; became rector of St. Michael le Querne in London, but was expelled from his living by the Act of Uniformity 1662; retiring to Holland he died at Amsterdam; besides polemics against Rome he compiled a “Synopsis Criticorum Biblicorum,” containing the opinions of 150 Biblical critics (1624-1679).

POONA (160), 119 m. by rail SE. of Bombay, is the chief military station in the Deccan, and in the hot season the centre of government in the Bombay Presidency; with narrow streets and poor houses, it is surrounded by gardens; here are the Deccan College, College of Science, and other schools; the English quarters are in the cantonments; silk, cotton, and jewellery are manufactured; it was the capital of the Mahrattas, and was annexed by Britain in 1818.

POOR RICHARD, the name assumed by FRANKLIN (q. v.) in his almanacs.

POPE (i. e.  Papa), a title originally given to all bishops of the Church, and eventually appropriated by Leo the Great, the bishop of Rome, as the supreme pontiff in 449, a claim which in 1054 created the Great Schism, and which asserted itself territorially as well as spiritually, till now at length the Pope has been compelled to resign all territorial power.  The present Pope, Pius X., is the successor of 258 who occupied before him the Chair of St. Peter.