Poole derives its name from being nearly surrounded by a sheet of water. There was a Roman road between it and Wimbourne. 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. Mιιch 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 aidermen, 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; Hutchins, History of Dorset, 3d cd.

POOLE, Matthew (1624-1679), author of a learned though now almost wholly antiquated Synopsis Criticorum Biblicorum, 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. lviii.; the work was subsequently completed by several of his Nonconformist brethren, and published in 2 vols. fol. in 1683. He was also the author of numerous controversial tracts.

POOLE, PaulFalconer (1806-1879), an eminent English painter, was born at Bristol in 1806. He was self-taught in the strictest sense, and to this deficiency in art training must be ascribed the imperfect drawing of the human figure which is to be observed in most of his work. Bat, in spite of this drawback, his fine feeling for colour, his poetic sympathy, and his dramatic power have gained for him a high position among British artists. Gifted with an imagination of a high order, he boldly attempted lofty historical themes, and, if the result is not always equal to the vigour of his conception, we can easily see that the shortcoming was due to his imperfect education in art. His pictures show him to belong to that comparatively small class of English painters who are keenly sensitive to the influence of beauty and of passion, rising on occasion to ambitious flights of fancy, and dominated by strong dramatic impulse. A keen observer of nature, but generally viewing it in a broad comprehensive aspect, he was truly a poet-painter, using the effects of a summer sky or of angry clouds to harmonize with the subject of his picture and to enforce its story. In his early days Poole worked along with T. Danby, and it is easy to trace the bond of sympathy between the two painters.

Poole’s life was the simple uneventful record of the career of the artist. 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 again exhibited his Farewell, Farewell, in 1837, which was followed by the Emigrant’s Departure, Hermann and Dorothea, and By the Waters of Babylon. This last picture attracted much attention from the fine poetic imagination which it displayed. 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. In 1855 he received a medal of the third class at the Paris Universal Exhibition. His enthusiasm for his art was rewarded by success in life, though like many artists he passed through much hardship in his early days. He died in 1879, in his house at Hampstead, in his seventy-third year. In person he was tall and well built, with a lofty forehead, grey eyes, and short beard. The portrait sketch by Frank Holl, R.A., gives a very good idea of him in his last days,— a shy man but genial to his friends, fond of conversation and well read, especially in his favourites Shakespeare, Shelley, Spencer, and Chaucer, who were the sources of inspiration of many of his works.

Poole’s subjects easily divide themselves into two orders—one, without doubt the earlier, idyllic, the other dramatic. Of the former his May Day is a typical example. A rustic beauty crossing a brook, or resting on a hill side under bushes flecked with the light and shade of a bright sun and with cirrus clouds floating in a blue sky, is the frequent motive of these works, which are full of simple enjoyment of a beautiful country life. But in his later style he rises to loftier subjects and treats them powerfully. 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 1883-84. These collected pictures recalled the attention of the public to a painter who had suffered neglect for some years, alike from his own deficiencies as a draughtsman and also from a want of sympathy with the poetical character of his paintings, which never could have been popular with the ordinary public. His reputation will stand or fall by the criticism of this gathering of his pictures, small though it was. There was to be seen one of his early dramatic pictures, painted in 1843, Solomon Eagle exhorting the People to Repentance during the Plague of 1665, terrible in its ghastly force. . Though exaggerated in the expression of horror and agony, weak in drawing, and defective in colour, it is clearly the work of a powerful imagination. To this class belong 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 Arietta (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. Here Poole rises to a lofty height, and succeeds fully in realizing the impression he aims at. The expression of anguish and of resignation at Cunstaunce clasps her child to her bosom and turns her moon-lit face to heaven is rendered with great power, while the effect is heightened by the stormy sky, the dark rocks, and the angry sea.

More peaceful than these are the Song of Troubadours (painted 1854) and the Goths in Italy (1851), the latter an important his torical work of great power and beauty. It represents the easy luxurious insolence of the barbarian conquerors, lying stretched on the grass in the gardens of Lucullus and Cicero, while the captive daughters of proud senators wait on them and offer wine in golden goblets. In the background is a circular temple overhanging the sea, while overhead is a beautiful sky—altogether a bold feat to attempt, yet Poole has succeeded in giving a great representation of a striking page in history.

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 colorist. “In the foreground is Philomena, seated on the shore of a lake surrounded by high mountains, playing on a harp; eleven figures are grouped round her in various positions.” as described in the catalogue. The chief beauty of this work lies in its fine colour and quiet repose. The amphitheatre of rocky mountains reflected in the lake gives us a splendid example of Poole’s power in landscape, which is large and broad in style. His treatment corresponded with his choice of subject. 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 cloud form. This wild rocky landscape had a great fascination for him; every aspect of nature which showed the action of mighty force attracted him; hence his love of mountain sides scarred by ravines, and of trees torn and twisted by hurricanes. Caverns are a frequent theme; indeed he used to say that he had been haunted all his life by them, and that he would travel far to see a new one.