a municipal and parliamentary borough, seaport, and market-town of England, forming a county by itself; in Dorsetshire, on a peninsula on the N. side of Poole harbour, 20 miles E. of Dorchester, and 97 W.S.W. of London. It is an old town, built for the most part of red brick, and somewhat resembling Sheerness and Portsmouth. The streets are irregular, and many parts of the town have a mean appearance; but the more modern portions are well and substantially built. The parish church of St James (rebuilt in 1812), the custom-house, town-hall, guild-hall, jail, and an old edifice called the King's Hall or wool-house, are the principal public buildings in the town. The Independents, Baptists, Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists, Unitarians, Roman Catholics, and Quakers, have places of worship in Poole; and there are also National and British schools, a free grammar school, a public library, a savings-bank, and several well-endowed almshouses. The peninsula on which Poole stands is lined towards the sea with broad and convenient quays and warehouses. Shipbuilding is extensively carried on especially the construction of sailing-yachts; sail-cloth, ropes, and other articles used in ships are also made here. The number of sailing-vessels registered at Poole, December 31, 1857, was 113, tonnage 15,445; of steam-vessels 1, tonnage 22. In the year 1857 there entered the port 751 sailing-vessels, tonnage 61,514; and there cleared 517 sailing-vessels, tonnage 31,183, and 1 steamer, tonnage 18. Poole harbour is an extensive estuary, communicating with the sea by a very narrow entrance. It is 6 miles in length, and 4 or 5 in breadth, and has a very irregular outline. The water is shallow throughout, and there are many mud-banks laid bare at low water. A fine view is obtained from the town and its vicinity of the harbour, the beautiful island of Brownsea, the extensive heaths which spread around, the bold chalk range on the south, in a deep cleft of which stand the ruins of Corfe Castle. North of the town is a smaller arm of the sea, called Holes Bay, connected with the harbour by a narrow channel, which is crossed by a swing bridge. It is remarkable that the tides in Poole harbour ebb and flow twice in twelve hours. This is caused by the position of the entrance facing the E., and by the ebb tide from the Isle of Wight forcing the water up into the bay. On a bank near the harbour's mouth many oysters are obtained, and taken to the shores of Kent and Essex to be fattened. The fishing of plaice and herring is also carried on at Poole; and there is a considerable trade in the export of corn and clay. It is supposed that there was a harbour at Poole as early as the time of the Romans, as there are traces of a Roman road between it and Winchester. The town received its first charter in the time of Richard I., but it was Elizabeth who raised it from being a mere fishing village to the rank of a town and county. In the civil war, Poole, then a fortified place, was held by the republican party; and in the reign of Charles II. its fortifications were destroyed. The borough is governed by a mayor, five other aldermen, and eighteen councillors; and it returns two members to Parliament. Pop. (1851) 9255.

MATTHEW, the learned author of the well-known Synopsis Criticorum Bibliorum, was born at York in 1624, where he inherited a good family estate. He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and was afterwards transferred in 1648 to succeed Anthony Tuckeney in St Michael le Querne, London. He held this rectory for some time, but was compelled to leave it, being unable to comply with the terms of ministerial conformity imposed by the Act of Uniformity just passed. Before this time he had been actively and successfully engaged in a project for the education of those intending for the ministry, of which, in 1658, he printed an account, entitled A Model for the Maintaining of Students of Choice Abilities in the University, and principally in order to the Ministry. In 1662, being ejected from his living for Nonconformity, he had leisure to complete the great work by which his name has become so extensively known. The design was to bring into one view all that had been written to illustrate the Scriptures throughout all ages. This he completed in ten years; and the Synopsis Criticorum Bibliorum appeared in 5 vols. in 1669-76. He was likewise engaged in most of the controversies of his time. He attacked Biddle on Socinianism, published a defence of the Nonconforming clergy in 1662, wrote against the intrusion of laymen into the ministerial office, and numerous pieces in opposition to Popery. His last work was Annotations on the Holy Bible, which he had carried as far as the 58th chapter of Isaiah. It was subsequently completed by several of his Nonconforming brethren, and appeared in 2 vols. folio, 1685. This very able critic retired to Holland in quest of toleration, and died at Amsterdam in 1679.