Polo
Polo names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Polo po'lo, a kind of hockey played on horseback
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
po'lo, a kind of hockey played on horseback. It appears to have been long a favorite pastime in Persia and Tartary and the frontiers of India, a country where good horses and open plains are common. In 1871 it was brought home to England by cavalrymen returning from the East. In playing, an oblong field, like a football ground, is marked off. A goal is established at each end. A ball three inches in diameter is laid down in the middle of the field. The players, from three to six on a side, are mounted on ponies of regulation size. Each rider is armed with a bat or stick, four feet in length, with a cross piece at the lower end with which to drive the ball. They draw up behind their respective goals. At a given signal they dash for the ball, each player trying to drive it through his opponents' goal. If a player breaks his stick, he is required to ride to the place where a supply is kept. If he drops his stick, he must dismount and pick it up. He is not allowed to strike the ball while out of the saddle. As in football, rules apply to almost every emergency that may arise. The players require skill in striking the ball as they pass by at full gallop. The regular game is confined to three periods of twenty minutes each, with five-minute intervals. The polo grounds of the United States are confined chiefly to the vicinities of New York and Philadelphia. An army polo club is maintained with headquarters at West Point . See Games And Sports
Polo MARCO, a Venetian traveler of the 13th century
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
MARCO, a Venetian traveler of the 13th century, the son of a merchant, who, with his brother, had penetrated to the court of Kublai, the great khan of the Tartars. This prince, being highly entertained with their account of Europe, made them his ambassadors to the Pope; on which they traveled back to Rome, and with two missionaries, once more visited Tartary, accompanied by the young Marco, who became a great favorite with the khan. Having acquired the different dialects of Tartary, he was employed on various embassies; and after a residence of 17 years, all the three Venetians returned to their own country in 1295, with immense wealth. Marco afterward served his country at sea against the Genoese, and, being taken prisoner, remained many years in confinement, where he wrote his "Travels." An English translation of the "Travels of Marco Polo" was published by William Marsden, the Orientalist, in 1817 and it has often been reprinted.
Polo an equestrian game
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
an equestrian game, which may be shortly described as hockey on horseback. It is of Oriental origin and of high antiquity; indeed, it has been claimed that it can be traced back to 600 b. c. Polo was first played by Europeans in 1863 in Calcutta. Almost the same game exists in Tibet; while native equestrian games more or less closely resembling polo are played in Japan and other parts of the East. Since 1871 many polo clubs have been started in Great Britain and, since 1876, in the United States, as well as wherever Britons are found in the East. The principal British club which makes the rules of the game, is at Hurlingham, near London.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's 1910 description of three twenty-minute periods and "from three to six on a side" no longer matches the game: outdoor polo settled on four players a side and four to eight chukkas of seven and a half minutes each, and the pony height limit the old writers took for granted was abandoned around 1916-19, so today's "ponies" are full-sized Thoroughbred crosses. Collier's noted in 1921 that Hurlingham near London made the rules; the club's own grounds ceased to host polo after the Second World War, though the Hurlingham Polo Association still writes the rulebook for Britain. The centre of gravity has moved decisively to Argentina, whose Palermo Open is the sport's premier event and whose players fill the ten-goal handicap ranks; polo was an Olympic sport from 1900 but appeared for the last time in 1936. As for the other Polo, Marco's "Travels" is still in print, but scholars have argued since the 1990s over how much of China he saw at first hand, and Marsden's 1817 translation that Collier's recommended has been superseded by twentieth-century critical editions.
Written for this edition, 2026.