The

between the passes of Hardknot and Wrynose, described in the Itinerary, V. The distance from Broughton to Cockley Beck Bridge is about twelve miles. tourist may now proceed either over Hardknot into Eskdale, or over Wrynose into Langdale. The latter pass is a sort of miniature Glencoe. In descending towards Ambleside, it is worth while turning off the road to the right, just at the commencement of its windings, to reach a rocky knoll that commands a fine view down the vale. Little Langdale Tarn lies below, and Wansfell closes in the distance.

KENDAL.

[Inns:-King's Arms; Commercial; Crown.]

"A straggling burgh, of ancient charter proud,
And dignified by battlements and towers
Of a stern castle, mouldering on the brow
Of a green hill."

WORDSWORTH.

KENDAL, otherwise Kirkby Kendal, the largest town in Westmorland, is situate in a pleasant valley on the banks of the river Kent, from which circumstance it derives its name. It contains about 13,000 inhabitants, and is a place of considerable manufacturing industry, having a large trade in woollen goods. The woollen manufacture was founded as early as the fourteenth century, by some Flemish weavers, who settled here at the invitation of Edward III.; and it has been the subject of several special legislative enactments, the first of which was in the 13th year of Richard II., A.D. 1389. Not only did Camden, the historian, characterise the town as "lanificii gloria et industria excellens ;" but more than one of our early bards have indirectly testified to the celebrity of Kendal woollens. Not to quote again the trite lie of Falstaff respecting the "three misbegotten knaves in Kendal Green," Munday, in his "Downfall of the Earle of Huntingdon" (1601), makes

Scarlett, whilst enumerating the persons who furnished the outlaws with necessaries, say,

"Bateman of Kendal gave us Kendal Green;"

and the Muse, in the thirtieth Song of Drayton's Polyolbion, informs the reader, that the river

"CAN gives that dale her name where Kendal Town doth stand, For making of our cloth scarce matched in all the land!"

The cloth called Kendal Green (now no longer made) seems, from several passages in our old writers, to have been of a coarser kind than that termed Lincoln Green, and it was probably of a different hue.

The town is intersected by four leading streets, two of which, lying north and south, form a spacious thoroughfare of a mile in length; but the houses are built with great irregularity of position, and are still open to the complaint which Gray, the poet, made in describing a visit he paid to the Lakes in 1769:"Excepting these (the lines of the principal streets,) all the houses seem as if they had been dancing a country dance, and were out. There they stand, back to back, corner to corner, some up hill, some down hill, without intent or meaning." The river is spanned by three neat stone bridges; it is of no great width, though subjected to sudden floods by its proximity to the mountains. The houses, built of the limestone which abounds in the neighbourhood, possess an air of cleanliness and comfort,-their white walls contrasting pleasingly with numerous poplars, which impart a cheerful rural aspect to the town.

The Barony of Kendal was granted by William the Conqueror to Ivo de Taillebois, one of his followers, in which grant, the inhabitants of the town, as villein (i. e., bond or serf) tenants, were also included; but they were afterwards emancipated, and their freedom confirmed by a charter from one of his descendants. The barony now belongs, in unequal portions, to the Earl of Lonsdale and the Hon. Mrs. Howard, both of whom have

An incorpor

extensive possessions in Westmorland. ation of aldermen and burgesses was established by Queen Elizabeth;* James I. intrusted the town to a mayor, twelve aldermen, and twenty burgesses; and by the Municipal Corporations Reform Act, the government of the borough is now vested in a mayor, six aldermen, and eighteen common councillors, six of whom are elected by each of the three wards into which it is divided. By the Reform Act, which disfranchised Appleby, the county town, Kendal, has the privilege of returning one member to Parliament.

The Parish Church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, stands in that part of the borough called Kirkland. It is a spacious Gothic edifice, remarkable for having five aisles, like the famous St. John in Laterano at Rome, "ecclesiarum urbis et orbis mater et caput." It contains three chapels at the east end, belonging to the ancient families of the Parrs, Bellinghams, and Stricklands. The oldest part appears to have been erected about the year 1200. The tower is square, and is 72 feet in height. Like most other ecclesiastical structures of ancient date, it contains a number of curious monuments and epitaphs.† There are two other churches in the town, both lately erected, and forming handsome

It is singular that under Queen Elizabeth's charter, the borough had no Mayor. To this lack of a Chief Magistrate, Richard Braithwaite, in his "Drunken Barnaby's Journal," book-fanciers,-alludes in these lines:

a work well known to

"Thence to Kendal, pure her state is,
Prudent, too, her magistrate is,
In whose charter to them granted
Nothing but a Mayor is wanted."

In the chancel, the following singular epitaph, written for himself, by the Rev. Ralph Tirer, is engraven on a brass plate:

"Here vnder lyeth ye body of Mr. Ralph Tirer, late vicar of Kendal, Batchler of Divinity, who died the 4th day of Jvne, Ano. Dni. 1627.

"London bredd mee-Westminster fedd mee

Cambridge spedd mee--My sister wedd mee

Study taught mee-Kendal caught mee

Labour pressed mee-Sickness distressed mee

Death oppressed mee-The Grave possessed mee

God first gave mee-Christ did save mee

Earth did crave mee-And heaven would have mee."

edifices that which stands at the foot of Stricklandgate is dedicated to St. Thomas; the other, near Stramongate Bridge, to St. George. In addition to the churches of the Establishment, the Dissenters have upwards of a dozen places of worship. The Roman Catholics have recently erected a neat chapel on the New Road, near the Natural History Society's Museum. This museum contains a collection of specimens, illustrating local and general natural history and antiquities, which does great credit to the town. A member's order, which can easily be procured, will give the opportunity of inspecting a good collection of fossils from the limestone of the neighbourhood.

There are

collectors in the town from whom these fossils can be purchased. Professor Sedgwick names Mr. John Ruthven with approbation. The Whitehall Buildings, at the head of Lowther Street, form a handsome pile. They were built by subscription, a few years ago, and contain a news-room, ball-room, auction-room, billiardroom, &c. The other edifices worthy of notice are the Bank of Westmorland (an establishment on the jointstock principle,) the Odd Fellows' Hall, and the Old Maids' Hospital, all of which are in Highgate. The Free Grammar School is an unpretending building, near the Parish Church, at which many individuals,* eminent in science and learning, have been educated. The House of Correction, at the northern extremity of the town, is used as a county as well as a borough Gaol. On the east of the town is the termination of the Lancaster and Preston Canal, which affords great facilities for the conveyance of coal to Kendal. The Railway from Lancaster to Carlisle passes within a short distance of the town on the east, with which the

*

Amongst them may be enumerated Dr. Law, Bishop of Carlisle, the father of two bishops and a chief-justice; Barnaby Potter, another Bishop of Carlisle, named, from his asceticism, the Puritanical Bishop," and of whom it was said, "that the organs would blow him out of church;" Dr. Shaw, the Oriental traveller; and Ephraim Chambers, the author of the first Encyclopedia in the English language.

Kendal and Windermere Railway forms a junction at Oxenholme, two miles from Kendal. Minuter particulars respecting the town and its history, will be learnt from Mr. Nicholson's "Annals of Kendal."

The seats in the neighbourhood are Abbot Hall, Kirkland (Mrs. Wilson),. upon the site of which, before the dissolution of religious houses, stood the occasional residence of the Abbot of St. Mary's, York. The Vicarage, Kirkland (Rev. J. W. Barnes); Helm Lodge, two miles south (W. D. Crewdson, Esq.); Sizergh Castle (Walter Strickland, Esq.), three miles and a-half south; Heaves Lodge, four miles south (James Gandy, Esq.); Sedgwick House, four miles south (John Wakefield, Esq.); Levens Hall (Hon. Mrs. Howard), five miles south; Dallam Tower, seven miles south (George Wilson, Esq.); Mosergh House, four miles north (Mr. Machell); Shaw End, five miles north (Henry Shepherd, Esq.); Low Bridge House, six miles north (R. Fothergill, Esq.); Raw Head, four miles east (Mr. Sleddall); Hill Top, three miles east (William Wilson, Esq.)

WALKS AND EXCURSIONS FROM KENDAL.

The ruins of KENDAL CASTLE, of which only four broken towers, and the outer wall, surrounded by a deep fosse, remain, crown the summit of a steep elevation on the east of the town. The remains of this fortress are well worthy of a visit, on account of the views of the town and valley which the hill commands. This, the seat of the ancient Barons of Kendal, became successively the residence of the families of Le Brus, Ross, and Parr. It was the birthplace of Catherine Parr, the last queen of Henry VIII., a lady, who (as Pennant quaintly remarks) "had the good fortune to descend to the grave with her head, in all probability merely by outliving her tyrant." And yet she only escaped his clutches to fall into worse hands. Her fourth husband was the Lord High-Admiral Seymour, whose ill usage soon carried her to her grave, not without suspicion of poison. Her brother, the first and last Marquis of Northampton of that family, was also born here. He was condemned as a traitor for supporting Lady Jane Grey's claim to the Crown, but his honours and estates were ultimately