Anciently comprised the whole of the Kendal and Lonsdale Wards, with several places in the other division of the county, and that part of Lancashire adjoining Westmorland. This extensive barony was given by William the Conqueror to Ivo de Talebois, brother of Fulk, Earl of Anjou. Ivo, the first Baron of Kendal, gave the church of Kirkby-Stephen, with all the churches in his barony, to the Abbey of St. Mary, in York. The manors of Barton, Patterdale, Hackthorp, Melkinthorp, and Morland, in the West Ward, appear to have belonged to this family. To his grandson, Ketel, son of Eldred, William de Meschines gave several places in Cumberland. William de Talebois, the fifth Baron of Kendal, who took the name of "De Lancastre," by a licence of Henry II, founded the priory of Conyngshed,² and was a great benefactor to several religious houses. From his uncle Orme, are descended the Curwens of Workington. William de Lancastre married Gundred, Countess of Warwick, and left William de Lancastre the second, whose only issue and heiress, Helwise, carried her family possessions in marriage to Gilbert Fitz-Reinfred, to whom Richard I in 1189 granted the forests of Westmorland, Kendal and Furness, to hold to him and his heirs, "as fully and freely as Wm. de Lancastre and Nigel de Albiny had held the same," together with the following privileges in the two former, viz., freedom from "noutegeld,³ suit to the shire court, hundred, or trithing courts, and aid to the sheriff or his bailiffs." He had also another grant from the same king, of lands in "Levenes, Farleton, Detene, Preston, Holme, Berton, Hencastre, and Loppeton, with the fishery belonging to the said lands, and all other liberties and privileges." His son, William, assumed his mother's name De Lancastre, and was justice itinerant for Cumberland, in the 10th of Henry III. The male line failing again in this Wm. de Lancastre the third, the barony was divided between Helwise and Alice, daughters of the aforesaid Gilbert and Helwise Fitz-Reinford.⁴ Alice married William de Lindesay, and her share of the barony was afterwards called the Richmond Fee. Helwise married Peter de Brus, and her portion was subsequently divided into two seigniories, designated the Marquis Fee and Lumley Fee. Christian de Lyndsay, sole issue and heiress of William de Lyndsay, married Ingelram de Guisnes, lord of Caucy in France, who, as well as his son, being an alien, the Richmond Fee was escheated to the crown, but was afterwards granted to his grandson William, who died without issue, and the estate again went to the crown, and was granted by Edward III to John de Coupland, of Northumberland, to be held during his life, and then to go to the king's son-in-law, Ingelram, lord of Caucy, in France, and nephew of the before-named William de Guisnes, but he died without male issue, and the estate again reverted to the crown, and was granted by Henry IV to his third son, John, Duke of Bedford, to be held by the service of one knight's fee. Henry VI granted it to "John de Baufort, Duke of Somerset and of Kendal," from whose daughter and heiress, Margaret, Countess of Richmond, this division of the barony obtained the name of Richmond Fee, and passed to her son, King Henry VII, whose successor, Henry VIII granted it to his natural son, Henry, Duke of Richmond and Somerset, who died without issue, and the Richmond Fee reverted the eighth time to the crown. The Marquis Fee continued in the family of De Brus only till the 7th of Edward I, when it passed in marriage with Margaret, one of the four sisters of Peter de Brus, to Robert de Ross, or Roos, whose descendants possessed it till the reign of Richard II, when their sole heiress married William del Parre, one of whose descendants, Wm. Parr, Esq., was created by Henry VIII Lord Parr and Ross of Kendal, and Baron of Hart, in Northamptonshire, and finally, in the 1st of Edward VI was raised to the dignity of Marquis of Northampton, from which circumstance this division of the barony obtained the name of Marquis Fee, which it still retains. His eldest sister, Katherine Parr, daughter of Sir Thomas Parr, was the last queen of Henry VIII. The Marquis died in the 13th of Elizabeth, without issue, and the "Marquis Fee" passed by marriage to William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, ancestor of the present Earl of Pembroke, who has still amongst his titles that of Baron Ross and Parr of Kendal. The castle of Kendal, with its demesne and parks, afterwards passed to various families, and the rest of the Richmond and Marquis Fees was granted by James I to his son Charles Prince of Wales.

Amongst King James's schemes for raising money, was that of taking all the crown lands in Cumberland and Westmorland into his own hands, under the pretence, "that, as the border service had then ceased by the union of the two kingdoms in his royal person, the estates were determined likewise, which the tenants held by that service." And to keep his despotic avarice in countenance, "he encouraged all the other lords of manors, within the said counties, to take to themselves the absolute estate of the several tenants, and refuse to admit the heirs to their ancestor's estates." But though the service was gone, the border spirit still remained, and a long struggle ensued between the lords and tenants, the latter entering into a resolute combination to defend each other, "even by force, if no other course should be effectual," pursuant to the articles which they had sworn to at their meeting held at Staveley, by order of James Smith, high constable, "under colour of viewing a bridge."⁵ For this, and other "unlawful assemblies," several of the leaders were arraigned before the "Star Chamber,"⁶ which, for once, administered an act of justice, by acquitting the accused, and confirming to the tenants their estates, as being held, not by border service only, but by the "general military tenure by which all other tenants in capite were obliged;" and there are numerous instances "when, at the same time, that they were subject to be called to the border service, they were required to attend their lord in a military capacity in other parts of the kingdom, and not seldom in France." Soon afterwards the tenants of many of the manors made compositions with their lords, for reducing the tenements to a fine certain; and others purchased their tenements to freehold. Charles II granted the Richmond and Marquis Fees, which comprise three-fourths of the barony, in jointure to his Queen Katharine, and from her they received the name of Queen's Land. When a rental was made of these fees, in the 28th of Charles II, the jury "set down the free, and other dry rents of the Marquis fee, at £20 17s. 4½d., and of the Richmond fee at £36 10s. 8¾d. The other yearly rents they stated as follows.,

After the decease of Queen Katharine, these fees were granted to the Lowther family, who obtained a renewal of the lease from George III, so that the Earl of Lonsdale is the present lord. The Lumley Fee, containing nearly all the remaining third part of the ancient barony of Kendal, was the portion of Lucy, third sister and co-heiress of the before-named Peter de Brus. She married Marmaduke de Thweng, lord of Kilton castle and Thweng, by whom she had a son of the same name, whose son William was succeeded by his brother Robert, and he by his brother Thomas, who also died without issue. Lucy, the eldest of his three sisters, was married to Marmaduke de Lumley, and from hence came the denomination of the Lumley Fee, she having for her portion the manors of Helsington, Crosthwaite, and Lyth, and one-fourth part of the town of Kendal, with the turbary⁷ of Sampool.

In the 6th of Henry VIII, John Fleming, of Rydal, the king's escheator, paid into the exchequer £115 17s. 7d., as the issues of the manors of Kirkby in Kendal, belonging to the Lumleys; and £1,224 9s. 10¾d. as the issues of the Richmond fee belonging to the king. John, Lord Lumley, in the 23rd of Henry VIII, exchanged his part of the barony with the king for certain lands in the south, and his majesty afterwards granted it and the Richmond fee to the Duke of Richmond and Somerset aforesaid, after whose death they were granted by the same monarch to Alan Bellingham, whose grandson sold the Lumley fee to Colonel James Grahme, whose daughter and heiress, Katharine, married Henry Bowes Howard, Earl of Berkshire, and it is now possessed by the Hon. Lady Howard, of Levens Hall. In the 20th of Elizabeth it was found that Alan Bellingham, Esq., died seised "of the manor of Over Staveley, and divers messuages, &c., in Over Staveley, Nether Staveley, Hugill, Sadgill, Respton, (with the moiety of Respton mill), Firbank, Grasmere, Langden, Potter-Fell, Vowflatt, Ulthwaite, Rotherhead, Sabergh, Crook-Fell, West-Wood, and Roger Holme, (an island in Windermere), with a fishery in the waters of Windermere, Skelswater, and Grasmere." Landarina, the youngest daughter of the last Peter de Brus, was espoused by John de Bella-aqua, of Yorkshire, and had the remaining part of the barony of Kentmere assigned as her portion, but this manor was in the reign of Charles I sold by the Stapletons to the Fishers of Stanebank Green, of whom it was purchased in 1745, by the Wilsons of Kendal, one of whom (Thomas) took the surname of Fenwick, pursuant to the will of Robert Fenwick, of Borrow-Hall, in Lancashire."

The various families, mentioned in this brief sketch of the superior lords of the great barony of Kendal, are noticed at considerable length in the histories of the parishes in which they were or are still seated.

Kendal Parish

KENDAL, or KIRKBY-IN-KENDAL, is bounded by the parishes of Windermere, Grasmere, Shap, Orton, Sedbergh (in Yorkshire), Kirkby-Lonsdale, Burton, and Heversham. It is the most extensive parish in the county,⁸ averaging ten miles in length and breadth, and forms a beautiful diversified region of towering fells and scars, fertile and picturesque valleys, glens, and thwaites. It is well watered by the river Kent and its numerous tributary streams which flow from the neighbouring mountains, and pursue their serpentine course through the valleys, spreading fertilization as they advance, and giving motion to the machinery of several mills and manufactories. Most of the moors and commons have been cultivated during the last half century, and fine crops of corn are now raised where once grow heath and moss in wild luxuriance. Fine limestone, suitable for building stone, for mortar, and for the sculptor, is found in various parts of this parish, and near Crook are veins of lead, though not worked for many years. The parish is intersected by the Lancaster and Carlisle, and Kendal and Windermere railways, and contains upwards of fifty villages and hamlets, with fourteen chapels-of-ease, and is divided into the following twenty-six townships, viz.: Kirkby-in-Kendal, Crook, Dillicar, Docker, Fawcett Forest, Grayrigg, Helsington, Hugill, Kentmere, Kirkland, Lambrigg, Long Sleddale, Natland, Nether Graveship, Nether Staveley, New Hutton, Old Hutton and Holme Scales, Over Staveley, Patton, Scalthwaitrigg-Hay and Hutton-ith-Hay, Selside-with-Whitwell, Skelsmergh, Strickland-Ketel, Strickland-Roger, Underbarrow and Bradley-field, Whinfell, and Winster. The population of the whole parish, in 1841, amounted to 18,027, of which number 10,225 were returned for its capital, the large and opulent town of Kendal.

This parish, though still so extensive and populous, was anciently much larger, for it included both Windermere and Grasmere, which have long been separate parishes, and are now the only rectories in the Barony of Kendal, where we have given a brief genealogical account of its successive lords. "The annual value of the lands and buildings in this parish is about £70,000."

KENDAL TOWN AND BOROUGH.

KENDAL, the largest and most important town in Westmorland, and the capital of the great barony, deanery, and parish of its own name, is delightfully situated in a fertile and open valley, on the banks of the river Kent, and at a short distance from the ruins of the ancient baronial castle. It stands one hundred and eighty-three feet above the level of the sea, and is distant twelve miles N.W. by N. from Kirkby-Lonsdale, twenty-one miles N. from Lancaster, twenty-three miles S.S.W. from Appleby, forty-five miles S. from Carlisle (fifty by rails), thirteen and a half miles S.W. from Ambleside, and two hundred and sixty-one miles N.N.W. from London. It is two miles from the junction of the Lancaster and Carlisle, and the Kendal and Windermere railways, the latter of which passes close to the town. It is intersected by several streets, one of which is a mile in length, and is called by two separate names. From this principal street several others radiate in different directions. They are all well paved, and the houses are built of limestone from the fell or scar on the west side of the town. This stone is said to be capable of receiving as high a polish as some marble. Though the town is very ancient, it has now a modern appearance, nearly all the old houses being rebuilt, and many new streets and rows of neat buildings erected during the last forty years. The houses are all covered with blue slate, and their fronts being generally whitened, have a clean and agreeable appearance, which is greatly enlivened by the number of Lombardy poplars and other trees which spire above them, and by the long range of hanging gardens on the west, and the sloping meadows and plantations on the east, where the noble Kent washes the outskirts of the town.

That Kendal is no modern town is proved by that spacious building which was erected in the middle of Highgate, about the year 1500, and which from the time of its erection was called Newbiggin, signifying new building. This old pile was removed in 1803. Very little alteration was made in the streets till 1782, when Lowther street was built. Stramongate bridge was enlarged in 1794, and the Mill bridge, which had stood since 1668, was rebuilt in 1818, when Kent lane was widened. The completion of the canal to Lancaster, in 1819, gave a powerful impulse to the building spirit of the inhabitants, which still continues to extend the limits of the town, and to improve its general appearance and public accommodations. A large range of houses in Wildman street was erected in 1819; in the following year, Caroline street, Union street, Cross street, and Strickland gate, were formed by the Union Building Society. In 1822, Nether bridge, Strickland gate, and Wildman street were widened, and an obstruction at Blindbeck bridge was removed. Since then the pleasant range of houses called Kent terrace, the long row called Castle crescent, and the buildings forming Castle street, Ann street, Gandy street, &c., have been erected. Various improvements have also been since made in other parts of this town, which, in 1614, appears to have consisted of little more than Highgate, Stricklandgate, and Stramongate, when "every front house had its proportionate width of ground, diverging at right angles, and terminating, on the one hand, at the Kent, and on the other, at the declivity of the fell side." The climate of this town is considered rather unhealthy; the average annual mortality being 1 in 39; the average height of the thermometer, 46.91; and that of the barometer, 29.60.

That Kendal is a place of Saxon origin, and was a town of some significance, even during that era, there can be no doubt, for we find that it gave name to a very powerful feudal Barony soon after the Norman conquest, and had a church at the time of the Domesday Survey⁹. It was anciently called Kirkby Candale, meaning a church town, in the valley of the Can or Kent, but by what name it was designated previously to the introduction of christianity into North Britain, cannot now be ascertained. Richard I granted Kendal a charter for a weekly market, but the growing prosperity of the town soon after received a check, for we find that in the time of Gilbert, the sixth Baron, the ever restless and vindictive Scots put all the inhabitants to the sword, sparing neither age nor sex, and even broke into the church, where, no doubt, some of the most helpless had taken refuge. In 1331 it appears in history as the parent town of the woollen manufactures of Great Britain, and from this epoch, the solitary town in the wilds of Westmorland, which had scarcely been ever visited except by the northern plunderers, became a place of traffic, "and emerged into enviable distinction by the light of royal favour." Some fine old private mansions were erected here at an early period, such as the Black Hall, in Stricklandgate, for centuries the residence of an ancient family of the Wilsons, one of whom, Henry Wilson, Esq., was, in, 1575, chosen the first alderman of Kendal, the office of mayor not being instituted till 1636; Brownsmond House, where King James lodged, when on a journey to Scotland about the time of the Union; and White Hall, a large mansion which stood on the site of the present Whitehall public buildings. Abbot Hall in Kirkland, was rebuilt in its present form in 1759, "at an expense of £8,000." Collinfield, a very ancient house, was once occupied by the celebrated Countess of Pembroke.

"There have been several Earls of Kendal, viz. : John, Duke of Bedford, Duke of Somerset, and John de Foix, the latter of whom was a Frenchman, raised to that dignity by Henry VI for his faithful services in the French wars; and since that time his family write themselves Earls of Longueville and Kendal. George, Prince of Denmark, husband of Queen Anne, was, by King William, created Earl of Kendal. There has also been one Duke of Kendal, viz. : Charles, Duke of York, the third son of James II, who died young; and, finally, Erengard Melusina Schuylenberg, a German lady, who came to England with George I, was by that monarch honoured with the title of Duchess of Kendal. Baron Kendal is one of the secondary titles of the Earl of Lonsdale."

In a Chronological Table, containing the annals of Kendal, the following events are noticed. In 1583, oatmeal was sold here at 21s. per Winchester bushel, and in 1587, at 16s. per bushel. In 1598, no fewer than 2,500 persons fell victims here to a raging plague. The following inscription on a brass plate, in Penrith church, will give an idea of the extent of this direful visitation. .4.D., 1598, ex qrave peste, quæ religionibus hisce incubuit, obierunt apud Penrith 2,260; Kendal, 2,500; Richmond, 2,200; Carlisle, 1,196. Posteri averlite vos et vivite.¹⁰ In 1617, King James lodged a night here, as already stated, on his way towards Scotland. In 1635, the waters of the Kent overflowed its banks, and extended to the church; next day forty-eight persons were drowned in the lake of Windermere. In 1635, the Kent was again flooded, and rose higher than it was ever known to have done before. In 1649, when King Charles was beheaded, a body of Kendal men, headed by Sir M. Langdale, marched to besiege Appleby castle. In 1715, about 1600 Scotch rebels, under a Mr. Forster and the unfortunate Earl of Derwentwater, remained one night in Kendal; and in 1745, Prince Charles Edward, with about 6000 men, in the hopeless cause of the house of Stuart, passed through Kendal, which about this time was a rude unpolished place. The author of a Fortnight's Ramble says, "The tenter-grounds resemble the growth of the vine orchards in Spain, and from having much and many-coloured cloths upon them I should hope that trade flourishes. I would wish to say something in praise of the town, but it is too ill-paved to mind any thing but one's feet." Another writer says, that most of the houses were fronted with large cumbersome galleries, and the shop-windows - many of which were open only on the market days - were without glass, so that the town generally wore a gloomy appearance;" and Mr. Gray, who was here in 1769, remarks that, "excepting the lines of the two principal streets, all the houses seem as if they had been dancing a country dance, and were out without intent or meaning." Probably amongst the obstructions alluded to by Mr. Gray, were the Town Cross and the three Cross Houses, one of which protruded into each of the principal streets.

Turnpike Roads were formed from between the years 1652 and 1760, and the pack-horses employed here were superseded by carriers' waggons, which were established on the road between Kendal and London, in 1757, the year before the first mail-coach came here from the metropolis. In 1784, the population of the town was 7571; 3267 males; and 4304, females. The shock of an Earthquake was felt in August, 1787, and again in November, 1817. In 1788, the inhabitants erected an obelisk on Castle how hill to commemorate the revolution of 1688. This hill is a factitious mount, thirty feet in height, "and is very like the exploratory mounts, which, Mr. Horsley observes, are to be seen in other places, especially near the military ways." In 1791, that brutal sport of bull-baiting was suppressed, at Kendal, by the corporation. In 1793, the population of the town amounted to 8089, being an increase of 518 in nine years. A remarkable instance of longevity is noticed in 1798, when thirty persons whose united ages amounted to 2520 years, averaging eighty-four each, were interred in the church-yard. In 1803, a regiment of Volunteers, consisting of 1000 men, was raised in the Kendal and Lonsdale wards; and the next year these volunteers had a grand field-day at Kendal, when Mrs. Howard, of Levens, presented to them their colours. In 1811, the population of Kendal was 8759, an increase of 670 in eighteen years. In 1823, twelve stage coaches left the town daily.

In 1576 a charter of incorporation was granted to Kendal, by Queen Elizabeth, investing the government of the town in an alderman, recorder, and twelve assistants, but, by the charter granted in 1636, by Charles I, confirming that of Elizabeth, and granting more ample privileges, the corporation consisted of a mayor, recorder, twelve aldermen, and twenty capital burgesses, &c., and was "to have a common seal, with power to take lands not exceeding £100 a year." These charters were surrendered in 1683, to Charles II, who granted a new one; but James II, in 1685, re-established them, and revoked that of his predecessor, on the ground that their surrender had not been recorded. Under the old regime the capital burgesses were chosen by the mayor and aldermen, and remained in office "during their good behaviour." The mayor and aldermen also appointed a recorder, town clerk, a sword bearer, and two sergeants-at-mace. The mayor, recorder, (or deputy recorder) and two senior aldermen, or three of them, held a Court of Record and View of Frankpledge, weekly, and had "cognizance of pleas of matters arising within the borough, not exceeding £20." The charter also declared, amongst other things, that "no petty chapman¹¹ or artificer, not free of the borough, shall, except in open fair or market, put to sale any ware or merchandize (except victuals) without licence of the mayor and aldermen, under their seals;" and that "the mayor, recorder, and two aldermen, shall be justices of the peace, and may hold sessions, and hear and determine offences, except treason, murder, felony, or any other matter touching the loss of life or limb, in which they shall not proceed without the king's special command."

Until the Reform Bill of 1832, the borough returned no member to parliament, and comprised only that part of the town within the limits of the township of Kirby-in-Kendal, but it now includes also Kirkland and part of Nethergraveship, and has the privilege of sending one member to parliament. It is divided into three Wards, viz., the East, North, and West, and is governed by a mayor, five aldermen, and eighteen councillors. The following is a list of the members of the corporation for 1849:-

Mayor. - James Whinerey, Esq., East Ward.
Aldermen. - James Machell and Richard Wilson, Esqrs., North Ward. John Whitwell and Thompson Bindloss, Esqrs., West Ward. John Wakefield Esq., East Ward.
Council. - John J. Wilson, C.L. Braithwaite, Robert Pickthall, Edw. W. Scott, John Thompson, jun., and G.B. Crewdson, Esqrs., East Ward. Messrs. Isaac Edmondson, Simon Mashiter, John Harrison, Thomas Fisher, James Parker, and William Nicholson, North Ward. Messrs. John Fisher, jun., Miles Thompson, Samuel Compstone, James Benn, Edw. Busher, and Joseph Severs, for the West Ward.

From the report of the Charity Commissioners it appears that the revenues of the corporation consist of quit-rents, rents received from houses and land, and a profit from the tolls, which they hold under a lease of the Earl of Lonsdale, and Lady Howard, of Levens. In 1833 the quit-rents amounted to £26 18s. 6½d., and the free land and houses produced £275 19s. 10d. a year. The latter property is let at rack-rent¹², on short leases, except the Castle Mills, and a close called Great Aynum, which are held on lease, originally, for a long term, of which eight or nine years are now unexpired. The rent of Castle Mills is £63 a year, and of Great Aynum close, £17 17s. The corporation are also owners of several wharfs on the canal, which they formed in 1818, and for the formation of which they borrowed £7000. They are also possessed of a sum of £1640 in trust for the Blue Coat School, a sum of £2000 in trust for the National School, and £210 for Dorothy Knott's charity. The annual amount of this charge is £62 19s. 8d. The above property is subject to quit and other rents, amounting annually to £29 13s. 6d., reducing the net beneficial rent to £210 5s. 2½d. per annum. "The debt of the corporation consists of £4250 on the canal account, and a further sum of £1600; of this, the sum of £3850 is due to several charities, of which the corporation are trustees. The whole bears interest at 4½ per cent."

"Amongst the tradesmen of this corporation were seven Free Companies, viz., Mercers¹³, Shearmen, Cordwainers, Tanners, Skinners, Tailors, and Barbers, each of whom had two wardens, and a separate hall, but none of them now exist - the last of them, the Cordwainers' Company, not being able to produce a charter to enforce the fine of £10 upon those masters who commenced business within the borough, and were not freemen of the same; so that the injurious monopoly which excluded non-freemen from participating in the trade of the town, is now dormant, if not defunct, and they are no longer confined to that part of the town within the borough."

The House of Correction, which stands at the north end of the town, and which serves both for the borough and county, was built in 1786, but has since been greatly enlarged, so that it now contains thirty-five sleeping-rooms, and twelve day-rooms, with a house for the governor, commanding a view of the whole prison, which is circumscribed by a strong and lofty wall, enclosing a triangular area of nearly 240 yards in circumference. Mr. Christopher Fawcett is the present governor. The police establishment of Kendal consists of a superintendent and four men, and in the town is the chief constable for the constabulary force.

MANUFACTURES. - As we have given a sketch of the history of the woollen manufacture¹⁴ it will not be necessary to recapitulate the remarks there made, but it is a remarkable fact that a coarse kind of woollen goods, called Kendal Cottons, were made here, long before the real cotton manufacture was known in England. About the year 1586, Camden mentions Kendal as a populous town on the western bank of the river Can, very eminent for its woollen manufactures, and for the industry of its inhabitants. Kendal had long been famous for the manufacture of linseys, serges, druggets, knit worsted stockings, and sailors' hosiery, and for the tanning of leather, in each of which branch a considerable number of persons were employed. In 1801, the weekly average quantity of stockings made for this market were 2400 pairs, viz. : in Ravenstonedale, 1000; Sedbergh and Dent, 840; and Orton, 560 pairs.

"When the trade of Kendal had become systematic and extensive, country weavers were spread throughout all the neighbouring towns, villages, and hamlets. The small manufacturers attended Kendal on the market days, and sold their goods to the shearmen-dyers, who died and finished them. Upon the river Kent, and indeed upon all the streams in this part of the country, there were walk-mills, for the stead of which, though not a vestige of them now exist, mill-rents are paid to this day. As in all the manufactures at their origin, the mills were small and of rude construction; and, as the milling of cloth was, in the infancy of the manufacture, most probably performed by the feet of men, these mills may have had the name of 'walk-mills,' from that employment. We find, from Dr. Burn, "that in the 4th and 5th of Philip and Mary, there was a grant of two fulling-mills nigh Sprent bridge, in Skelsmergh." And again, "that there is at Staveley one fulling-mill, and it is worth by the year 10s." "The goods manufactured in Kendal were formerly carried on pack-horses, by the makers themselves, or sent to London to be vended by the warehousemen among their customers, who visited the metropolis from different parts of the kingdom. After the rise of the British colonies in North America and the West Indies, the greater part of the Kendal cottons were sold to the merchants trading to those countries for the clothing of the negroes and poorer planters. As the colonies increased, and their slaves along with them, employed in the culture of tobacco in Virginia, the demand for Kendal manufactures continued to increase till the intervention of the American war caused a total suspension of the export trade. Upon the cessation of hostilities it again revived, but the manufacturers not being able to keep pace with the improvements in machinery with those of Yorkshire, the latter interfered, and gradually gaining advantage over those of Kendal, till the increase of American duties put a stop to the exportation. A specimen of the large trade carried on in Kendal cottons is ascertained from the Custom-house books, at Liverpool. In the year 1770, there were exported to America, from that port alone, between three and four thousand pieces, viz. :- To Barbadoes, 120 pieces; Dominique, 30; Jamaica, 810; St. Kitts, 40; Newfoundland, 194; New York, 80; Virginia and Maryland, 2,693; and to Carolina, about 40 pieces, or 640 yards."

In process of time the change of fashion demanded a more elegant fabric of wearing apparel, and the celebrated 'Kendal Cottons' were degraded to the use of horse-checks, floor-cloths, dusters, mops, &c. Linseys, which, for a number of years, were collateral with the cottons, after the decline of the latter, grew to be the staple manufacture of the place. This article was sent to Holland and Germany, excepting a finer sort which was made, and continues to be made, for home consumption, principally indeed for Wales. The hosiers used regularly to attend the markets of all the towns, and at stated times, of the villages and hamlets within twenty miles of the circumjacent country, to give out worsted which they carried with them for the purpose, and take in the stockings which had been knit during the interval betwixt each visit. On the mountains' side in the valleys, and on every hand were to be seen, -

'The spinsters and the knitters in the sun.'

"These manufactures altogether furnished employment, not only for the inhabitants of the town, but also for the working population of the surrounding country. By the introduction of real cottons, in later years, and the extraordinary cheapness at which they are manufactured, the linsey trade has fallen into a comparatively depressed state; whilst woven hose have superseded the handy-work of the fair artist. But, happily, the skill and enterprize of our manufacturers provided, that either the old staple manufactures should be replaced with new ones, or so modified as still to compete with the millions of spindles worked by steam." Before the almost general introduction of machinery, the plentiful supply of water might afford some advantage to the manufacturers of Kendal over those of other places; but since then, the local situation of the town, - so far removed from the first essential of modern manufactures - coal, entirely shut out from the facilities of open navigation; and so remote from the home markets, must be confessed to have been greatly detrimental to its prosperity. To what then can we attribute the steady and permanent success of trade which has never failed to provide for the multiplied population of Kendal ? To the determined spirit of industry and frugality of its manufacturers, to the wise direction of their labour and capital into profitable channels, and, above all, to their habitual attention to the manufacture of goods of undoubted utility." - Annals of Kendal.

The manufacture of carpets was introduced into Kendal, in 1822, by Messrs. Atkinson. The manufacture of cards here for dressing wool and cotton are of great antiquity. In 1751, an engine for pricking the leather was invented by William Pennington, a millwright of this town; and in 1775, Dover Bayliff, a card-maker, produced an engine for crooking the wire teeth. Horn combs were made in Kendal at a very early period; and an ivory comb manufactory was established here in 1800; and in 1824 the trade was greatly facilitated by the introduction of a machine for cutting the teeth of ivory combs. The Marble Works in this town were first brought into repute by the late Mr. Webster, architect, who about fifty years ago constructed machinery on the river Kent for sawing and polishing the stones, and this machinery has since been brought to great perfection. Mouldings, whether straight or circular, are wrought by it with the greatest accuracy. The surrounding mountainous district supplies the finest black and other marbles, and the limestone of Kendal Fell which was first polished as marble in 1788, is very hard and beautiful, being variegated with petrified shells, &c. Large quantities of it are burnt at the lime-kilns for mortar and manure.¹⁵

For the accommodation of the tradesmen, &c., of Kendal, there are in the town two highly respectable Banks, which were first opened in January, 1788, long before which period several of the manufacturers here had issued brass tokens, to obviate the scarcity of the money of the realm. There are in the museum specimens of five different coinages of these tokens, issued by Thomas Sandes, in 1656; the Mercers' Company, in 1657; the Shearman's Company, in 1666; by James Cock, jun., in 1667; and one by Oliver Platt, gentleman, then resident at Summer How, near Kendal.

MARKETS AND FAIRS. - The market is held on Saturday, and was established by a charter granted towards the close of the twelfth century, by Richard I to Roger Fitz-Reinford, Baron of Kendal, and confirmed by Edward II and Edward III, and by Elizabeth; together with two fairs yearly, on the eves, days, and morrows of the feasts of St. Mark, and St. Simon and Jude, but the fairs are now held annually on March 22nd, April 29th, and November 8th, for cattle; and November 9th, for horses. Here is also a fortnightly cattle fair, established in September, 1848. A hiring for servants is held on the Saturday before Whitsunday. In Camden's time (1586) the market appears to have been one of the best for corn in the north of England, but it seems afterwards to have retrograded, for, about sixty years ago it is said that no wheat was exposed here for sale, and that thirty loads of oats was considered a full market. But a great change has taken place within the last forty years, and the market is now abundantly supplied with grain and all other necessaries of life, a proof of the great improvements that have been effected in the agriculture of this part of Westmorland since the enclosure of the commons. The market-place occupies a very central situation, but is much too small, though used almost exclusively as the corn market, - sheep and cattle being exposed for sale in the New Road, flesh in the Old and New Shambles, at the head of Highgate and South side of the Market-place; fish at the head of Finkle street; fruit in Highgate; and potatoes, &c., in Stramongate. The latter esculent was not much used in this town till about the middle of the last century, but has been in extensive demand for several years, and, the average quantity of potatoes sold here, some years prior to the failure in 1846, was about 2,500 stones per week.

CHURCHES. - The Parish Church of Kendal, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, stands in the southern part of the town, within the township of Kirkland. It is a large Gothic structure, about one hundred and forty feet in length, and one hundred and ten in breadth, "with fine alleys, each of them being parted by a row of eight fair pillars;" and it is said that there are only five similar churches in the kingdom. It has a strong tower in which is an excellent peal of ten bells, "but in 1816 it had only eight, which, in 1775, had been recast out of the ancient peal of six." The tower is seventy-two feet high. The present venerable fabric is supposed to occupy the site or the original Saxon church, and was probably erected in the eleventh or twelfth century, but the precise date of its erection has not been ascertained. It is now (1849) undergoing considerable improvements, such as re-flagging the interior, and renovating the exterior, and the organ has been lately rebuilt. In the church are four chapels, three of which belonged to the ancient families of Parr, Strickland, and Bellingham, and the other is the proper choir of the church; though it is often called the Aldermen's choir. The Stricklands, of Sizergh Castle, still use their chapel as a burial place, and several of the family lie interred there under a grey marble monument, on which is a coat of armour. Here are also several other monuments to this family, and, in Parr's Chapel, a large marble tombstone covers the remains of Sir William Parr, an ancestor of the Marquis of Nothampton. In Bellingham's chapel is a monument in memory of Sir Alan Bellingham, with an appropriate inscription. But there are no monumental inscriptions in the church of any great antiquity, the various interesting sepulchral mementoes, which had been erected by pious hands, in catholic times, having been long since destroyed. The windows and roofs of the chapels bear the respective coats of arms of each family. Here were formerly, several chantries, amongst which were Our Lady's, St. Anthony's, St. Thomas-a-Becket's, St. Christopher's, and Trinity Guild, with five stipendiaries. This church was given by Ivo de Talebois to St. Mary's Abbey, York, but after the dissolution of the monasteries, the advowson of the vicarage was granted by Queen Mary to Trinity College, Cambridge, to which the patronage of the great tithes "and the tithes of wool and lamb still belong." The college appears to have become possessed of the patronage of the vicarage, from the desire of Queen Mary, to do something, "if possible, for the good of the soul of her father, Henry VIII."

The vicarage is valued in the King's books at £99 5s., "and is not worth much more now, owing to its revenue arising chiefly from prescript payments, which were nearly the same three hundred years ago as at present." The present incumbent, the Rev. James Watkins Barnes, M.A., who was instituted in 1844, is the 24th vicar during the last 550 years. The vicarage house is a fine old mansion, and "has been much improved by the conversion of two old tan-yards into a tasteful shrubbery." In 1822, the church-yard was enclosed with iron palisades.

ANCIENT CHAPELS &c. - In catholic times, there were in Kendal several chapels, and a leper's hospital, the latter of which was dedicated to St. Leonard, and stood on the Spital farm, about one mile north-east of the town, and is now in the occupation of Mr. Christopher Birkett. The patronage of this hospital was given by William de Lancastre, who was living in 1176, to the Priory of Conishead, and its revenues were valued at the dissolution at £11 4s. 3d. In the 38th of Henry VIII it was granted to Alan Bellingham and Alan Wilson, Esqrs., and is now the property of the Earl of Lonsdale.

Besides All Hallows, or All Saints' chapel, which stood at the head of the lane of that name, and St. Anne's chapel, which was a spacious building with a lofty tower, situated near the old house called Dockray hall, there were two others here, one near Abbot hall, and one at Chapel hill. The field in which All hallows chapel stood is now called Chapel close, and near to it is a cemetery denominated the "Sepulchre." St. Anne's chapel was standing in 1612, but no traces of it now remain. Anchorite house, in Strickland, is said to occupy the site of the sequestered dwelling of an ancient recluse. In the front of the house is a clear spring which is still called the "Anchorite's Well." St. George's Chapel, in the front of the market-place, was built in 1754, at a considerable expense, and consecrated June 24th, 1755, by Bishop Keene. The executors of the will of Dr. Stratford, Commissary of the Archdeaconry of Richmond, gave £600 towards its erection and endowment, and its revenue has since been augmented with £400 from Queen Anne's Bounty. But there has been no service performed in this chapel since the erection of a more commodious one near Stramongate bridge.

CHAPELS OF EASE. - The chapels now used in connection with the established church are St. Thomas's, at the end of Strickland gate, and St. George's, near Stramongate-bridge. The former is a neat Gothic edifice, erected in 1837, and has a beautiful organ, presented by the late Mrs. Tomasin Richardson. Contrary to the general construction of churches, the entrance to this is from the east. The window at the opposite end has been recently re-glazed with stained glass, the pattern being a copy of the ornamental part of the celebrated window of the five sisters, in York Minster. The Rev. John La Trobe is the present incumbent.

St. George's Church is a handsome building in the early Gothic style of architecture, with spiral turrets at each end. It was erected in 1841, at a cost of £4000, and contains about twelve hundred sittings, of which eight hundred and seventy-eight are free. The Rev. Joseph Baldwin Meredith, B.A., is the incumbent, and resides in a handsome parsonage-house, a little above the head of Castle street, erected in 1849, at a cost of £850. This is in the Elizabethan style of architecture. In 1845, a public cemetery was formed near the end of Castle street, at an expense of about £600, with a neat chapel in the centre.

The Catholic Chapel, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, is a handsome building on the New road, erected in 1837, at a considerable expense. It is in the lancet Gothic style of architecture, and its front is ornamented with a statue of St. George and the Dragon, from the chisel of Mr. Thomas Duckett, who also embellished the chancel with statues of our Blessed Redeemer, the Blessed Virgin, St. Mary Magdalen, and St. George. The interior of this sacred edifice is superbly finished, especially the altar end, in which is a beautiful stained glass window, embellished with figures of our Saviour, and Saints Peter and Paul, with sundry emblematical devices. The altar and screen are splendidly executed, and elaborately ornamented in stucco, the latter being a composition of recesses, with statues of angels, and the former bearing on its front an emblematical figure of the Lamb, together with two angels in the attitude of prayer. Both are painted and gilded in the ancient style. Mr. George Webster was the architect of this chapel, which is now under the pastoral care of the Revds. Thomas Wilkinson and James Gibson, the former of whom has been pastor of this congregation for nearly sixty years. The foundation of the chapel was laid by W. C. Strickland, Esq., of Sizergh Castle.

DISSENTING CHAPELS. - There are no fewer than nine dissenting places of worship in this town, and some of them are neat and commodious buildings. The Friends' Meeting House is a plain building, in Stramongate, rebuilt in 1816. It is capable of containing about twelve hundred persons, and has a large burial ground. It is said that the Quakers were introduced into Kendal by George Fox himself, in 1645. The Unitarian Chapel, which stands in a secluded spot, near the market place, is a large edifice, with a burial ground. It possesses a small endowment which includes the New Shambles, the Masons' Arms, and a house for the minister. The congregation was first formed here about the year 1709. Though the endowment is said to have been originally intended for Presbyterians, it has been confirmed to the present congregation by the Dissenters' Chapel Bill, which was passed a few years ago. The Rev. Edward Hawkes is the present minister. The Inghamites have a neat chapel at the head of Beast Banks, erected in 1845. The original chapel was built about the year 1746, soon after the sect was founded. The Independent Chapel, in Lowther street, was erected in 1782, and newly fronted in 1828. Rev. David Jones is the present minister. The Wesleyan Chapel, in Stricklandgate, was erected in 1808, and the Society was established here in 1784. The Primitive Methodists have a chapel at the foot of Castle street, erected in 1823. The Scotch Seceders' Chapel is in the Wool-pack yard, and was, till 1823, occupied as a theatre. Another sect, seceders from the Secession chapel in Wool-pack yard, erected a neat chapel in the New Inn yard, in 1844. The Rev. John Guthrie was the founder of this sect in Kendal, and was minister till 1810, when he was succeeded by the Rev. William Taylor. The Glassites' place of meeting, in the Windmill yard, was built in 1824. Besides the foregoing, there are in the town Baptists, Plymouth Brethren, and other sects of modern growth.

Amongst the religious societies in Kendal, are the Auxiliary Bible Society, formed in 1810, the Ladies' Bible Association, formed in 1822, the good Samaritan Society, a Society for promoting Christianity amongst the Jews, Tract Societies, and a Sunday School Union for supplying cheap books; and amongst the Benefit Societies in the town are two lodges of Freemasons, four lodges of Oddfellows, lodges of Foresters, Druids, Gardeners, Rechabites, &c., a Building Society, Co-operative Societies, &c. The Oddfellows hall, erected in 1833, contains a room twenty feet long by eight feet broad, and is capable of accommodating five hundred persons. The cost of the premises, including eight cottages, and the building of the hall, amounted to nearly £8000 all raised by subscription.

CHARITY SCHOOLS. - The Grammar School was founded in 1525, by Adam Pennyngton, of Boston, in Lincolnshire, and was afterwards liberally endowed with the spoils of dissolved religious houses by Edward VI, Philip and Mary, and Queen Elizabeth, so that its annual revenue is now about £37, exclusive of exhibitions. In 1717, it was certified that the master's yearly salary was £28 13s. 4d., viz., £19 5s. 4d. out of the crown rents, and £9 8s. paid by the chamberlains of Kendal, besides £8 a year for an usher paid by the said chamberlains out of lands, pursuant to the bequest of "Mr. Johnson, formerly usher himself." Amongst other benefactors to this establishment were Dr. Airy and Richard Jackson, the latter of whom was master of the school, and left the interest of £100 to his successors. "Both master and usher are appointed by the mayor and aldermen. The exhibitions belonging to this school are as follow, viz., 40s. yearly left in 1627, by Dr. George Fleming; 20s. yearly left by Joseph Smith; £5 per
annum left by Mr. Sandes; 40s. yearly left by Mr. Jopson; three exhibitions from Kendal, and four from Kirkby Lonsdale, left by Henry Wilson, to be paid out of the tithes of Farleton, when worth £35, or £5 to each scholar; and the interest of £100 left in 1631, by Henry Park, or a poor boy¹⁶ of the parishes of Kendal, Heversham, or Millom. All these bequests are for poor scholars to be sent to Queen's College, Oxford, except the last mentioned, for which Oxford is named, but no particular college is specified." The school stands at the north west side of the church yard, and the present master is the Rev. James Frederick Black, A.B.

The Blue Coat School and Hospital were founded in 1659, by Mr. Thomas Sandes, a Kendal manufacturer, who endowed them with an estate at Skelsmergh, and another at Strickland, the joint rents of which amount to about £110 per annum, "for the use of eight poor widows, to exercise carding and spinning wool, and weaving of raw pieces of cloth for cottons, called Kendal cottons; and for the use of a schoolmaster to read prayers to the said poor widows twice a day, and to teach poor children till prepared for the free school of Kendal or elsewhere." Since the foundation of this excellent charity it has been augmented with the following bequests, viz., Round-dale-field, in Natland, and two houses in Highgate, left by Joseph Dawson, in 1723, and now let for about £34 a year; a rent charge of £3 out of Greenrigg, in Underbarrow, left in 1733, by the Rev. Mr. Crosley; a moiety of Aykriggs, let for about £17, and bequeathed in 1735, by Dr. Archer; the Barrow-house estate in Brigsteer, let for £12 a year, and left by John Gibson, in 1753; the Martin Croft, left in 1765, by William Herbert, and let for £14 16s. a year; an annual rent charge of £1 1s. out of housing in Stramongate, left in 1780, by Thomas Gibson; a yearly rent charge of £10 out of the Golden Fleece Inn, left in 1782, by Christopher Woodburn, the sum of £500 left in 1815, by John Postlethwaite, £600 left in 1818, by Mrs. Harrison; and £4,600 left by various benefactors. In addition to the foregoing the institution is aided by an annual subscription, making the total yearly revenue about £270. In this school forty boys and thirty girls are clothed and educated till they are fourteen years of age, and the eight poor widows in the hospital have comfortable dwellings, with a piece of garden attached to each. The sums paid to each of these widows amounts to 4s. 11d. weekly. The founder also bequeathed a library, which, by subsequent contributions, has been increased to upwards of 400 volumes. Amongst these are several works of the fathers of the third, fourth and fifth centuries, with volumes of the Greek and Latin authors. Any person is allowed to read the books in the library, but no one is suffered to take them out, and such care was used for their safety that those left by the founder were for a length of time fastened to the shelves with chains just long enough to enable the reader to take them to a table, but this insulting and suspicious precaution has been long since discontinued; nor are the poor aged widows any longer expected to carry on a manufactory of "Kendal cottons," as directed in the will of the founder, whose charities, says Mr. Machel, "would have been more laudable if what he gave had not been obtained by sequestration." "Six of the poor widows are selected from the town of Kendal, one from Strickland Roger, or Strickland Ketel, and the other from Skelsmergh, or Patton; the overseers have the nomination." The mayor and aldermen are the trustees of this institution, as well as of the grammar school. Girls were not admitted on the foundation, till 1789. The present schoolmaster is Mr. James Whitaker.

A School of industry, established here in 1799, was supported by annual subscriptions, and by the interest of two bequests, viz., £23 12s., left in 1820, by Mrs. Jane Emerson, and £250 left in 1815, by Mr. John Postlethwaite, who spent the last fifty years of his life at Kendal, in the character "of an able and upright attorney," delighting in doing good, and in administering comforts to the poor and distressed. This school continued in existence till 1848, when it was incorporated with the girls' national school, which was erected in 1823.

The Boys' National School was built by subscription in 1818, and munificently endowed by Matthew Piper, Esq., a worthy quaker, of Whitehaven, who died in 1821, aged ninety-three years, and agreeably to his own request, was buried beneath the centre of the floor of this school, to which he bequeathed £2000, in the five per cent. annuities, besides two similar bequests to two schools at Whitehaven and Lancaster. The mayor and aldermen are the trustees, and Mr. Richard Roberts is the master of this large seminary, where upwards of 200 boys receive gratuitous instruction. These schools are situated on Beast banks. Upwards of 200 females are educated by subscription, in the girls' school, which contains a separate room for the girls of the Blue Coal School.

"The Green Coat Sunday School was founded in 1813, by Mr. William Sleddall, who endowed it with the interest of £525, for providing thirty-five boys, with hats and green, coats; twelve girls with green gowns and bonnets, and 2s. weekly for a schoolmaster to teach them on sabbath days. The two junior aldermen and two senior burgesses are appointed trustees."

British or Lancastrian School, erected in 1835, at a cost of above £600, is in Castle street. This school is now under government inspection, and is taught by Mr. Thomas Hill. There is also in the town a well-conducted Catholic School, two Infant Schools, and several Sunday Schools. The latter useful institutions were first established here in 1785, and that belonging to St. Thomas's Church is a neat building, erected in 1841.

CHARITIES AND CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS. - Most of the charitable bequests which have been left for the benefit of the poor and impotent of the parish of Kendal, are enumerated at pages 247-48, and are distributed by the trustees agreeable to the wills of the donors. See also William Sleddall's bequest for bibles, and Lord Wharton's, at previous pages.¹⁷ Besides these, Miss Dorothy Dowker bequeathed, in 1831, the sum of £3000 in trust to the corporation of Kendal, the interest to be divided amongst six reputable females, natives of the township of Kendal, who had attained the age of fifty years or upwards, without having been married, and whose circumstances were considered necessitous. The nomination is vested in the mayor, two senior aldermen, and the vicar. It is also endowed with £1000, in three per cent. stock, given by Miss Maria Wilson. In addition to all these posthumous charities, the following institutions for the relief of the poor are supported by the voluntary contributions of the benevolent inhabitants of the town and its vicinity, viz., the Lying-in-Charity, established in 1794; the Ladies' Visiting Sick Society, formed in 1811, and the Dispensary, erected in 1783. The objects of this house of mercy are "the poor inhabitants of Kendal and Kirkland unable to purchase medicines," and medical and surgical assistance. It has dispensed its healing benefits to nearly 100,000 patients, averaging about 1,500 annually.

THE WORKHOUSE. - Kendal Union. - There has been no new workhouse built for this Union, the old one at the north end of the town being sufficiently capacious. It was erected in 1769, pursuant to an Act of Parliament, passed in 1767, "for enclosing a piece of waste ground in the borough and township of Kirkby-in-Kendal for the benefit of the poor, and cleansing the streets of the town, and for confirming a rule or order of assize and order of the high court of chancery, relative to the rates and assessments to be raised for the relief of the poor, by the inhabitants of the said township, and the owners of lands, called Park and Castle lands." By this Act the mayor and twelve other inhabitants were empowered to set out roads, cleanse and light the streets, levy fines for nuisances, &c., make orders for maintaining and employing the poor, to enforce the payment of rates and penalties, &c. The Union comprises the following fifty-seven townships, viz. : Ambleside, Applethwaite, Barbon, Beetham, Burton, Casterton, Crook, Crosthwaite and Lyth, Dillicar, Docker, Farleton, Fawcet Forest, Firbank, Grasmere, Grayrigg, Haverbrack, Helsington, Heversham-with-Milnthorpe, Hincaster, Holme, Hugill, Hutton (New), Hutton (Old), and Holmescales, Hutton Roof, Kendal, Kentmere, Killington, Kirkby-Lonsdale, Kirkland, Lambrigg, Langdales, Levens, Longsleddale, Lupton, Mansergh, Meathop and Ulpha, Middleton, Natland, Nethergraveship, Patton, Preston-Patrick, Preston-Richard, Rydal and Longrigg, Scalthwaiterigg Hay and Hutton-ith-Hay, Sedgwick, Skelsmergh, Stainton, Staveley (Nether), Staveley (Over), Strickland Ketel, Strickland Roger, Troutbeck, Underbarrow and Bradley Field, Undermillbeck, Whinfell, Whitwell and Selside, and Witherslack. The affairs of the Union are managed by sixty-seven guardians, of which number thirteen are returned for Kendal, two each for Ambleside, Heversham-with-Milnthorpe, Kirkby-Lonsdale, and Kirkland, and one for each of the other townships. They meet weekly at the Board-room, Market-place; Mr. John Mann is Clerk to the Board of Guardians and Superintendent Registrar, Mr. Thomas Atkinson, Vice-superintendent; George Kirkby, Esq., Chairman; John Parkin, Esq., Treasurer to the Union. The relieving officers are Richard Wallace, for Kendal; William Mounsey, Ambleside; William Atkinson, Grayrigg; James Spicer, Milnthorpe; and William Cragg, for Kirkby-Lonsdale district. Mr. Wallace is registrar of marriages, and deputy registrar of births and deaths, for Kendal; and Thomas Troughton, for Ambleside district. Mr. Joseph Wilson is the registrar of births and deaths for Kendal district. The medical officers are, J.T. Brumwell, Kendal; William Fell, Ambleside; James Noble, Grayrigg, Robert Wilson, Milnthorpe; Alex. Pearson, Kirkby-Lonsdale, William Holme, Bowness; Thomas Atkinson, Scalthwaiterigg; and Robert Abbotson, for Barton district. Mr. Henry Douglas is master, and Mrs. Jane Douglas, matron of the workhouse; William Wilson, schoolmaster, and Agnes Harling, schoolmistress. The total expenditure for the relief of the poor during the half year ending 31st March, 1849, was £5,586 4s. 10½d., and the average weekly cost per head for the in-door paupers was about 2s. 6d.

The Gas Works, situated in Park lane, were completed in 1826, at the cost of about £7,600, raised in shares of £20 each, and on the 25th of July, in the same year, the town was for the first time illuminated with burning vapour. There are two gasometers, one capable of containing 12,000, and the other 24,000 cubic feet of gas, which is sold to the consumer at 7s. 6d. per 1000 up to 20,000, above which there is a diminution of 3d. on every 1000 to 40,000, and another 3d. from the latter to 100,000, so that above 150,000, the charge is only 6s. per 1000. The yearly production is about 7,000,000 cubic feet, and the gas is generated on a peculiar principle. The number of public lamps is one hundred and four.

The Water Works were established in 1846, when the company was incorporated by Act of Parliament, conjointly with the Gas Company. The joint number of shares amounts to 2,282, or 1,852 additional shares; the capital of the gas works being 380 of £20 each. The reservoir is about a mile east of the town, and the borough received the first supply in 1848. The principal buildings and manufactories here can now, in cases of fire, have the command of a large supply of water which, as the main pipes will be constantly charged, can be obtained at a moment's notice from fire-plugs being fixed at available distances; and posts can also be placed at convenient parts of the town to provide supplies for cleansing and watering the streets, and other purposes. Mr. Robert Dent is secretary and manager both of the gas and water works.

NEWSPAPERS, LITERARY INSTITUTIONS, &c. - Two newspapers, the Kendal Mercury and the Westmorland Gazette, are published here every Saturday morning, the former advocating Whig, and the latter Tory principles. A newspaper called the Chronicle was commenced here in 1811, and continued to be published under that title till 1832, when it took the name of the Mercury, which it still retains. Mr. George Lee is both the proprietor and editor. The Gazette was first published in 1818, and is now the property of Mr. Thomas Atkinson, edited by Mr. J. H. Farmer. Here are also two monthly advertising sheets, distributed gratuitously, one published by Mr. Joseph Dawson, and the other by Mr. Richard Hargreaves. The former commenced in 1846, and the latter in 1849. A newspaper called the Kendal Courant, was established here prior to the rebellion of 1745, and a fortnightly Magazine, called the Agreeable Miscellany, and consisting of sixteen pages, price one penny, was issued in 1749; but neither of these had a long life. The Monthly Magazine was commenced in 1819, and lived about four years. A sheet Almanack, called the Kendal Diary, was formerly published here. In 1761, a Book Club was formed, and in connection with it is a venison feast held at the White Hall, in September, which draws together a large number of the gentry of the county, for a convivial entertainment, terminating by a grand ball. The venison is supplied by the Earl of Lonsdale. Each member pays 10s. a year for the purchase of books, which are sold annually, and replaced by others. Mrs. Mullard is librarian. In 1794, the Kendal Library was established and now contains upwards of 5000 volumes. Terms, 10s. 6d. per annum each, and one guinea entrance money. A News Room, established in 1779, and kept at the White Hall, is well supplied with newspapers, pamphlets, and periodicals. In 1817, a Natural History Society was formed here, but the contested elections commencing the year following, it "fell a sudden victim to political dissention. " It has since, however, been re-established. This society is kept in the old Catholic chapel, which was rebuilt in 1793, where there is also in connection with it a museum, well supplied with geological specimens, remains of birds and quadrupeds, and many other curiosities. The Mechanics and Apprentice Institute and library was formed in 1824, and its importance appears to be fully appreciated by the inhabitants. The library contains about 1500 volumes, and the number of members is about 140. Terms - men, 6s., apprentices, 4s. per quarter. Mr. James Robinson is secretary, and Mr. William Machell is the librarian.

In the market-place is a Library, established in 1820, and also the Working Men's Library and News Room, established in 1844. The latter is well supplied with periodicals, newspapers, &c, and is a favourite resort of the working classes. Terms per quarter, only sixpence each. Robert Atkin is librarian to this useful institution. The Catholic Library, established a few years ago, consists of several valuable works, and is likely to become one of the most important in Kendal. It is open to persons of all religions denominations, and the charge to each member is only sixpence per quarter.

The White Hall, a large public edifice, with handsome stone fronts, looking into Highgate and Lowther street, was built in 1895, at a cost of about £6000, raised in shares of £100 each. It is one hundred and forty-eight feet long and thirty-seven feet broad, having its principal entrance ornamented with a receding balcony, fronted with columns and pilasters of the Ionic order, supporting a pediment surmounted with a handsome lantern, which gives light to the Billiard Room. Besides which, here is the Subscription News Room, a large and elegant Ball Room, and a Lecture Room, with various other apartments. At the Beast Banks is a good Bowling-green, and near the town is the Race-course, where races are occasionally held.

The Serpentine, or Fell Side Walk, on the west side of the town, is it delightful promenade, and was formed in 1824, by about forty subscribers, who engaged at it the unemployed operatives during the stagnation of trade, thus relieving the distressed, and at the same time conferring a lasting benefit on the town. The walk, or walks are beautifully shaded with trees, command fine views, and are open for the perambulation of the public. The Lancaster and Kendal Canal was opened on the 18th of June, 1819, by a grand aquatic procession. Its length from Kendal to its southern termination at Westhoughton, including a connecting railroad of five miles from Preston to Clayton Green, is nearly seventy-six miles, of which course nearly nine miles is navigated by the Leeds and Liverpool Company, between Whittle-le-Woods and Wigan. The fall from Kendal to the mid-level is sixty-five feet, and the rise from thence on the southern side is 222 feet. It crosses the Lune, at Lancaster, by a stupendous aqueduct, passes a tunnel¹⁸ 378 yards long, at Hincaster, and is fed by a large reservoir of 150 acres, near Killington, five miles east of Kendal, and its cost amounted to above £600,000. By this great achievement new fields of commercial enterprize were opened, the exportation of the produce of the town facilitated, and an impetus given to the building spirit of the inhabitants. But it is now in a great measure superseded by the Lancaster and Carlisle railway, which affords to Kendal every commercial facility that can come within the reach of an inland town.

KENDAL CASTLE, the ancient seat of the barons of Kendal, and the birth place of Katherine Parr, who was born in 1510, and who was the last Queen of Henry VIII, stands on the east side of Kendal, upon a hill composed chiefly of round stones embedded in a black sandy cement, and commands a fine view of the beautifully diversified region which stretches to the north and south-west together with the town of Kendal. It "was old and decayed," says Dr. Burn, "even in Camden's time, and has never since been repaired," except in 1813, when the foundations were strengthened and skirted with a now thriving plantation. It had a large demesne and a deer park "which was disparked in the 8th of Elizabeth. The administration of the revenues thereof seems to have been divided into two distinct stewardships, bearing the name to this day of Upper and Nether Graveships." Whether this fortress was dismantled, or fell into a state of dilapidation, by the destructive hand of time alone, there are no records to shew, but "the commonly received opinion that it was blown down by Oliver Cromwell is quite absurd as it must have been in a very ruined state long before that arch dismantler was born." The only portions now remaining are four broken towers, and fragments of the outer walls. Though its appearance is more imposing at a distance than close at hand, yet it is well worth visiting from the interest always excited by the venerable relics of antiquity.

Amongst the eminent men who were born or flourished at Kendal, may be mentioned the following, viz., Ephraim, Chambers, a man of science, and author of the first Cyclopedia, who was born at Milton, and educated at the grammar school here. John Gough, Esq., well known in the philosophic world for his knowledge in natural history. William Hudson, who studied the science of botany with indefatigable industry, and greatly contributed to the introduction of the Linnæn system into England, by adopting the ideas, the scientific language, and the methodical arrangement of the Swedish naturalists, in his "Florica Anglica." He was a surgeon and apothecary, and resided chiefly in London, where his death was occasioned in 1797, "by his refusing to open his doors when his neighbour's house was on fire," from a fear lest the mob would plunder his dwelling. Barnaby Potter, bishop of Carlisle, from 1628 to 1641, was a native of Kendal barony. He was commonly called the puritanical bishop, and Fuller says, "they would say of him in the time of King James, that organs would blow him out of the church." Rev. Thomas Shaw, D.D., was the son of a Kendal alderman. He travelled over those parts of Asia and Africa that lie contiguous to the Red Sea, and the publication of his travels threw much light upon the antiquities, geography, and natural history of those countries. Sir John Wilson, one of the judges of the Court of Common Pleas, was a native of some part of this county, and lies buried in Kendal church. To a high professional character for knowledge and integrity, he added the reputation of a profound mathematician. John Wilson, a journeyman shoemaker of this town, studied botany with great success, and compiled, about the commencement of the last century, a synopsis of British plants. The ancient family of the name of Chambre, or De Camera, who lived at Kendal for several centuries, is already noticed. John Dalton, the celebrated mathematician, who died in Manchester a few years since, was also a native of this town.

KENDAL PARISH. - OUT-TOWNSHIPS.

BURNESIDE. - See Strickland Ketel.

CROOK is an extensive township and chapelry, containing several dispersed dwellings, bearing different names, and a small hamlet called Crook Mill, three miles and a quarter N.W. of Kendal, but the township extends about six miles from that town. It is a mountainous district, and has a lead vein, said to contain Barytes, similar to that from which Wedgewood manufactured his beautiful jasper ware, the vases of which were superior to any other made in the world, and were celebrated for their beauty throughout Europe. Large quantities of bobbins are made at Crook Mill, and here is also a woollen manufactory. There is a tradition that Gilpin Bridge took its name from Sir Richard Gilpin, the man who slew upon it the last wild boar in this country. An act for enclosing the common was passed in 1823. The manor being in the Marquis and Lumley Fees, belongs to the Earl of Lonsdale and Lady Howard. In 1310, Simon de Gnype held one fourth of the hamlet of Crooke, by the cornage of 5s. 11½d., and 6s. for puture to the foresters, and in 1599, William Gnype, held seventeen tenements here by the fiftieth part of one knight's fee.

Crook Hall was anciently denominated Thwatterden Hall, and about the year 1550, became the residence of Myles Philipson, Esq., whose great grandson, Christopher, behaved with such daring courage in the army of Charles I, as procured for him the unenviable nickname of " Robin the Devil." One of the Philipsons was member of Parliament for this county in 1681, and in the same year he was knighted by Charles II. After his death this property was sold by his three daughters to Major Pigeon, whose daughter carried it in marriage to Ralph Day, Esq., who, in 1777, was owner of the hall, which, like most of the old residences of the Westmorland gentry is now only a farm house. (See also Applethwaite.)

The chapel is an ancient building, situated about the centre of the chapelry, with a tower and one bell. Its endowment was formerly only £3 16s. 4d. but in 1751, and 1767, it was augmented with £400 from Queen Anne's Bounty, with which two estates were purchased, one at Stainton and the other at Crook. It also possesses another small estate in the latter township, given by an unknown donor. The vicar of Kendal is the patron, and the Rev. John Sedgwick is the incumbent curate.

Near the small hamlet called How, there was until lately, a Friends' Meeting house, and there is still a burial ground enclosed by a wall.

DILLICAR township, which is in Grayrigg chapelry and Lonsdale Ward, contains several scattered houses on the west side of the river Lune, eight miles N.E. of Kendal. "The land is freehold, and each owner is lord of his own estate."

DOCKER is another township in Grayrigg chapelry, surrounded by fells and elevations, containing dispersed farm houses and a few cottages, four miles N.E. of Kendal.

The manor was granted to St. Peter's, subsequently called St. Leonard's, Hospital, York, by William de Lancastre the second, and confirmed by Gilbert the seventh baron, and by King Edward I, the horses and hogs belonging to the hospital being also suffered the range of Gilbert's forest. After the dissolution it was granted to Richard Washington, who conveyed it to the Duckets, of Grayrigg, and in 1690 was sold to the Lowthers, who pay for it a quit-rent of 13s. 4d. to the Duke of Leeds, whose ancestor purchased this and many other fee-farm rents of the crown in the reign of Charles II.

FAWCETT FOREST township is an extensive, but wild and mountainous, district, in the parishes of Kendal, Shap, and Orton, and in the chapelry of Selside, distant from five and a half to eight miles N. of Kendal, This manor was anciently called Fauside, and in the twelfth century, was given by William de Lancastre to Byland Abbey, in Yorkshire, but after the fatal dissolution, was purchased by Alan Bellingham, Esq., of Levens, and afterwards sold to Colonel Graham, from whom it has descended to Lady Howard, of Levens hall, who lets the demesne of five thousand acres belonging to Forest hall, for about £500 a year.

The Hall, now occupied by Mrs. Isabella Ward, is a fine ancient mansion, in a pleasant situation, about six miles N. of Kendal.

GRAYRIGG township comprises the small hamlets of Beck-houses and Chapel-houses, and a number of dispersed dwellings, five and a half miles N.E. of Kendal. Its chapelry also includes the townships of Dillicar, Docker, Lambrigg, Whinfell, and part of Patton. The chapel, which was re-built by subscription in 1838, at the cost of £1018, is a neat edifice. Its ancient revenue was twenty nobles, but it was augmented in 1723 with £100 given by Lord Lonsdale, and £100 obtained from Queen Anne's Bounty. It was again augmented in 1751 with £200 obtained from the latter source, and £200 given by William Rudd, William Stratford, and the Rev. John Haistwell, all of which sums were laid out in land at Dillicar and Whinfell. A further augmentation of £20 has also been obtained from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and the rent-charge in lieu of tithes is £269 10s. 9½d. The landowners, by prescriptive right, have the power of nominating the curate, and that office is now filled by the Rev. George Wilson, who was inducted to the living in 1834, and who resides at the Parsonage house, an elegant and commodious building, erected in 1843, at a considerable expense, towards which £200 were obtained from Queen Anne's Bounty, £200 from the trustees of Marshall's charity, £100 from the Masters and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge, and the rest was raised by local subscription. On the wall in the inside of the old chapel appeared the following triplet, preceded by the names of William Rudd, William Stratford, and the Rev. John Haistwell, curate, with their respective donations, -

"Zeal for the house of God here do you see,
Shining with brightest beams even to futurity,
May heaven be the reward of all such boundless charity."

Dr. Burn says, that "on this triplet a wag of our acquaintance proposes a line to be added, to make it run upon all four, viz.:- 'And the d---- take the authors of all such poetry.'"

The School was built by subscription in 1818, and now affords gratuitous education to thirty-three scholars belonging to the chapelry. It is endowed with eleven acres of land, purchased in 1723, with £30 left by Robert Adamson, and with £400 in the five per cents., given before 1807, by William Thompson, Leonard Barnard, Arthur Shepherd, and John Moser. Here is also a female school, established in 1845. The principal endowment of this school consists of £10 a year, given by the trustees of the Quakers' Meeting House, which had stood at Beck-houses till about nine years ago, and which was endowed with £100, left by John Dicconson. The Friends have still an ancient cemetery at Sunny bank, but it has not been used for many years.

The manor was given by William de Lancastre in marriage with his daughter, Agnes, to Alexander de Windsore, the last of whom, William de Windsore, was Knight of the Shire for this county, in the 28th of Edward III, and Sheriff of Cumberland in 41st and 42nd of that King's reign. It afterwards passed by marriage to the Duckets, who resided at Grayrigg hall, till Anthony Ducket, Esq., sold the manor, with Lambrigg and Docker, to Sir John Lowther, who, in 1695, enfranchised all the tenants except some few who were not able to purchase their enfranchisement. The hall was a fine quadrangular building, but has been in ruins many years, the lead, timber, and other moveables being removed to Lowther.

HELSINGTON township and chapelry includes part of the village of Brigsteer, and comprises a number of scattered dwellings, extending from one and a half to four miles S. of Kendal on the west side of the river Kent. The estimated extent of the township is 3,072½ acres. Near the road, and about three miles from Kendal, stands Sizergh castle, in the midst of fertile grounds, beautifully studded with trees, and bounded by an horizon of majestic hills. This ancient fortified mansion, erected soon after the Norman conquest, in the days of feudal discord and Scottish invasion, is the seat of Walter Charles Strickland, Esq.; and, since the early part of the 13th century, has been the residence of this distinguished family. The castle was formerly a perfect Gothic fabric, consisting of a centre and two wings, and from its strong towers had a very formidable appearance, but it is now greatly modernized. The great tower is sixty feet high, and of immense strangth, and in its wall are several oblique apertures. The interior of the mansion is elegantly furnished, and contains a number of excellent paintings, amongst which are the portraits of Prince Charles Edw. Stuart, the Princess Sophia, Mary of Medina, and Lady Winifred Strickland, nurse to the children of James II. The dining room is spacious, and its ceiling and wainscotting are of richly carved oak. The Queen's room is beautified with exquisite gobeline tapestry, and is said to have taken its name from Katherine Parr having lodged in it a few nights after the death of Henry VIII. The arms of the Stricklands may be seen in several of the principal rooms, and in some of the windows.

The Strickland family is one of the most ancient in Westmorland, and resided at Morland and here, at a very early period, and held large possessions under the barons of Kendal. The name of this family is said to be derived from Stirkland, signifying pasture ground for young cattle. Many of the family have been distinguished for their civil and military transactions, and have received several marks of royal and ecclesiastical favour. The first on record is Walter de Stirkland, who lived in the reign of King John, and who granted to St. Mary's Abbey, York, and to the prior and monks at Weatheral,¹⁹ four acres of land, and leave to grind com at his mill in Stirkland, moulter²⁰ free. From this Sir Walter the family has a regular pedigree down to the present time. Many of them received the honor of knighthood, and were members of Parliament for this county; and in the year 1400 William Strickland was bishop of Carlisle. In 1406, he was one of the prelates who signed and sealed the act of succession which entailed the crowns of England and France upon the king's four sons. He added a tower and belfry to his cathedral, built the tower at Rose Castle, which still bears his name, and was at the expense of cutting a watercourse from the river Petteril, through the town of Penrith, where he founded a chantry. He died in 1419, and lies buried in Carlisle cathedral; but several members of this Catholic family died and were buried on the continent of Europe. Thomas Strickland was for many years Bishop of Namur, where he made great additions to the cathedral, built an episcopal palace, and founded and endowed a seminary. He was sent as ambassador to England by the Emperor Charles VI. He died in 1743, and was buried in his own cathedral at Namur. During the border laws the Stricklands constantly kept a force of about 200 horse for the king's services.

The manor of Helsington is part of the Lumley Fee, and in 1341, belonged to William de Thweng, at which time it appears that the rent of the free tenants and other tenants at will amounted to £15 0s. 8d. yearly. In the reign of Henry VIII it was possessed by a family named Bindlose, from whom it was purchased by the Bellinghams, who sold it Colonel Graham, and now belongs to Lady Mary Howard, of Levens hall.

The chapel, dedicated to St. John, is a neat building, erected by subscription in 1726, and endowed by John Jacksons of Holeslack, with the adjacent Scar-house estate, and the "Chamber tenement," on condition that the inhabitants should subscribe £100 towards obtaining an augmentation from Queen Anne's Bounty. They raised £44 12s., and Mr. Matson, the curate, gave the remaining £55 8s., which sum, with £200 obtained from Queen Anne's Bounty, was expended in the purchase of Kirkbarrow field, near Kirkland, and land at Rawnrigg, in Barbon. It was again augmented in 1762, with £200 given by the Countess Dowager Gower, and £200 more obtained from Queen Anne's Bounty. The Scarfoot estate at Underbarrow was purchased with these sums, and the annual revenue of the curacy is now worth about £150 a year. The vicar of Kendal is patron, and the Rev. James Muckalt, is the incumbent.

The above-mentioned John Jackson also left 13s. 4d. yearly out of a shop in Kendal, for the education of three poor children, and a small plot of land called Jack Parrock, for the chapel clerk. "Stonebank Green was formerly the residence of the Fishers, who were connected with many old families of the county."

The commons, consisting of about 1000 acres, were enclosed under an act passed in the 1st. Victoria, since which time no less than £15,000 have been expended in the drainage and improvement of this land, with several thousand acres in the adjoining townships of Levens, Crosthwaite and Lyth, and Underbarrow.

HUGILL township is distant from six to seven miles N.W. of Kendal on the Ambleside road and the river Kent, and contains the small hamlets of Heights, Grassgarth, Ings, Reston, and Ulthwaite.

The manorial rights belong to the Earl of Lonsdale and Lady Howard. INGS, which is about six and a half miles from Kendal, gives name to a chapelry, which comprehends most of the township of Hugill and part of Nether Staveley. The chapel is a neat edifice, rebuilt in 1743, by Robert Bateman, who endowed it with £12 a year, besides bequeathing £8 a year to a school, and £1000 for the purchase of an estate, and the erection of eight cottages, for the reception of as many poor families. We find mention made of Ings chapel in 1655, but previously to the erection of the original chapel, there was an ancient one at Grassgarth, in this township, dedicated to St. Anne. The ancient revenue of Ings chapel was only £2 4s. 4d., to which £3 6s. 8d. was added by the King's auditor, and "a further augmentation of £12 a year was left to it in 1665, by Rowland Wilson, Esq., on the condition that the curate should give gratuitous instruction to the poor children of the chapelry." The living has since been augmented with £200 given by Mrs. Mary Foster, and £600 obtained in three lots from Queen Anne's Bounty, "the principal part of which sums have been laid out in the purchase of property so that the chapel has now an average income. The landowners are the patrons, and the Rev. Matthew Isaac Finch is curate and master of the school, which was endowed in 1655, as stated above. Mr. Wilson went to London a poor boy.

Robert Bateman, the great benefactor of this chapelry, was also born of very poor parents, but being a meritorious lad was, according to the custom of the country, furnished by the congregation with a small subscription to assist him on his pedestrian journey to London, where, from the lowest menial office in the house of a wealthy merchant, he rose to be his master's partner, and afterwards amassed considerable property at Leghorn, on his voyage from whence, it is said, he was poisoned in the straits of Gibraltar, by the captain of his vessel who sailed back to Italy, and appropriated to himself the ship and cargo. On the lofty summit of High Knott, a large circular obelisk was erected about fifty years ago, by the Rev. Thomas Williamson, in memory of his father, who for many years walked every day to this eminence.

KENTMERE township and chapelry consists principally of a narrow vale, about three miles in length, shut in by lofty fells, and is distant nine miles N.W. by N. of Kendal. It is watered by the river Kent, which rises a little to the north, and formed a lake or mere, one mile in length, which was drained off several years ago. A large reservoir, covering about eight acres of land, has been lately made here to preserve a supply of water, in dry weather, for the mills on the river Kent.

The Chapel-of-ease is an ancient building near the hall, and had a burial ground consecrated in 1701. The salary of the curate was formerly only £6 yearly, "which was a rate of 2s. levied for every 13s. 4d. paid to the lord of the manor," but the living was augmented, before 1757, with £600 viz.: £400 obtained from Queen Anne's Bounty, £100 given by the inhabitants, and £100 by the executors of Dr. Stratford. Of this money £200 was expended in the purchase of Bonnel-green estate, in Strickland-Ketel, and the other £400 in the purchase of the Patton end estate, in Patton, so that its revenue now amounts to £62 per annum, and is enjoyed by the Rev. George Hayton.

Kentmere hall, now occupied by a farmer, stands at the foot of a huge and rugged mountain, and was formerly the residence of the ancient family of the Gilpins. The celebrated Rev. Bernard Gilpin, A.M., was born here in 1517, and Dr. Airey, who was Provost of Queen's College, Oxford, and who flourished about the year 1560, was also a native of Kentmere. He was author of a few learned pieces, but is mostly remembered for his virtues. He bequeathed 40s. a year for a monthly sermon in Kentmere chapel. The manor has been sold to the land-owners, the principal of whom are E.W. Riggmaden, and Captain Wilson, R.N.

KIRKLAND TOWNSHIP forms part of the town and borough of Kendal, which see.

LAMBRIGG is a township of dispersed houses in Greyrigg chapelry, distant four miles and a half E.N.E. of Kendal, and containing a long and lofty fell, called Lambrigg Park. The Earl of Lonsdale is lord of the manor, in which Burn says, there is a copper vein, which was formerly wrought. Mosedale Hall is a neat mansion in this township.

LONG SLEDDALE township and chapelry is a wild and picturesque district, about three miles in breadth, and extending from five to eleven miles N. of Kendal. It is intersected by the Sprint rivulet, which runs through a deep vale parallel with the road, till it unites with the Kent, about half a mile below Burneside Hall. Verdant fields rise from each side of the rivulet in irregular swells, till the rocky declivities of the mountains proclude all cultivation, except brushwood and coppices, which climb up the steep banks, and in some places find support even in the craggy precipices, which here present their lofty and rugged fronts with much grandeur, having in many places beautiful cascades spouting and tumbling from their summits, and in wild and rainy weather, often broken by gusts of wind into clouds of spangled moisture. Rangle Gill,²¹ a mountain which separates this township from Mardale, was noted about seventy years ago, for its extensive quarries of fine blue slate, but owing to the difficulty of getting to the veins, and the consequent expense of carrying on the works, they have not been wrought for several years. The chapel stands near the centre of the dale, in which the houses are all scattered, except at the north end, where there is a small hamlet called Little London,²² ten miles N. by E. of Kendal. It was rebuilt and had a cemetery consecrated in 1712. "It has been several times augmented, viz., in 1713, with £80 given by the heir, and four daughters of Henry Holme, and in 1746, 1773, and 1775, with three lots of £200 each from Queen Anne's Bounty, and a subscription of £200, making altogether £880, laid out in the purchase of land in Long Sleddale, Selside, and Lambrigg, now let for about £50 a year." The Hon. Lady Howard, of Levens Hall, is owner of all the manorial rights, and pays to the master of the school £10 a year for teaching as many poor children. The land owners are the patrons of the curacy, and the Rev. Robert Walker is the incumbent. Ubery, or Ubarrow Hall,²³ now occupied by a farmer, was for several centuries the residence of the descendants of Robert de Laybourne, and had doubtless been a place of safety and defence in the feudal ages. It had a tower, with walls two yards thick. The largest landowners of this township are Rich. Fothergill, Esq., Lowbridge House, Selside, and Messrs. Michael and John Mattinson, Long Sleddale; Rich. Rogerson, Staveley; William Sleddall, Hutton in the Hay; and Robert Mattinson, of Selside hall; but a few others have small estates here. It contains 4762A. 1R. 39P., rated at £4139.

NATLAND is a small village, township, and chapelry, containing 1027A. 1R. 26P. statute acres, and about 255 inhabitants, and is situate 2 miles S. of Kendal. The soil is chiefly of a light fertile nature, and in above an average state of cultivation. The largest proprietors are W.W.C. Wilson, Esq. of Casterton Hall, and Miss Halhead, Bath.

The name of this place is probably derived from the Nativi, or bondman, who performed the most servile work for the great lords of the Barony. (See Appleby.)

The Chapel, dedicated to St. Mark, is a neat edifice, built in 1825, at the cost of £550, of which £300 was given by three individuals, and £100 by the society for building new churches. It appears that about the year 1680, there was a ruined chapel at Natland, nine yards long, and about five yards wide, without cemetery or property belonging to it. In 1735, a new one was erected on its site, which is about one hundred yards from the present building, to which a burial ground is attached. In 1746, 1749, and 1754, the living was augmented with £600 of Queen Anne's Bounty; and, in the latter year, with £100 left by Archbishop Bolter, Primate of Ireland, and £100 left by Dr. Stratford, making in all £800 which was laid out in the purchase of land at Skelsmergh, Old Hutton, and Barbon. The two former estates now let for £53 per annum, but the latter has been sold, and the money invested in the funds. It has since received other augmentations, so that the benefice is now worth about £110 per annum. The vicar of Kendal is the patron, and the Rev. Joseph Fawcett in the perpetual curate.

The School is endowed with £40 a year, from Crow Park estate, left in 1779, by Charles Shippards, who also left a rent charge of £4 yearly to the poor of this township. For this endowment twelve poor children receive gratuitous education. Mr. William Irving is the present master.

WATERCROOK, the Concangium²⁴ of the Notitia, is situate in this township, about one mile from Kendal. It was garrisoned by a body of vigilatores, or watchmen, and was the intermediate station between Ambleside and Overborough. Dr. Whitaker says that the castra (camp) was 600 feet on one side, and 500 on the other; and he conjectures, from the antiquities discovered, that the town must have attracted a set of inhabitants of more than ordinary intelligence. According to Horsley, the station measured six chains from north to south, and eight from east to west, and must therefore have covered five acres of ground. Altars, coins, urns, stones, and the remains of a pottery, have been found here; and Mr. Horsley discovered a stone monument in the wall of an adjacent barn, with an inscription to the memory of two freemen. The same eminent antiquary found an altar here, without any inscription, and a Silenus without a head. In connection with Concangium, were two exploratory forts, called Castlesteads and Coneybeds; the former situated on Helm, a hill about a mile and a half from the station; and the other on Hay Fell, at the east of Kendal; each commanding an extensive view of the surrounding country. At a short distance from the station is a pyramidical knoll, "crowned with a single tree, and called Sattury; perhaps from its having anciently a temple to the honour of the god Saturn." Some of the Roman urns found here are deposited in the Kendal Museum.

Helm Lodge, the seat of William Dilworth Crewdson, Esq., is a pleasant mansion, situate about half a mile N. of Watercrook; Oxen-Holm, the ancient seat of the Archer family, is now a farm house, belonging to Wm. Wilson, Esq. The house called Natland abbey, was once the seat of Allan Pricket, Esq., recorder of Kendal, but is now the property of W.W.C. Wilson, Esq., as is also Natland Hall. The rateable value of the township is £2082 17s. 1¼d., and the manorial rights are disputable between W.C. Strickland, Esq. and W.W.C. Wilson, Esq.

NETHERGRAVESHIP lies on both sides of the Kent, and forms a populous suburb of the town of Kendal, from which its township extends about one mile southward. It contains only 460 acres of land, and its rateable value is £2330 4s. 6d. The rent charge, in lieu of tithes, is £30 16s. 6d., viz., rectorial £26 8s. 5d., and vicarial £4 8s. 1d. "Here is Collin Field, one of the most perfect specimens of the old manor houses in the county. It was long the seat of the Chambre family, of whom it was purchased in 1668, by Mr. George Sedgwick, secretary to the charitable Anne Countess Dowager of Pembroke, who gave him £200 towards the purchase, and during the protectorate of Cromwell, this was one of the houses whither she retired for safety, and presented the owner with her picture, and a large lock for the door, the master key of which she carried about with her, so that she might have free access at all hours, in case her enemies should pursue her. Mr. Sedgwick improved the house considerably and planted round it the fine sycamores which now shade it. The house contains some fine specimens of the beautiful geometrical windows of Elizabeth's reign."

NEW HUTTON township contains the small hamlets of Borrans, Millholm, and Rawgreen, with several scattered dwellings, bearing different names, distant three miles and a half E.S.E. of Kendal. Its chapelry also includes Hay and Hutton-in-the-Hay, which form a township with Scalthwaite Rigg. The old chapel was built in 1739, and endowed by the inhabitants of the chapelry with £200, to which £200 were added by the governors of Queen Anne's Bounty. With these sums an estate was purchased at Killington, called Gillhouse Stile. In 1756, it was again augmented with £200, with which land was bought at Grayrigg. In 1844 it received a grant of £13 a year from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, so that the benefice is now worth about £80 per annum. The present edifice is a neat Gothic building, rebuilt in 1829, at a cost of about £500, towards which £100 was given by the Church Building Society, £100 by Ralph Fisher, Esq., £10 each by the vicar of Kendal, the patron, and the Rev. John Sampson, the then curate. It contains about two hundred and eighty sittings, most of which are free. The present incumbent is the Rev. Henry Scambler, of Gill House, a commodious residence, nearly one mile from the chapel.

The school, which was rebuilt about twenty years ago, has a small endowment of £4 a year arising from land purchased with £40 left by Miles Tarn, in 1778. In a deep semicircular glen, at the foot of Rowland Edge Fell, is the large reservoir which feeds the Canal. Raw Green is three and a half miles, and Millholm four miles E.S.E. of Kendal.

The manor is of the Richmond Fee, and is held of the crown by the Earl of Lonsdale.

OLD HUTTON AND HOLMESCALES form a joint township, containing the small hamlets of Bridge end, Chapel Houses, Ewbank, Middleshaw, and Beck side, and extending from three and a half to five miles S.E. of Kendal. It is situate on the higher Kirkby-Lonsdale road, and on the river Belo or Betha, and from many points of it the prospects are extensive and pleasing, having the bay of Morecambe on the west and the lake mountains to the north. Its surface is irregular, and the soil is generally of a light, sandy, gritty loam, in provincial phrase sharp, and of super-average quality. The old enclosed lands consist of 1,827A. 1R. 9P., customary measure, and were valued in 1825 at £2588 19s. 9d. The commons which have been lately enclosed and improved, consist of 1,293A. 1R. 36P., and the commissioners' value is £273 14s. 11d. Holmescales, though united with Old Hutton in poor's-rate, and in the partition of common rights, is a hamlet in the extreme point easterly of Burton-in-Kendal, and belongs ecclesiastically to that parish. It is five miles S.E. of Kendal, and here is a bobbin mill carried on by Mr. Robert Jackson, the owner. At Bridge end, which is five miles from Kendal is a worsted manufactory, carried on by Mr. Joseph Abbot; and at the Beck side, about a quarter of a mile W. from the chapel, is a corn mill, a little above which, on the river Belo,²⁵ is a beautiful cascade, with a noble volume of water. In 1841, the population of the township was 488.

The chapel, which is dedicated to St. John the Baptist, was erected in 1628, rebuilt in 1699, and had a burial ground consecrated in 1822. It is a plain parallellogram, and has square windows with cross mullions, the small eastern one being a pure specimen of the old English. The benefice is a parochial chapelry, and has an ancient salary of £4 12s., a piece of land left by Henry Bateman, and £5 a year for an afternoon sermon, left by Thomas Robinson, in 1706; since which time it has been augmented with £600 of Queen Anne's Bounty, £100 from Dr. Stratford's trustees, and £100 given by various benefactors, all laid out in land, so that its net income in now £98 per annum. The Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge, are impropriators, the vicar of Kendal patron, and the Rev. Francis Whalley is the incumbent. The amount of rent charge in lieu of tithes is £104 14s. 8½d. About half a mile from the chapel, and adjoining an intersection of the Kendal and Kirkby-Lonsdale high road, is a neat and commodious cruciform parsonage, erected in 1831 by the present incumbent, aided by contributions of the landowners, and a grant from Queen Anne's Bounty.

The Grammar school, adjoining what now forms the chapel yard, was built and endowed by Edward Milner, in 1613. It was rebuilt by the inhabitants in 1758, and its yearly income is £19 11s. arising from three rent charges, and from interest of money vested in the Navy five per cents. Mr. William Hindson in the present master. A Parochial Lending Library for the use of the minister and his neighbouring brethren, was founded here by the associates of the late Rev. Dr. Bray, in 1757, and consists of nearly 400 volumes.

On Christmas Day and Easter Sunday, a dole is given to the poor of the township who do not receive parochial relief. This arises chiefly from a small estate called Brunthwaite, given by Roger Ward, of Old Hutton, the present rent of which is £18 a year. The clergyman, chapel warden, and overseer of the poor act as trustees. Twenty-four penny loaves are given every Sunday morning, in the chapel, to poor people attending the service. The means for this charity were left in 1692, by Thomas Robinson, of Greaves in Old Hutton, and in the afternoon twelve penny loaves are distributed. The latter charity is provided by a rent-charge left by the late Anthony Yeates, Esq., on his estate of Hood-Ridding, in the township. This estate, with its ancient mansion, belonged to the family of Yeates for more than two centuries last past. Bleaze hall, now a farm house, was, for several centuries, the seat of the Bateman's, but now belongs to Christopher Wilson, Esq., of Kendal. It was once a large and elegant mansion, but at present the only traces of its ancient consequence is a very fine wainscotted room, dated 1624, and having carved thereon several grotesque figures and devices. Henry Rauthmell, Esq., of Bridge end, is lord of the manor, but the tenants have long been enfranchised.

PATTON is a small township, situate between the Mint and Sprint rivulets, and extending from two and a half to four miles N.E. of Kendal. It contains 619A. 3R. 15P. of excellent land, incumbent on greystone, capable of growing good crops of oats, barley, &c., and its rateable value is £779 16s. Henry Shepherd, Esq., of Shaw end, a beautiful mansion, four miles N.E. of Kendal, is the largest landowner, but Messrs. Hubbersty, Harrison, and Simpson, have estates in the township, which forms one constablewick with Skelsmergh, and anciently belonged to a family of its own name, the last of whom on record is John de Patton, who lived in the reign of Edward III.
The manor was afterwards possessed by the Bellinghams, of Burneshead, from whom it passed in marriage to the Thornburghs, who held it till the year 1723, when it was sold to the trustees for the use of the tenants. The tithe rent-charge is £33 5s. 9¾d., of which the college receives £28 10s. 8½.

SCALTHWAITE RIGG, HAY, AND HUTTON-IN-THE-HAY, form a joint township, extending from Far cross bank, in the suburb of Kendal, to three miles E. of that town. Scalthwaite Rigg is a constabulary under the parish church, and has probably derived its name from the Saxon word, skalga, (scales) a cover, and thwaites, a piece of ground cleared of wood. Mealbank is a neat village in this constabulary, pleasantly situated on the east bank of the Kent,²⁶ two and a half miles N.E. of Kendal. Here is a corn mill and a woollen manufactory, the latter belonging to Messrs. F. & C. Braithwaite, of Kendal, who, in 1846, erected a neat school here, and contribute towards the education of their workmen's children. Sleddal hall, now a farm house, belonging to Edward Wilson, Esq., who is a large proprietor here, was formerly the seat of the ancient family of Sleddall, one of whom was the first mayor of Kendal, in 1636, and possessed Gilthwaite Rigg, and some other estates.

Hay is a hamlet about half a mile W. of Hutton-in-the-Hay, which is a constabulary, three miles E. of Kendal. Both places are in New Hutton chapelry, and in the manor of Hay or Hey, which is of the Marquis Fee. "Hay signifies a park or enclosure, and Hutton seems to have come from huts, which were erected in the hunting grounds and forests for the convenience of the hunters; it is therefore evident that the huts within the park were called Hutton-in-the-Hay, to distinguish them from the huts in the open forest; and this distinction is supposed to have originated when the estates of William de Lancastre were divided between his co-heiresses, Helwise and Alicia."

Hill top is a delightfully situated mansion in the hamlet of Hay, commanding extensive views of the surrounding country, now occupied by William Wilson, Esq., but the property of the Rev. R.W. Fisher. Raw head, an ancient mansion in Hutton-in-the-Hay, is the seat of William Sleddall, Esq.

SELSIDE-WITH-WHITWELL township and chapelry is situate between the Mint and Sprint rivulets, and extends from four and a half to six and a half miles N. by E. of Kendal. It contains about 3,300 acres of land, of which 2,911 are titheable, and the principal land-owners are Richard Fothergill, Esq., Ralph Riddell, Esq., William Thompson, Esq., Rev. W. Clarke, James Machell, Esq., W.W.C. Wilson, Esq., Henry Shepherd, Esq., W.F. Harrison, Esq., and Messrs. John Martindale, Miles Beck, and R. Postlethwaite. Its gross estimated rental is £2,183 18s. 6d., its rateable value, £1,638 13s. 6d., and its tithe rent-charge, £106 3s. 6d. Except the small hamlet of Gateside, which is five miles N. by E. of Kendal, the houses are all scattered, and bear different names, and its population amounts to upwards of three hundred souls. Whiteside, an extensive common,
was enclosed in 1825, pursuant to an Act passed in 1823 for enclosing the commons of this township and Skelsmergh.

The chapel is a neat but plain edifice, rebuilt in 1838, at a cost of about £1,600, all raised by subscription, except a grant of £80 obtained from the church commissioners, and £50 given by Trinity College, Cambridge. It stands near Selside hall, about twenty yards north from the old fabric, which was erected about the year 1720. The site of this sacred edifice, with the stone, sand, and additional burial ground, were all given by the liberal Catholic proprietor, R. Riddell, Esq., and the building was designed by R. Fothergill, Esq. It will accommodate 300 hearers, and the seats are all free, except five pews, which are appropriated to Lowbridge House, Forest Hall, Selside Hall, Kit Cragg, and Northgate side. In 1717, the curacy was certified at £8 5s. viz., £4 charged upon the estates of the inhabitants, £4 issuing out of land left by Miles Birkbeck, and 5s. interest of money left by Thos. Nelson. It was augmented in 1722 with two estates called Harrod and Stonegarth, in Whinfell, purchased with £200 of Queen Anne's Bounty, £100 given by Lady Moyer, £100 from the trustees of Dr. Stratford, and £100 given by the Rev. William Atkinson, all laid out in the purchase of Beckstones, afterwards exchanged for the Browfoot estate, in Firbank. The land-owners are the patrons, and the Rev. Henry Holme Airey is the present incumbent. The chapel includes within its jurisdiction the township of Selside and Whitwell, the township of Fawcett-Forest, part of Whinfell, two houses in Skelsmergh, and three houses in Strickland Roger.

The Free School, which was rebuilt by subscription in 1793, and again in 1831, was endowed in 1730, by John Kitching, with the Biggersbank estate, now let at £48 a year, for the education of all the poor children of the chapelry, and of the children of the tenants of the said farm and Cowper house, at which latter place the donor resided. It was subsequently endowed with £100 by Joseph Harling, for four free scholars from Skelsmergh; J. H. Bulman is master.

Selside Hall, now a farm house, belongs, with the demesne, to Ralph Riddell, Esq., of Northumberland, but was once a fine old mansion, and the seat of the Thornburghs, an ancient Catholic family, who settled in Westmorland about the year 1283. They were much distinguished in this county during the 13th and 14th centuries, and several of them were knights of the shire in the reigns of Edward III, Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V. William Thornburgh, in 1717, gave a piece of land for a chapel and burial ground, and devoted the original chapel in the hall to his own religion. The Thornburghs sold off the manor by degrees, part to the tenants, part to the Wilsons, and part to the Bellinghams, so that a great portion of it now belongs to Lady Howard. Selside and Whitwell were distinct manors, till the reign of Henry VIII, when they became united in the Thornburgh family, on the marriage of a co-heiress of Robert Bellingham with Sir William Thornburgh.

LOWBRIDGE HOUSE, the seat and property of Richard Fothergill, Esq., is a neat mansion, occupying a pleasant situation at the foot of Bannisdale, six miles and a half N. of Kendal, and half a mile W. of the turnpike road. It is in the Elizabethan style of architecture, and was erected in 1837, by its present proprietor. An idea of its seclusion maybe formed when we state that it is eighteen miles S. from Lowther castle, ten or twelve, miles E. from Capt. Wilson's, Troutbeck, four miles N. by W. from Mr. Machell's, and six miles and a half from Kendal, making a district of nearly 350 square miles without a house of a similar description.

MOZERGH HOUSE, the seat and property of James Machell, Esq., is a pleasantly situated mansion in this township, erected in 1835, four miles and a quarter N. by E. of Kendal.

SKELSMERGH is a township extending from one mile and a quarter to four miles and a half N.E. of Kendal, and lying between the Kent, Sprint, and Mint, which bound it on all sides except the east. It contains the small hamlet of Garth-row, three miles N. of Kendal, a number of dispersed dwellings, two corn mills, a worsted mill, a bobbin mill, and a dyewood mill. The township comprises 1979A. 1R. 25P. of excellent and highly cultivated land, chiefly appropriated to grazing, and the principal owners of the soil are John Brunskill, Esq., J.J. Rawlinson, Esq., Alderman Thompson, John Bateman, Esq., Isaac Metcalf, Esq., R. and E. Riddell, Esq., Henry Holt, Esq., Rev. William Robinson, John and James Gandy, Esqrs., Rev. H. Swale, W. F. Harrison, Esq., Lady Mary Howard, and Messrs. James Beck, Robt. Seed, and William Hogarth, the latter three being resident yeomen. It is rated for tithes at £2237 and for poor rates at £3438. For upwards of 400 years the manor belonged to the family of Leyburne, of Cunswick, having been granted to Robert Leybume, in the 13th century, by William de Lancastre, the eighth baron of Kendal. This Catholic family suffered much for their religion during the operation of the rigorous penal laws in the reign of Elizabeth, and were obliged to sell this manor, which was purchased by the Bellinghams of Levens, and Braithwaites, of Burneside, who enfranchished the tenants. The manor of Skelsmergh now belongs to Lady Mary Howard, of Levens. There was anciently a chapel here, dedicated to St. John, which, as early as Machell's time (1680), was a wasted ruin. It had also a cemetery, but of its endowments we know nothing. At Dodding Green, in this township is a Catholic Chapel, which was endowed, about 130 years ago, by Robert Stephenson, with the adjoining house and estate, for which Ralph Riddell, Esq., of Northumberland, is trustee. Mint House and Mint Cottage are two neat houses in the vale of the Mint, the former occupied by Mrs. Hester Elderton, and the latter by Mrs. Mary Long. Gilthwaite-Rigghouse, also a pleasant dwelling in this township, is the residence of Misses H. and R. Fox, and of George Fox, Esq.

STAVELEY (Nether) township extends from three and a half to about seven miles N.W. of Kendal, and contains 2528A. 3R. 37P., belonging to several owners, the largest of whom are Lady le Fleming, the trustees of Jas. Ashburner, Messrs. Edw. Wakefield, Jas. Gandy, Henry Colebank, John Clarke, J.G. Roberts, and Mrs. C. Bateman, and Miss Agnes Swainson, but the Hon. Mrs. Howard, of Levens, is lady of the manor, and "the tenants hold by small fee rents." The township is intersected for a distance of nearly three miles by the Kendal and Windermere railway, and its rateable value is £1709 17s. The houses are nearly all scattered except a few near Gowan Bridge, where it adjoins the village of Over Staveley and the river Kent.

STAVELEY is a large and flourishing village, in the township of Over Staveley, on the west side of the Kent, a little above the confluence of that river with the Gowan, and a short distance from the Kendal and Windermere line of railway, four miles and a half N.W. of Kendal. In the village are two extensive woollen mills, a corn mill, and two bobbin mills, and about a quarter of a mile distant, in the township of Hugill, is another bobbin mill. Here is also a handsome hotel, called the Abbey, erected in 1844, by J.H. Wilson, Esq., of the Grange, Sussex, who has considerable property both here and in the adjoining township of Hugill. The hotel is finished and furnished in a superior manner, and, as well as being an ornament to the village, is a great convenience to tourists and travellers. The stabling is perhaps second to none in the north of England. There are also two other comfortable inns in this village, which is situated in an exceedingly picturesque part of the vale of Kent, surrounded by scenery which greatly enhances the beauty of its situation.

Staveley is a village of unknown antiquity, and was a prosperous place at a very early period. We find that as early as the year 1341, ten years after the establishment of the woollen manufacturers at Kendal, there was a fulling mill here, which was worth 10s. per annum. In the 2nd of Edward III (1329), Wm. de Roos, Baron of Kendal, obtained a charter for a weekly market at Staveley, on the Friday, and a fair yearly on the eve, day, and morrow of St. Luke, but they have long been obsolete. Two annual fairs are now hold here on the Wednesday before Easter for cattle, and 7th October for sheep.

The chapel is a very ancient edifice, with a handsome tower and three bells. The chapelry includes the whole of this township, most of Nether Staveley, and part of Hugill. "The ancient salary of this chapel was only £6 13s. 4d., to which Mr. Henry Nicholson added 10s. a year for a sermon on St. Thomas's day." It has since been augmented with £200 obtained from Queen Anne's Bounty, £100 given by Lady Moyer, and £100 subscribed by the inhabitants, for which two small estates were purchased, one at Patton, and the other at Natland; and, in 1844, it received a further augmentation of £44 from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, so that the benefice is now worth about £120 per anumn. The inhabitants are the patrons of the curacy and the Rev. James Godmond Elleray is the incumbent, and also master of the free school which is endowed with Low Scroggs and Elfhow estates, and half the rent of a bobbin mill, bequeathed in 1696, by Geo. Jopson to the officiating curate, "provided that he perform the office of schoolmaster within the said chapelry." The property is now let for £82 10s. a year, and all the children of the chapelry have free admission to the school, which was rebuilt in 1841, in a pleasant and airy situation, at a cost of £138 8s., raised by subscription, except £64 obtained for the old building, which was erected in 1750. The school, which stands on a piece of waste ground close to the village, is ten yards square, and the average number of scholars in attendance is about eighty. The Primitive Methodists and Wesleyans have each a small chapel here, the former erected in 1834, and the latter in 1836.

The township of Over Staveley contains about fourteen hundred acres of land, rated at £1,385 2s., and the principal land-owners are Abraham Banks, Esq., Messrs. Edmund Thompson, George Mounsey, and Richard Rogerson, James Gandy, Esq., B. Armstrong, Esq., J.H. Wilson, Edwd. Wilson, and Richard Wilson, Esqrs., P. Barrow, Esq., J. Braithwaite, Esq., and Mr. Benj. Turton; but the manorial rights of the two Staveleys and Hugill belong to Lady Howard and the Earl of Lonsdale.

A lodge of Oddfellows is hold at the Duke William.

STRICKLAND-KETEL township contains the chapel and part of the village of Burneside with the small hamlets of Aikrigg end, Bonning-yeat,²⁷ Low green hill, Plumgarths, and Sparrowmire, besides many detached dwellings, all lying on the east side of the Kent river, from one to four miles N.N.W. of Kendal, opposite Strickland Roger, both of which form the chapelry of Burneside, and anciently constituted the manor of Strickland, "the pasture ground of stirks or steers, and other young cattle." They were subsequently divided into two manors, one being called Strickland-Ketel, from Ketel, grandson of Ivo de Talebois, the first Baron of Kendal, and the other having its distinctive appellation from some warlike Norman, named Roger, to whom Ketel probably granted that portion of the manor. The Earl of Lonsdale is now lord of both these manors, except a small part which belongs to the Hon. Lady Howard. The common of Strickland-Ketel was enclosed in 1821.

BURNESIDE is a small but pleasant village, on both sides of the Kent, which is here crossed by a good bridge, two miles N. by W. of Kendal, in the townships of Strickland Ketel, and Strickland Roger. It is a place of considerable antiquity, and derives its name from burn, a brook.

The Chapel is a handsome edifice, with a spiral tower, rebuilt between the 1823 and 1826, at the cost of upwards of £1800 of which £900 was raised by subscription, £100 obtained from Government and the remainder raised by a rate on the occupiers of land. John Bateman, Esq., built the spire, ornamented the interior, and gave a painted window to the chapel. In the time of Charles I the living was augmented with five marks, (£3 6s. 8d.) yearly, out of an estate at Nether Staveley, left by Messrs. Robert and Rowland Kitchin. Since then it received an augmentation of 20s. a year out of an estate at Strickland Ketel, left by Mr. Thomas Atkinson, £400, in two lots, from Queen Anne's Bounty, to meet subscriptions and benefactions to the same amount of which £100 was given by the executors of W. Stratford, L.L.D. This money was laid out in 1757, in the purchase of an estate at Skelsmergh, and another at Dent, in Yorkshire, the latter of which now produces about £16 per annum. The curacy is in the patronage of the landowners, and in the incumbency of the Rev. Wm. Robinson, who is also master of the free school which was rebuilt about seventy years ago, by the Rev. Alan Fisher, of Hundhow, who endowed it with £600, and a good library. It is also endowed with £100 left by Mr. Harling, and £20 by Alan Bracken. In consideration of Mr. Harling's bequest, four poor children from Skelsmergh are taught free, besides whom six other poor children are to receive gratuitous education here, provided the chapel and school be united, but if not, all, we understand, are to pay a certain quarterage. In the village is a paper mill, belonging to James Cropper, Esq., who has also one at Cowen Head,²⁸ a hamlet on the Kent, three and a half miles N.W. of Kendal.

The manor is sometimes written Burnshead and belonged to an ancient family of that name, with whose heiress it passed to the Bellinghams, who held it for upwards of two centuries, till Sir Robert Bellingham sold it in the 16th century to Sir Thomas Clifford. The manor was afterwards possessed by a person named Fitzwilliam who sold it to Mr. Machell, of Kendal, of whom it was purchased by the Braithwaites, of Ambleside, who sold it to the Shepherds, who sold the estates to various proprietors and the manor to the Lowthers.

Burneside Hall,  the ancient manor house, has long been in ruins, but a portion of it is now occupied by a farmer. It had a court with a lodge and battlements, and on each side of the passage up to the gate there was a deep pond, in the centre of which was a small island covered with wood. Though the hall has been in ruins for a number of years, yet many traces of its ancient importance still remain. It stands in the township of Strickland Roger.

Tollson Hall, a good mansion in Strickland Ketel, two miles N.W. of Kendal, is now occupied by Wm. Whitwell, Esq., but the property of the Bateman family, one or whom, James Bateman, Esq., erected the obelisk on the neighbouring field, in commemoration of the battle of Waterloo.

Eller Green, the seat and property of James Cropper, Esq., is a handsome mansion, erected in 1848, occupying a pleasant situation in Strickland Ketel township, two miles N.W. of Kenddal.

STRICKLAND ROGER township, on the East side of the Kent contains, besides part of the village of Burneside, a number of dispersed dwellings, and extends from two to six miles N. of Kendal. It is bounded on the east by the river Sprint, and on the north by Potter Fell. On the former is a woollen mill, and near the latter is the hamlet of Garnet Bridge, six miles N. from Kendal, where there is a corn mill, and also a bobbin manufactory. The principal landowners of this township are Messrs. John Brunskill. and George Atkinson Geldard, James Cropper, Esq., John Wakefield, Esq., and Messrs. John Harrison and George Dixon, and its rateable value is £1925 15s. 11d. Godmond hall is a neat farm house, erected in 1847, on the site of old hall, which was a tower building, four miles N. by W. of Kendal. The walls of the ancient tower, part of which forms the end of the present dwelling, are about five feet in thickness.

UNDERRARROW AND BRADLEY FIELD form a township about three miles square, and extends from one to four miles W. of Kendal. Bradley Field consists of a few scattered houses about two miles W.S.W. of Kendal, and took its name from its ancient possessors, the Bradleys, who came from Lancashire, and ended in three co-heiresses, one of whom married into the Leyburne family, long seated at Cunswick hall, in this township, which they possessed till John de Leyburne joined the unfortunate Earl of Derwentwater, in 1715, when both the hall and demesne were forfeited to the crown, from which they were purchased by Thomas Crowle, and are now the property of the Earl of Lonsdale. Underbarrow Scar, or as it is commonly called, Scout Scar, is a long and lofty ridge of rock, extending from north to south across the whole township, and commanding picturesque views of the surrounding country. At Underbarrowpool, three and a half miles from Kendal, is a bobbin mill well supplied with water. The common was enclosed in 1821. The chapel was rebuilt in 1708, by the inhabitants of Underbarrow alone, for Bradley field is not in the chapelry, but annexed to the parish church. In 1732, the curacy was endowed with the High Bendrigg estate, in Killington, purchased with £200 of Queen Anne's Bounty, and £200 given by Colonel Graham and Lady Moyer. It has also a rent-charge of 30s. out of a field in the same township, and a small estate near the chapel, called Chapel house, out of which latter 35s. a year is paid to the poor, in considerstion of £35 poor stock having been included in the purchase-money. The vicar of Kendal is patron of the curacy, which in worth £90 per annum, and the Rev. John Graves is the present incumbent. Here are two neat villas, viz.: Tullythwaite house, George Kirkby, Esq., county treasurer; and Thorns, Richard Wilson, Esq., solicitor, and coroner for the Kendal and Lonsdale wards, including the borough of Kendal. The manorial rights belong to the Earl of Lonsdale and Lady Howard.

WHINFELL township is a picturesque district, lying between the Mint and Borrowdale beck, from four and a half to six miles N.E. by N. of Kendal "It is all included in Grayrigg chapelry except Guest ford estate, which belongs to the chapelry of Old Hutton." The largest owners of the soil are Edward Wilson, Esq., of Riggmaden, and Henry Shepherd, Esq., of Shaw end. The manor was divided into moieties at a very early period, and, in 1723, was sold to the tenants, together with Selside, Skelsmergh, and
Patton, for £1,040 3s. 4d., "with all royalties, deodands, ponds, waifs, and estrays; paying thereout yearly 9s. 1½d. to the King, and 1s. to the Lord Viscount Lonsdale." "The fishery in Whinfell tarn to remain among the tenants undivided." Besides this small lake, which covers twelve acres, and abounds with tench, there are in the township two other smaller ones, viz.: Flat tarn, and Pig tarn,²⁹ the former of which contains pike, and lies near the foot of Beacon hill, a lofty conical eminence crowned with a
pile of stones. Here is an unendowed school.

WINSTER chapelry contains a small hamlet, eight miles W. of Kendal, and forms a joint township with Undermillbeck, which is in Windermere parish, "so that this union has nothing to recommend it but contiguity." The principal land-owners are Messrs. Thomas Garnett and James Birkett, and the Rev. Charles B. Harris. "The manor was formerly held by the Philipsons, whose four co-heiresses, in 1717, sold it to the tenants, subject only to the payment of a small fee-rent to the crown." On the 19th June,
1848, a lead mine was opened here by Messrs. Thomas Garnett, and Thomas and Stephen Elleray, which is expected to be tolerably productive. The chapel is a small edifice, with an octagon tower, in which is one bell, and had a burial ground, consecrated in 1721. The curate's original income was £3 19s., but it has been several times augmented, viz.: in 1617, with land given by a Mr. Knipe, and exchanged in 1801 with William Birkett for £118 and the Garnett house estate in Winster; in 1720, with an estate in Cartmell fells, purchased with £200 of Queen Anne's Bounty; in 1760, with an estate in Dent, Yorkshire, purchased with £200 of the same Bounty, £100 left by Dr. Stratford, and £100 subscribed; and, in 1820, with the Hole estate, in Crook, purchased with £900, of which sum £400 was obtained in 1801 and 1815 from Queen Anne's Bounty, £300 from a Parliamentary grant, £83 by subscription, and the remainder was the before-mentioned £118, so that the benefice is now worth £80 per annum. The vicar of Kendal is patron, and the Rev. Charles Butler Harris, B.A., is the present incumbent. Part of Cartmell Fells being far distant from the mother church, in Lancashire, pays to the curate of this chapelry, which was anciently included in that of Crook, but has been a distinct chapelry for a number of years. Near the chapel is a school endowed with £10 a year by a few of the principal inhabitants. Mr. William Swainson is the master.

Mannix & Co., History, Topography and Directory of Westmorland, 1851