button to main menu   Ford's Description of the Lakes, 1839/1843

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Page 22:-
consisting of a mayor, recorder, alderman, and capital burgesses. By the recent Municipal act, it is divided into three wards, under the superintendence of a mayor, six aldermen, and eighteen councilmen. By the Reform bill, the town returns one member to Parliament. It was formerly noted for coarse woollen goods, called Kendal cottons, but goods of finer description are now more commonly manufactured. The river Kent affords plenty of water for its numerous mills and dye-houses. There are also very extensive marble works. As the country people for many miles around attend the markets and fairs, the town thus combines the character of a manufacturing place, with that of the centre of a rich agricultural district.
Kendal can also boast of being furnished with schools and charitable institutions, as numerously and liberally endowed as any town of equal population. Indeed, in this respect, the county of Westmorland exceeds all others, owing chiefly to the number of clever and eminent men who have distinguished themselves, and have sought to return back to their native county some portion of those benefits which they themselves derived from it.
Kendal to Windermere
The road leaves Kendal by a steep ascent, having the workhouse and prison on either hand. The views northward, in the direction of Shap and Orton, are pretty, not unlike the vale of Derbyshire: southward, there is an opening through the marble jaws of Underbarrow, showing the varied
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