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Gentleman's Magazine 1853 part 1 p.488

  trade
  Westmorland
Ancient Commerce in Westmorland


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Nunc as Kendal, propter pannum,
Coetum, situm, aldermannum,
Virgines pulchras, pias matres,
Et viginti quatuor fratres,
Vere clarum et beatum,
Mihi nactum, notum, natum.

Now to Kendal, for clothmaking,
Sight, site, alderman awaking;
Beauteous damsels, modest mothers,
And her four-and-twenty brothers;
Ever in her honour spreading,
Where I had my native breeding.

Drunken Barnaby's Journal.

THE ANCIENT COMMERCE OF WESTMERLAND.

AT the first view it appears strange and surprising that one of the chief woollen manfactures of England in ancient times should have been seated in the remote county of Westmerland. Yet such we are assured was the case. The cloths made at Kendal were famous as early as the 13th Ric. II.* if not before, and are the subject of continual legislative regulations during the reign of Henry IV.† Leland‡ speaks of Kendal as emporium laneis pannis cele-
* See the Rotuli Parliament. iii. p.271.
† Ibid. pp.437, 498, 541, 614, 693.
‡ "In Westmerland is but one good market towne caullid Kendale, otherwise as I wene Kirkby Kendal. Yt hath the name of the ryver caullid Kent, unde et Kentdale, sed emporium laneis pannis celeberrimum." - Itinerary.
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