Gents Mag 1853 part 1 p.490

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	Gentleman's Magazine 1853 part 1 p.490 called the Bouge of Court, when describing the costume of Riot, tells us that- His cote was checkt with patches rede and blewe, of Kirkeby Kendall was his short demye, And ay he sange, "In fayth, decon thou crewe," His elbow bare, he ware his gere so nye. It seems to be doubrful, from the commentators Warton and Dyce, what article of dress was designated by the term "demye;" but both agree that by "Kirkeby Kendall" in this passage was intended the colour green. So too in Hall's Chronicle, where we are told that king Henry VIII. with a party of noblemen, "came sodainly in a mornyng into the queen's chamnre, all appareled in shorte cotes of Kentish Kendal (a misprint probably for Kirkby Kendal) ... like outlawes, or Robin Hodes men," the allusion is evidently to the same colour. In later writers it is uaually termed "Kendal green," and it is frequently mentioned by our dramatists and poets, being the recognised dress of foresters. In Anthony Munday's play of "Robin Hood, or Robert Earl of Huntington," 1601, occurs this passage, --- all the woods Are full of outlaws that, in Kendall green, Follow'd the utlaw'd Earl of Huntington. Falstaff was attacked at Gad's Hill by "three mis-begotten knaves in Kendal green," (1st Part of Henry IV. ii. 4); and Ben Jonson in his "Underwoods" attires Greenhood --- in Kendal green As in the forest colour seen. From some lines in Hall's Satires it appears also that this was the colour worn by agricultural labourers, as blue was usually that of serving-men: The sturdy plowman doth the soldier see All scarf'd with pyed colours to the knee Whom Indian pillage hath made fortunate; And now he 'gins to loathe his former state, Now doth he inly scorne his Kendall greene Hall's Satires, iv. 6, p.76. The most recent account of the Kendal manufactures is as follows: This town, nearly as late as the beginning of the last century, exported largely of coarse woollens to America, but the machinery in Yorkshire and Lancashire (inter alia) have nearly destroyed it (the trade). The Kendal green, superseded by the Saxon green,* was produced from a plant with a small yellow flour (sic), and producing, when boled, a beautiful yellow extract provincially known as woodas or sarrat (the genista tinctora of Linneaus), and from a blue liquor extracted from woad. These cottons (as such coarse woollen were called) have yielded to coarser things: floor-cloths, horse-cloths, linseys, and the like. The manufacture of carpets has recently become popular and flourishing. Hosiery, wool-card making, and horn-comb making, as trades, still exist to some extent. - Atkinson's Worthies of Westmoreland, 1851, vol.i. p.32. The traders of Kendal were formerly associated in twelve free companies, which are this enumerated in an ancient "boke of recorde" belonging to the corporation of the borough:- 1. Chapmen, Marchants, and Salters; 2. Mercers and Drapers, Linen and Woollen; 3. Shearmen, Fullers, Dyers, and Websters; 4. Taylors, Imbrodyrers, and Whilters; 5. Cordyners, Coblers, and Curryers; 6. Tanners, Sadlers, and Bridlers; 7. Innholders and Alehousekeepers and Typlers; 8. Butchers and Fishers; 9. Cardmakers and Wyerdrawers; 10. Surgeons, Scryvyners, Barners, Glovers, Skynners, ... (obliterated), and Poyntmakers; 11. Smyths, Iron and Hardwaremen, Armerers, Cutlers, Bowyers, Fletchers, Spuryers, Potters, Panners,
	this note, with reference to the public room in Kendal, called the White Hall: "It seems not improbable that White Hall (originally perhaps White Cloth Hall) has taken its name from the manufacture of milk-white cloth." But this remark is founded upon a misapprehension. The old poet was not here describing a colour peculiar to the manufacture, or to the archers of Kendale. White coats with St. George's cross were worn by all the infantry of our English armies; and the White Coats of London - that is, the trained bands of the city - are as often mentioned as any others. Mr. Nicholson repeats this misconception in p.203, where he imagines that "spots might be easily, by poetic fancy, magnified into crosses red." In correction of this idea it is to be remarked that the white coats were not besprinkled with crosses, but every bowman, or soldier, exhibited only one cross back and front, displayed upon the whole of his body, as may be seen in the illuminations to the manuscripts of Froissart and other old historians. * This change took place about the year 1770. - Nicholson's Annals of Kendal.
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