button to main menu   West's Guide to the Lakes, 1778/1821

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Page 177:-

Kendal
KENDAL. [1]
The approach to it from the north is pleasant. A noble river, the Kent, is discovered flowing briskly through fertile fields, and visiting the town in its whole length. It is crossed by a handsome bridge, where three great roads coincide, from Sedbergh, Kirkby-Stephen, and Penrith. The main street leading from the bridge slopes upwards to the centre of the town, and contracts itself into an inconvenient passage, [2] where it joins another principal street, which falls with a gentle declivity both ways, and is a mile in length, and of spacious breadth. Was an area for a market-place opened at the incidence of these two streets, it would be a noble improvement. The entrance from the south is by another bridge, which makes a short awkward turn into the suburbs, but after that, the street opens well, and the town has a chearful appearance. The principal inns are genteel, commodious, and plentifully served.
Here is a workhouse for the poor, which for neatness and oeconomy exceeds most of the kind in the kingdom.
[1] Concangium, Not. Imp.
[2] This passage is now widened; and a new street has been opened from near the centre of the town, to the river side, which has much improved the road through it for carriages.
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