works were issued in 1838 in one volume, under the editorship of
J. T. Round. A brief memoir was prefixed by Hawkins to a selection
from Ken’s works which he published in 1713; and a life, in two
volumes, by the Rev. W. L. Bowles, appeared in 1830. But the
standard biographies of Ken are those of J. Lavicount Anderdon
(The Life of Thomas Ken, Bishop of Bath and Wells, by a Layman,
1851; 2nd ed., 1854) and of Dean Plumptre (2 vols., 1888; revised,
1890). See also the Rev. W. Hunt’s article in the Dict. Nat. Biog.
KEN, a river of Northern India, tributary to the Jumna on its right bank, flowing through Bundelkhand. An important reservoir in its upper basin, which impounds about 180 million cubic feet of water, irrigates about 374,000 acres in a region specially liable to drought.
KENA, or Keneh (sometimes written Qina), a town of Upper
Egypt on a canal about a mile E. of the Nile and 380 m. S.S.E.
of Cairo by rail. Pop. (1907), 20,069. Kena, the capital of a
province of the same name, was called by the Greeks Caene or
Caenepolis (probably the Νέη πόλις of Herodotus; see Akhmim)
in distinction from Coptos (q.v.), 15 m. S., to whose trade it
eventually succeeded. It is a remarkable fact that its modern
name should be derived from a purely Greek word, like Iskenderia
from Alexandria, and Nekrāsh from Naucratis; in the absence
of any known Egyptian name it seems to point to Kena having
originated in a foreign settlement in connexion with the Red Sea
trade. It is a flourishing town, specially noted for the manufacture
of the porous water jars and bottles used throughout Egypt.
The clay for making them is obtained from a valley north of
Kena. The pottery is sent down the Nile in specially constructed
boats. Kena is also known for the excellence of the dates sold
in its bazaars and for the large colony of dancing girls who live
there. It carries on a trade in grain and dates with Arabia, via
Kosseir on the Red Sea, 100 m. E. in a direct line. This inconsiderable
traffic is all that is left of the extensive commerce
formerly maintained—chiefly via Berenice and Coptos—between
Upper Egypt and India and Arabia. The road to Kosseir is
one of great antiquity. It leads through the valley of Hammāmāt,
celebrated for its ancient breccia quarries and deserted
gold mines. During the British operations in Egypt in 1801
Sir David Baird and his force marched along this road to Kena,
taking sixteen days on the journey from Kosseir.
KENDAL, DUKEDOM OF. The English title of duke of
Kendal was first bestowed in May 1667 upon Charles (d. 1667),
the infant son of the duke of York, afterwards James II.
Several persons have been created earl of Kendal, among them
being John, duke of Bedford, son of Henry IV.; John Beaufort,
duke of Somerset (d. 1444); and Queen Anne’s husband, George,
prince of Denmark.
In 1719 Ehrengarde Melusina (1667–1743), mistress of the English king George I., was created duchess of Kendal. This lady was the daughter of Gustavus Adolphus, count of Schulenburg (d. 1691), and was born at Emden on the 25th of December 1667. Her father held important positions under the elector of Brandenburg; her brother Matthias John (1661–1747) won great fame as a soldier in Germany and was afterwards commander-in-chief of the army of the republic of Venice. Having entered the household of Sophia, electress of Hanover, Melusina attracted the notice of her son, the future king, whose mistress she became about 1690. When George crossed over to England in 1714, the “Schulenburgin,” as Sophia called her, followed him and soon supplanted her principal rival, Charlotte Sophia, Baroness von Kilmannsegge (c. 1673–1725), afterwards countess of Darlington, as his first favourite. In 1716 she was created duchess of Munster; then duchess of Kendal; and in 1723 the emperor Charles VI. made her a princess of the Empire. The duchess was very avaricious and obtained large sums of money by selling public offices and titles; she also sold patent rights, one of these being the privilege of supplying Ireland with a new copper coinage. This she sold to a Wolverhampton iron merchant named William Wood (1671–1730), who flooded the country with coins known as “Wood’s halfpence,” thus giving occasion for the publication of Swift’s famous Drapier’s Letters. In political matters she had much influence with the king, and she received £10,000 for procuring the recall of Bolingbroke from exile. After George’s death in 1727 she lived at Kendal House, Isleworth, Middlesex, until her death on the 10th of May 1743. The duchess was by no means a beautiful woman, and her thin figure caused the populace to refer to her as the “maypole.” By the king she had two daughters: Petronilla Melusina (c. 1693–1778), who was created countess of Walsingham in 1722, and who married the great earl of Chesterfield; and Margaret Gertrude, countess of Lippe (1703–1773).
KENDAL, WILLIAM HUNTER (1843–), English actor,
whose family name was Grimston, was born in London on the
16th of December 1843, the son of a painter. He made his first
stage appearance at Glasgow in 1862 as Louis XIV., in A Life’s
Revenge, billed as “Mr Kendall.” After some experience at
Birmingham and elsewhere, he joined the Haymarket company
in London in 1866, acting everything from burlesque to Romeo.
In 1869 he married Margaret (Madge) Shafto Robertson (b. 1849),
sister of the dramatist, T. W. Robertson. As “Mr and Mrs
Kendal” their professional careers then became inseparable.
Mrs Kendal’s first stage appearance was as Marie, “a child,”
in The Orphan of the Frozen Sea in 1854 in London. She soon
showed such talent both as actress and singer that she secured
numerous engagements, and by 1865 was playing Ophelia and
Desdemona. She was Mary Meredith in Our American Cousin
with Sothern, and Pauline to his Claud Melnotte. But her real
triumphs were at the Haymarket in Shakespearian revivals
and the old English comedies. While Mr Kendal played
Orlando, Charles Surface, Jack Absolute and Young Marlowe,
his wife made the combination perfect with her Rosalind, Lady
Teazle, Lydia Languish and Kate Hardcastle; and she created
Galatea in Gilbert’s Pygmalion and Galatea (1871). Short
seasons followed at the Court theatre and at the Prince of
Wales’s, at the latter of which they joined the Bancrofts in
Diplomacy and other plays. Then in 1879 began a long association
with Mr (afterwards Sir John) Hare as joint-managers of
the St James’s theatre, some of their notable successes being in
The Squire, Impulse, The Ironmaster and A Scrap of Paper. In
1888, however, the Hare and Kendal régime came to an end.
From that time Mr and Mrs Kendal chiefly toured in the
provinces and in America, with an occasional season at rare intervals
in London.
KENDAL, a market town and municipal borough in the
Kendal parliamentary division of Westmorland, England, 251 m.
N.N.W. from London on the Windermere branch of the London
& North-Western railway. Pop. (1901), 14,183. The town, the
full name of which is Kirkby-Kendal or Kirkby-in-Kendal, is
the largest in the county. It is picturesquely placed on the river
Kent, and is irregularly built. The white-walled houses with
their blue-slated roofs, and the numerous trees, give it an attractive
appearance. To the S.W. rises an abrupt limestone
eminence, Scout Scar, which commands an extensive view towards
Windermere and the southern mountains of the Lake District.
The church of the Holy Trinity, the oldest part of which dates
from about 1200, is a Gothic building with five aisles and a square
tower. In it is the helmet of Major Robert Philipson, who rode
into the church during service in search of one of Cromwell’s
officers, Colonel Briggs, to do vengeance on him. This major
was notorious as “Robin the Devil,” and his story is told in
Scott’s Rokeby. Among the public buildings are the town hall,
classic in style; the market house, and literary and scientific
institution, with a museum containing a fossil collection from the
limestone of the locality. Educational establishments include a
free grammar school, in modern buildings, founded in 1525 and
well endowed; a blue-coat school, science and art school, and
green-coat Sunday school (1813). On an eminence east of the town
are the ruins of Kendal castle, attributed to the first barons of
Kendal. It was the birthplace of Catherine Parr, Henry VIII.’s
last queen. On the Castlebrow Hill, an artificial mound probably
of pre-Norman origin, an obelisk was raised in 1788 in
memory of the revolution of 1688. The woollen manufactures
of Kendal have been noted since 1331, when Edward III. is said
to have granted letters of protection to John Kemp, a Flemish
weaver who settled in the town; and, although the coarse cloth
