appears that the Kendal folk were quick
in taking a hint; for soon after this, there
was a knitting of woollen hose proceeding in
thousands of dwellings. This may seem like
exaggeration; but if the local records be true,
the quantity of stockings sold weekly at the
Kendal market, one hundred years ago, was
about three thousand pairs. The hosiers used
to set out on their rounds at stated times;
going to the principal markets to give out
worsted, and to receive the finished goods.
This amount of knitting may be more easily
believed when we find that the number of
pack-horses employed to carry out Kendal
goods, before wagons were established, was
above three hundred per week. One would
like to know who, of all the people about the
King when he came to Kendal Castle,
examined his new silk stockings from Spain,
and gave out the idea from which sprang all
this industry, and all the comfort that it
spread through the northern dales.

Meantime, the Kendal cottons were going
beyond sea. They had lost favour at home
before they were sent to clothe the negroes in
Virginia. Raleigh's tobacco was a fine thing
for Kendal. The more tobacco, the more
slaves; the more slaves, the more Kendal
cloth wanted for their wear. It was the
American war which stopped the manufacture
at last. Before the war was over, Yorkshire
had got the start in regard to quality, owing
to the introduction of improved machinery.
The "cottons" descended in dignity— being
used at last for horse-cloths, floor-cloths,
scouring cloths (sometimes called "dwiles").
At last, the manufacture was admitted on all
hands to have sunk below that of the linsey-woolsey
(mixed linen and woollen), which had
been rising for some years. Cotton fabrics
were as yet scarcely heard of; almost all
the Welsh, and multitudes of the Scotch and
English working-classes, were dressed in
linsey-woolsey—as indeed they are still.
Between three and four hundred weavers are
at this day employed in Kendal, in the
manufacture of linsey-woolseys—all, of the
old patterns that were preferred hundreds of
years ago. The patterns and colours are
various; more than could be supposed
possible without inspecting the manufacturer's
pattern-book; more than would be supposed
possible in a material which is simply striped,
and of which one pattern alone is
required in any one locality. This local
prevalence is the most curious feature of the case.
The farmers' wives who wear the blue and
black stripe, would not look at a pattern of
the blue and red, which is exclusively worn a
dozen miles off; and the neighbours who
wear red and white, have a new red and
white petticoat every three years or so, and
will not hear of the red and black, which are
the boast of the next county. The Glasgow
sale is large; but it would stop at once if the
good wives could have only the pattern which
is worn on the shores of the Solway; and on
the two banks of the Mersey, the linsey-
woolseys are as distinct in their colours as
the plaids of the Highland clans—without
the same reasons—with no other reason than
antique custom. There is something
bewitching in this fragment of permanency, in
the midst of the changes which are going on
in everything but costume. The manufacturers,
however, are shaking their heads,
fearing that the Exhibition has "done them
harm," by giving people the idea of new
patterns. So the world marches on!

Change in abundance may be found side by
side with this steady adherence to old custom.
Railway rugs—a new article—are in great
request, and the manufacture is increasing
prodigiously. So is that of "trousering." The
checked, and striped, and mottled trousers,
that we see everywhere, come chiefly from
Kendal; and so does a large proportion of
the horse-cloths, and serge, and the checked
and mottled woollen of which miners' shirts
are made. Mr. Tremenheere's Reports tell
us sad stories of the colliers putting on clean
Sunday shirts for six months together, without
ever washing the skin beneath; and those
who have acquaintance with Staffordshire
colliers, know too well the spectacle of the
throat plastered and ingrained with coaldust,
which shows itself above the shirt
collar; but, however it may be with the
wearer, the shirt washes well; and there is
so much comfort in it, that one cannot wonder
that miners' custom remains steady to Kendal
fabrics, instead of wandering to Manchester.

The great manufacture of Kendal, however,
is carpets; and this, though the wages of
linsey-weavers are said to be a good deal
higher. For the weaving of linseys, the
wages rise from ten shillings to twenty-five
shillings per week; whereas for carpet-weaving,
they vary from twelve shillings to twenty
shillings. A carpet-weaver can earn, by such
excessive labour as no man ought to undergo,
as much as sixty shillings in a week, at piece-
work; but the fair average may be stated at
sixteen shillings, while the average of linsey-
weaving is seventeen shillings and sixpence.
But the linsey-weavers are employed for only
eight months out of the twelve; whereas the
carpet manufacture is steady. The collective
woollen manufacture employs about a third
of the population of Kendal. Happily, their
wages are not their only resource. In this
old-fashioned place, the land is not all
appropriated; and almost every cottage has a
garden,- and a good-sized one. Men who
have not gardens at home, look out for and
obtain them, in order to grow all the
vegetables that they want. Some hire land of the
farmers, who are glad to let them have it for
potato grounds, for the sake of the capital
manuring and breaking up by the spade,
which is thus obtained. The farmers lend
the manure and the produce, and the tenants
supply the seed, the manure (which they
purchase from the town), and the cultivation;