Page:EB1911 - Volume 15.djvu/761

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KENNINGTON—KENSINGTON
733


lectiones of De Rossi, published some years later, was important. It showed that the Hebrew text can be emended only by the use of the versions aided by conjecture.

Kennicott’s work was perpetuated by his widow, who founded two university scholarships at Oxford for the study of Hebrew. The fund yields an income of £200 per annum.


KENNINGTON, a district in the south of London, England, within the municipal borough of Lambeth. There was a royal palace here until the reign of Henry VII. Kennington Common, now represented by Kennington Park, was the site of a gallows until the end of the 18th century, and was the meeting-place appointed for the great Chartist demonstration of the 10th of April 1848. Kennington Oval is the ground of the Surrey County Cricket Club. (See Lambeth.)


KENORA (formerly Rat Portage), a town and port of entry in Ontario, Canada, and the chief town of Rainy River district, situated at an altitude of 1087 ft. above the sea. Pop. (1891), 1806; (1901) 5222. It is 133 m. by rail east of Winnipeg, on the Canadian Pacific railway, and at the outlet of the Lake of the Woods. The Winnipeg river has at this point a fall of 16 ft., which, with the lake as a reservoir, furnishes an abundant and unfailing water-power. The industrial establishments comprise reduction works, saw-mills and flour-mills, one of the latter being the largest in Canada. It is the distributing point for the gold mines of the district, and during the summer months steamboat communication is maintained on the lake. There is important sturgeon fishing.


KENOSHA, a city and the county-seat of Kenosha county, Wisconsin, U.S.A., on the S.W. shore of Lake Michigan, 35 m. S. of Milwaukee and 50 m. N. of Chicago. Pop. (1900), 11,606, of whom 3333 were foreign-born; (1910), 21,371. It is served by the Chicago & North-Western railway, by interurban electric lines connecting with Chicago and Milwaukee, and by freight and passenger steamship lines on Lake Michigan. It has a good harbour and a considerable lake commerce. The city is finely situated on high bluffs above the lake, and is widely known for its healthiness. At Kenosha is the Gilbert M. Simmons library, with 19,300 volumes in 1908. Just south of the city is Kemper Hall, a Protestant Episcopal school for girls, under the charge of the Sisters of St Mary, opened in 1870 as a memorial to Jackson Kemper (1789–1870), the first missionary bishop (1835–1859), and the first bishop of Wisconsin (1854–1870) of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Among Kenosha’s manufactures are brass and iron beds (the Simmons Manufacturing Co.), mattresses, typewriters, leather and brass goods, wagons, and automobiles—the “Rambler” automobile being made at Kenosha by Thomas B. Jeffery and Co. There is an extensive sole-leather tannery. The total value of the factory product in 1905 was $12,362,600, the city ranking third in product value among the cities of the state. Kenosha, originally known as Southport, was settled about 1832, organized as the village of Southport in 1842, and chartered in 1850 as a city under its present name.


KENSETT, JOHN FREDERICK (1818–1872), American artist, was born in Cheshire, Connecticut, on the 22nd of March 1818. After studying engraving he went abroad, took up painting, and exhibited at the Royal Academy, London, in 1845. In 1849 he was elected to the National Academy of Design, New York, and in 1859 he was appointed a member of the committee to superintend the decoration of the United States Capitol at Washington, D.C. After his death the contents of his studio realized at public auction over $150,000. He painted landscapes more or less in the manner of the Hudson River School.


KENSINGTON, a western metropolitan borough of London, England, bounded N.E. by Paddington, and the city of Westminster, S.E. by Chelsea, S.W. by Fulham, N.W. by Hammersmith, and extending N. to the boundary of the county of London. Pop. (1901), 176,628. It includes the districts of Kensal Green (partly) in the north, Notting Hill in the north-central portion, Earl’s Court in the south-west, and Brompton in the south-east. A considerable but indefinite area adjoining Brompton is commonly called South Kensington; but the area known as West Kensington is within the borough of Fulham.

The name appears in early forms as Chenesitun and Kenesitune. Its origin is obscure, and has been variously connected with a Saxon royal residence (King’s town), a family of the name of Chenesi, and the word caen, meaning wood, from the forest which originally covered the district and was still traceable in Tudor times. The most probable derivation, however, finds in the name a connection with the Saxon tribe or family of Kensings. The history of the manor is traceable from the time of Edward the Confessor, and after the Conquest it was held of the Bishop of Coutances by Aubrey de Vere. Soon after this it became the absolute property of the de Veres, who were subsequently created Earls of Oxford. The place of the manorial courts is preserved in the name of the modern district of Earl’s Court. With a few short intervals the manor continued in the direct line until Tudor times. There were also three sub-manors, one given by the first Aubrey de Vere early in the 12th century to the Abbot of Abingdon, whence the present parish church is called St Mary Abbots; while in another, Knotting Barnes, the origin of the name Notting Hill is found.

The brilliant period of history for which Kensington is famous may be dated from the settlement of the Court here by William III. The village, as it was then, had a reputation for healthiness through its gravel soil and pure atmosphere. A mansion standing on the western flank of the present Kensington Gardens had been the seat of Heneage Finch, Lord Chancellor and afterwards Earl of Nottingham. It was known as Nottingham House, but when bought from the second earl by William, who was desirous of avoiding residence in London as he suffered from asthma, it became known as Kensington Palace. The extensive additions and alterations made by Wren according to the taste of the King resulted in a severely plain edifice of brick; the orangery, added in Queen Anne’s time, is a better example of the same architect’s work. In the palace died Mary, William’s consort, William himself, Anne and George II., whose wife Caroline did much to beautify Kensington Gardens, and formed the beautiful lake called the Serpentine (1733). But a higher interest attaches to the palace as the birthplace of Queen Victoria in 1819; and here her accession was announced to her. By her order, towards the close of her life, the palace became open to the public.

Modern influences, one of the most marked of which is the widespread erection of vast blocks of residential flats, have swept away much that was reminiscent of the historical connexions of the “old court suburb.” Kensington Square, however, lying south of High Street in the vicinity of St Mary Abbots church, still preserves some of its picturesque houses, nearly all of which were formerly inhabited by those attached to the court; it numbered among its residents Addison, Talleyrand, John Stuart Mill, and Green the historian. In Young Street, opening from the Square, Thackeray lived for many years. His house here, still standing, is most commonly associated with his work, though he subsequently moved to Onslow Square and to Palace Green. Another link with the past is found in Holland House, hidden in its beautiful park north of Kensington Road. It was built by Sir Walter Cope, lord of the manor, in 1607, and obtained its present name on coming into the possession of Henry Rich, earl of Holland, through his marriage with Cope’s daughter. He extended and beautified the mansion. General Fairfax and General Lambert are mentioned as occupants after his death, and later the property was let, William Penn of Pennsylvania being among those who leased it. Addison, marrying the widow of the 6th earl, lived here until his death in 1719. During the tenancy of Henry Fox, third Lord Holland (1773–1840), the house gained a European reputation as a meeting-place of statesmen and men of letters. The formal gardens of Holland House are finely laid out, and the rooms of the house are both beautiful in themselves and enriched with collections of pictures, china and tapestries. Famous houses no longer standing were Campden House, in the district north-west of the parish church, formerly known as the Gravel Pits; and Gore House, on the site