Ken’s poetical works were published in collected form in four volumes by W. Hawkins, his relative and executor, in 1721; his prose 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.
[1] The fact, however, that in 1712—only a year after Ken’s death—his publisher, Brome, published the hymn with the opening words “All praise,” has been deemed by such a high authority as the 1st earl of Selborne sufficient evidence that the alteration had Ken’s authority.
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).