Page:Men of the Time, eleventh edition.djvu/668

 KENDAL.

651

Rural Dean of the diocese. Mr. Kempe has published lectures on the Book of Job, and on Elijah; occasional sermons, and prefaces to lectures delivered in St. James's Church on "The Use and Abuse of the World/' "Companions for the Devout Life," and "Classic Preachers of the English Church." These lectures^ preached for several successive years at the Sunday afternoon services of St. James's, during the London season, have attrac^d great interest and atten- tion. During Mr. Kempe's incum- bency of St. Jameses, considerable additions have been made to the church accommodation of the parish, and large sums have been raised for this purpose, and for the endow- ment of the daughter churches. The subdivision of the parish into district parishes has been the lead- ing feature of Mr. Eempe's admin- iskution. He is considered to have rendered g^eat service to the Ang- lican Church in general, and espe- cially to its cause in London, by having established, and conducted as President, for many years, monthly conferences, at which clergy and laity meet for the dis- cussion of Church questions. It might not be too much to say that to these conferences may be traced much of the impulse which has given rise to Church Congresses, Diocesan Synods, and other gather- ings of Churchmen for the inter- change of thought and the pro- motion of brotherly intercourse amongst different schools of opinion. Mr. Kempe is also the founder of the St. James's Diocesan Home for Femide Penitents, for which a fine building, with a beautiful chapel, has been erected on the episcopal estate at Fulham ; and he was one of Bishop Tait's principal coimsel- lors and coadjutors in the origina- tion and earlier working of the Bishop of London's Fund. The name of "the Bishop of London's Fund," which certainly contributed to the success of the movement^

was suggested by him. In 1866 Mr. Kempe was offered the Bishop- ric of Calcutta by Lord Cranbome (now Marquis of Salisbury), who was then Indian Minister, but declined it for family reasons.

KENDAL, Mbs. MAsaABBT Bbunton, actress, long known to the public as " Madge " Bobertson, and more recently as the wife of Mr. William Hunter Kendal {veri Orimston), the actor, was born at Great Grimsby, Lincolnshire, Mar. 15, 1849. Her grandfather, her father, and her unde, were all actors, playing in what was. then known as the Lincolnshire circuit. Miss Bobertson's d4but in London was made on July 29, 1865, when she appeared at the Haymarket as "Ophelia" to the "Hamlet" of Walter Montgomery; and in the following month she played at the same theatre " Desdemona " to the " OtheUo " of Ira Aldridge. After this she went into the couniary, and, for about eighteen months, fulfilled engagements at the theatres in Nottmgham and Hull. In 1867 Miss Bobertson returned to town, appearing at Drury Lane on Easter Monday as "Edith" in Andrew Halliday's " Great City." On March 14, 1868, she made her first decided success in the metropolis, as "Blanche Dumont"in Dr. West- land Marston's " Hero of Bomance," which was performed for the first time on that occasion, at the Hay- market theatre. In July of that year she acted, at the same theatre, the part of " Hypolita " in Cibber's " She Would ajid She Would Not." From thence she went to the Gaiety theatre, appearing there on Dec. 21, in "On the Cards," and in March of the following year (1869), as " Lady Clara Vere de Vere " in her brotiier's little-known comedy of " Dreams." It was in this year (Aug. 7, 1869) that Miss Bobertson was married to Mr. William Hunter Grimston, who on the stage is known by his assumed name of Kendal. In the ensuing five years