ROMNEY'S HOUSE. The portrait painter George Romney, 1734 - 1802, served his apprenticeship in Kendal to Christopher Steele in a studio in Redman's Yard. He married Mary Abbot in Kendal Parish Church. After seven years he left for a career in London and became one of the foremost portrait painters of his day. In 1799 ill health brought him back to his wife who cared for him in this house until after his death.