When Shakespeare warned us that all that glistens is not gold, he bestowed upon our mother tongue a catchy little warning.

Had he come from Kendal he might, rather more prosaically, but equally accurately, have written that all grey stone is not limestone (Did You Know?, June 9, 2016).

So it is with the plinth upon which Kendal's war memorial soldier stands.

In keeping with its sobriety of purpose, the stone isn't polished, but if you respectfully tiptoe across the guard chain, it will reveal itself to be a very pale granite. And it has company, for the two sets of bollards protecting the memorial from errant road vehicles are also granites. The pale ones are wholly, and the dark ones partly, polished, making it easy to pick out their constituent minerals.

Although many might feel that limestone would have been more fitting, the quarries on Kendal Fell could not have produced a big enough single chunk, because of the nature of the rock.

Granites, by contrast, can usually yield sufficiently bulky pieces and, local sentiment notwithstanding, granite has a certain cachet attached to it - it represents high quality and durability, a sense of only the best being good enough for a project as prestigious as this.

The choice of a pale variety was, perhaps, a wise and sensitive nod in the direction of local sentiment, echoing as it does the subdued tones of the Auld Grey Town.

Geoff Brambles

Kendal