one day occasion to stop at Congleton, he met, at the Swan inn there,
one Warburton, a capital farmer, who lived about a mile distant. This
man was remarkable for sporting large sums in various ways, and no
sooner saw Metcalf, than he accosted him thus: “I understand that you
play at cards.”—Metcalf replied, “Sometimes, but not often;” being
much surprised that a stranger should know he had that propensity.
Warburton offered to play him for five or ten pounds, the best of five
games at put; but this he thought fit to decline: in the presence of
his friends he would not have feared to play for twenty; but being
in a strange place, and having a large undertaking relative to the
turnpikes, he concluded that it would be highly imprudent to game. The
farmer, however, persisting in his desire for play, Metcalf, after a
little consideration, determined to try the effect of ridicule on his
new acquaintance, saying, “I have not now time; but if you will meet me
here this day fortnight, I will play you, the best of five games, for
a leg of mutton, four-pennyworth of cabbage, and five shillings worth
of punch.” The farmer, pleased with any prospect of engaging him,
agreed to the wager, and insisted that the money should be deposited
with the landlord; which was accordingly done. During the interval,
Warburton spread the story of his engagement to play with a blind
man; and, thinking it a good joke, invited many of his friends to the
entertainment. Metcalf came at the time fixed, having first engaged
a friend from Buxton to accompany him, whose chief business it was
to see that his adversary did not play tricks with the cards. Three
guineas to two were offered to be laid on Warburton; and Metcalf’s
friend observing this, expressed a wish to take the odds, if agreeable
to him: to this, Metcalf replied, that he meant only to amuse himself
by playing for mutton and cabbage; and, that if any sums were laid, he
would forfeit his wager. When all parties were assembled, Metcalf, out
of joke, proposed to his adversary to club for all the articles, and
treat the company; but this he positively refused, alledging that he
had collected his friends for the purpose of seeing the match played.
On this, Metcalf called to the landlord for a fiddle, and playing on it
for a little while, was asked by the farmer what he meant: “To enable
you,” said he, “to tell your children, that when you played with a
blind man, you _played to some tune_!” They then went into a large
room, and were followed by a crowd of people, amongst whom were two
Justices of the Peace, and several clergymen. The game now began, and
Metcalf won the two first; his adversary got the third, and pulling
out his purse, offered to lay five guineas on the rubber: this was a
tickling offer to Metcalf, but having resolved against playing for
money, he made shift to overcome the temptation. Metcalf won the next
game; and, of course, the rubber. On this the farmer laid a large sum
on the table, and offered to play for the amount; but Metcalf would
only play for liquor, for the good of the company. The farmer agreeing,
they began again, and Metcalf presently won two games, when a gentleman
present shewed a great desire to play with him for money, but in vain;
so winning this rubber also, he saddled his antagonist with the whole
score, and not satisfied with the triumph already gained, began to
banter him sorely on his _childish_ manner of playing, and telling him,
that when the road work should cease for the Christmas holidays, he
would come to his house, and teach him to play like a _man_.
The quantity of liquor yet to come in being large, detained many of the
company until five in the morning; and Warburton, who had got pretty
drunk, by way of comfort, declared before parting, that of twenty-two
fine cows, he would rather have lost the best, than have been beaten so
publicly.
Metcalf apprehending that he might now be solicited by many to engage
in play, and considering the importance of his other engagements,
called aside Mr. Rolle, the surveyor of the road, and begged of him to
give sixpence, upon condition of receiving five pounds, if he (Metcalf)
should play any more at cards for eighteen months, the time allotted to
finish the road. Mr. Rolle approving highly of this, they returned to
the company, and Metcalf making the proposal, received the surveyor’s
sixpence publicly; and thus put an end to all further importunity.
Here Metcalf finds it his duty to suspend, for a while, his road-making
narrative, to introduce, for the last time, the mention of the
much-loved Partner of his cares, whom he had brought into Cheshire,
and left at Stockport, that she might avail herself of the medical
advice of a person there, famed for the cure of rheumatic complaints,
of which description her’s was thought to be:—But human aid proving
ineffectual, she there died, in the summer 1778, after thirty-nine
years of conjugal felicity, which was never interrupted but by her
illness or his occasional absence.
In his treatment of her, Metcalf never lost sight of the original
distinction in their circumstances, always indulging her to the utmost
that his own would allow; but she had no unreasonable desires to
gratify. She died in the sixty-first year of her age, leaving four
children; and was buried in Stockport church-yard.
In 1781 the road between Wetherby and Knaresborough was let.—He
undertook that part which led through Ribston and Kirk-Deighten, till
it joined the great North road, leading from Boroughbridge to Wetherby;
and also built two toll-houses upon the road; and received about three
hundred and eighty pounds.
Metcalf had a daughter married in Cheshire, to a person in the stocking
business. The manufacturers in this line, in the neighbourhood of
Stockport, talked of getting loads of money; and Metcalf thought that
he would have a portion of it also: he accordingly got six jennies and
a carding engine made, with other utensils proper for the business;
bought a quantity of cotton, and spun yarn for sale, as several others
did in the country. But it cost him much trouble and expence, before
he got all his utensils fixed: the speculation, likewise failed; and
a time came when no yarn could be sold without loss. Then Metcalf
got looms, and other implements proper for weaving calicoes, jeans,
and velverets:—for having made the cotton business an object of
particular attention, he was become very well acquainted with the
various branches of it. He got a quantity of calicoes whitened and
printed, his velverets cut, dyed, &c. and having spun up all his
cotton, he set off with about eight hundred yards of finished goods,
intending to sell them in Yorkshire, which he did at Knaresborough and
in the neighbourhood; and his son-in-law was to employ his jennies
until he came back. On his return, coming to Marsden near Huddersfield,
where he had made a road some years before, he found that there was
to be a meeting, to let the making of a mile and an half of road, and
the building of a bridge over; the river that runs by the town, so as
to leave the former road, in order to avoid the steepness of a hill.
At the persuasion of some of his friends, he staid till the meeting,
and agreed with the trustees. The bridge was to be twelve yards in the
span, and nine yards in breadth. These too he completed, and received
a thousand pounds; but the season being wet, and the ground over which
he had to bring his materials very swampy, and at a distance from the
road, he lost considerably by it.
In 1789 he was informed that there was a great quantity of road to be
let in Lancashire: he accordingly went, and took a part between Bury
and Eslington, and another part from Eslington to Ackrington; as also
a branch from that to Blackburn. There were such hollows to fill, and
hills to be taken down, to form the level, as was never done before:
in several of the hollows the walls were ten yards high, before the
battlements were put on the top. He had two summers allowed to finish
this work in; but the trade in Lancashire being brisk, made wages very
high, and the navigation at that time cutting through the country so
employed the men, that it was a very difficult matter to procure a
sufficiency of hands. The first summer the rains were so perpetual,
that he lost about two hundred pounds; but in the next he completed the
whole work, and received by the hands of Mr. Carr of Blackburn three
thousand five hundred pounds; and, after all, was forty pounds loser by
it.
In the year 1792 he returned into Yorkshire; and having no engagement
to employ his attention, he bought hay to sell again, measuring the
stacks with his arms; and having learnt the height, he could readily
tell what number of square yards were contained, from five to one
hundred pounds value. Sometimes he bought a little wood standing;
and if he could get the girth and height, would calculate the solid
contents.
From that period he has settled on a small holding at Spofforth, near
Wetherby; and his house is kept by a daughter and son-in-law.
At Christmas, 1794, he paid a visit to the present Colonel Thornton,
and his mother, at Thornville-Royal; and the reception he met with was
such as fully reminded him of former days at Old Thornville, where he
had spent many Christmasses. The truly respectable Relict, and the
worthy Representative, of his late Commander, always receive Blind Jack
with a condescending affability, highly flattering to one in his humble
station.
Having known the streets of York very accurately in the earlier part of
his life, he determined, on the commencement of the last year, to visit
once more that ancient city, where he had not been for the space of
thirty-two years: He found alterations for the better in Spurriergate,
Blakestreet, the Pavement, &c. and being now in the neighbourhood of
Middlethorp, where he had, in the year 1735, spent a half-year so
happily, he resolved to have another _look_ at it, in the possession
of its present worthy master. From Mr. Barlow’s house there is a road
which leads to Bishopthorpe; and this road he clearly recollected,
though sixty years had elapsed since he had gone that way before:
so retentive was his memory on this occasion, that he discovered an
alteration in the hanging of two gates by a wall-side near the above
mansion. At Mr. Barlow’s he staid several nights, which, he scarcely
need add, were spent most agreeably, he endeavouring to make his fiddle
speak the satisfaction and hilarity felt by its owner. Returning to
York, he spent a few nights at the house of another friend; and setting
out on the 10th of January, 1795, he walked to Green Hammerton, in his
way to Thornville-Royal, in about three hours and an half, being ten
miles; proceeded to Thornville that night, and to Knaresborough next
morning the 10th, which being the birth-day of Sir Thomas Slingsby’s
eldest son, and which was kept with the utmost festivity, he resolved
to spend at the worthy Baronet’s. Here he closed the festive season
of Christmas, after a tour of some weeks amongst his friends;—to
whom, in particular, he submits, with the utmost deference, this
imperfect Sketch of a LIFE, with which only can terminate his grateful
remembrance of their numerous favours.
_FINIS._
Transcriber’s Notes.
1. Silently corrected simple spelling, grammar, and typographical
errors.
2. Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.
3. For clarity the l. s. d. currency symbols have been _italicised_.