Chapter IV: Part 4

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_.