Volume 2

Portraits and lives of remarkable and eccentric characters.

Date:
[1819?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Portraits and lives of remarkable and eccentric characters. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    213/332 (page 167)
    JOHN METCALF, THE BLIND SPORTSMAN OF KNARESBOROUGH. This extraordinary man was born at Knares* borough, in Yorkshire, August 13th, 1717, amt lost his sight when he was four years of age. Being instructed to play on the violin, he at¬ tended as a musician at the Queen’s-head, High Harrowgate, for many years, and was the first person who set up a wheel-carriage for the conveyance of company to and from the places of public resort in the neighbourhood. In 1745, he engaged to serve as a musician in Colonel Thorn¬ ton’s volunteers, and narrowly escaped being taken prisoner at the battle of Falkirk. He was afterwards taken as a Scotch spy, tried by a court-martial, and acquitted. Being soon re¬ leased, he returned to Knaresborough, and com- « menced common carrier between that town and York; frequently acting as a guide in intricate roads during the night, or when the tracts were covered with snow. No person was more eager l 2