Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/316

 easy-going habits prevented him from saving money. He afterwards moved his school to Turriff at the invitation of the Countess of Erroll, whose brother, the twelfth Earl of Erroll, had been chancellor of King's College, Aberdeen, when Meston was regent at Marischal College. Meston, who was treated very kindly by the countess, was again successful until, several years afterwards, one of his pupils was nearly killed in a duel. This incident, though Meston was in no way to blame, led to the downfall of his academy. He then tried to establish schools at Montrose and Perth, and afterwards was tutor to the children of Mr. Oliphant of Gask. There he remained some years, until ill-health caused him to go to Peterhead to drink the mineral waters. Subsequently he was again supported by the Countess of Erroll, and finally moving to Aberdeen, was cared for by some relatives until his death there in the spring of 1745. He was buried, without any inscription, in the Spittal churchyard of Old Aberdeen. He seems to have been a good scholar and a wit and pleasant companion: but he was too fond of the bottle. He was a great admirer of Samuel Butler; and in his verses, which are often coarse, he sometimes plagiarises or quotes from his model.

Meston's poems were first published in collected form, with a life, at Edinburgh in 1767, though the book is called 'sixth edition' on the title-page; and they were re-printed, without the Latin pieces, at Aberdeen in 1802. The several poems originally appeared anonymously as follows:
 * 1) 'Phaethon, or the first Fable of the second Book of Ovid's Metamorphoses burlesqu'd,' Edinburgh, 1720.
 * 2) 'The Knight of the Kirk,' Edinburgh, 1723; reprinted in London with corrections in 1728. This, the best of Meston's pieces, and perhaps the best of the imitations of 'Hudibras,' is a satire upon the presbyterians.
 * 3) 'Mob contra Mob, or the Rabblers rabbled,' Edinburgh, 1731.
 * 4) 'Old Mother Grim's Tales, Decade I,' London, 1737.
 * 5) 'Decadem Alteram . . . subjunxit Jodocus Grimmus,' London, 1738.
 * 6) 'Viri humani, salsi et faceti, Gulielmi Sutherlandi &hellip; Diploma,' n.p. or d., sometimes attributed to Arbuthnot.

 METCALF, JOHN (1717–1810), commonly known as Blind Jack of Knaresborough,' was born at Knaresborough, of poor parents, on 15 Aug. 1717. When six years old he lost his sight as a consequence of a severe attack of small-pox, but his self-confidence was uninjured, and he soon excelled most boys of his age in performances which require activity and daring. He was taught the fiddle, so that he might obtain a subsistence as a strolling musician, then regarded as the sole occupation open to a blind man, but Jack Metcalf had more natural taste for the cry of a hound or a harrier.' He became a good rider and swimmer, led nesting and orchard-robbing expeditions, distinguished himself as a diver, a cock-fighter, and in the hunting-field. He was soon known, moreover, as a gallant, as a wag, a successful card-player, and a shrewd dealer in horses. By 1738, when he attained the age of twenty-one, he was barely under six feet two inches in height, extremely robust, and ready- tongued. He rode several races with success, and desired to become a jockey. In 1739 he surprised the country-side by eloping with a publican's daughter named Dorothy Benson, on the night before her marriage with a certain Dickinson, and he married her the next morning, before the disconsolate Dickinson had obtained a clue to her whereabouts. He took a small house at Knaresborough, and seems to have been a model husband, though his exploits grew more and more daring. He walked to London and back, easily outstripping the coach of one of his patrons, Colonel Liddel, on the return journey. In 1745 he became recruiting-sergeant on the king's side, and enlisted 140 Knaresborough men with extraordinary rapidity. Sixty-four of the men were drafted into a company formed by William Thornton, and marched, with Blind Jack playing at their head, to Newcastle, where, by General Wade's orders, they were incorporated in Pulteney's regiment. Metcalf fought at and escaped from the battle of Falkirk. He afterwards fiddled at a ball given at Aberdeen by the Duke of Cumberland, who 'spoke him fair,' and gave him two guineas, and he was present at Culloden. After returning to Knaresborough he engaged in horse-dealing at Harrogate, being an excellent judge of horseflesh, entirely by touch. He also traded in cotton and worsted goods, and did a vigorous stroke of smuggling (chiefly brandy and tea) whenever occasion offered. In 1750 he made good profits out of some military transport work, and in 1754 commenced a new business, setting up a stage-coach between York and Knaresborough, which he conducted himself twice a week in summer and once in winter. He also bought and sold timber and hay in the stack, measuring with 