his arms and rapidly reducing cubic contents to feet and inches, after a mental process of his own.
Metcalf's travels had given him an unrivalled familiarity with the northern roads. He knew how bad they were, and how their worst features could best be remedied. He now became a pioneer road-maker and bridge-builder, and one of the chief predecessors of Telford and Macadam. In 1765 parliament passed an act authorising the construction of a new turnpike-road between Harrogate and Boroughbridge. Metcalf offered to construct three miles of the proposed road, between Minskip and Fearnsby. and the master-surveyor, Ostler, who knew him well and had the greatest confidence in his abilities, let him the contract. Metcalf devoted himself wholly to the new undertaking. He completed his work with unusual speed and thoroughness, and, encouraged by success, undertook to build a bridge at Boroughbridge, which he again completed satisfactorily. His success led to his constant employment on similar work during a period of more than thirty years. The total mileage of the turnpike-roads constructed by him, involving the building of many bridges, retaining walls, and culverts, was about 180 miles, for which he received not less than 65,000l. Among his roads were those between Wakefield and Doncaster, Huddersfield and Halifax, Ashton and Stockport, and Bury and Blackburn. The Huddersfield and Manchester road was carried by him, over a bog which had been thought quite impracticable.
In all these undertakings Metcalf took an active personal share. A contemporary writes: 'With the assistance only of a long staff, I have several times met this man traversing the roads, ascending steep and rugged heights, exploring valleys, and investigating their several extents, forms, and situations, so as to answer his designs in the best manner. The plans which he makes and the estimates which he prepares are done in a method peculiar to himself, and of which he cannot well convey the meaning to others. His abilities in this respect are nevertheless so great that he finds constant employment. Most of the roads over the Peak in Derbyshire have been altered by his directions… I have met this blind projector while engaged in making his survey. He was alone as usual, and amongst other conversation I made some enquiries respecting the new road [from Wilmslow to Congleton]. It was really astonishing to hear with what accuracy he described its course and the nature of the different soils through which it was conducted' (Bew, Observations on Blindness).
He finally relinquished road-making in 1792, and, after an unsuccessful venture in the cotton business, retired to a small farm at Spofforth, near Wetherby. He retained his shrewd mother-wit and resolute spirit to the last, and dying on 26 April 1810, at Follifoot, near Knaresborough, was buried at Spofforth. An epitaph in All Saints churchyard bears a well written inscription in heroic verse (quoted in Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. vi. 323). He was ninety-three years of age at the time of his death, and left behind him ninety great-grandchildren. Mrs. Metcalf died at Stockport in 1778.
[The best account of Metcalf, doing full justice to his value as a road-maker, is that in Smiles's Telford, 1867, pp. 74–94 (with portrait and cuts of his birthplace and farm at Spofforth); Life of John Metcalf, York, 1795 (with portrait after J. R. Smith); another edition (with portrait engraved by Pigot), Manchester, 1826; Life of Blind Jack of Knaresborough in Baring-Gould's Yorkshire Oddities, i. 120–76 (mainly based on chap-books); Gent. Mag. 1810, i. 597; Spencer Walpole's Hist. of England, i. 73–4; Memoirs of Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, i. 172–4; Hargrove's Hist. of Knaresborough, 1809; Calvert's Hist. of Knaresborough, 1844, p. 104; Boynes's Yorkshire Library, p. 246.]
METCALFE, CHARLES THEOPHILUS, Baron Metcalfe (1785–1846), provisional governor-general of India, born at the Lecture House, Calcutta, on 30 Jan. 1785, was second son of Thomas Theophilus Metcalfe, then a major in the Bengal army. The father afterwards became a director of the East India Company, and was created a baronet on 21 Dec. 1802. Metcalfe's mother was Susannah Selina Sophia, widow of Major John Smith of the East Indian army, and daughter of John Debonnaire of the Cape of Good Hope. At an early age he was sent to a preparatory school at Bromley in Middlesex, and in January 1796 went to Eton, where he showed remarkable powers of application, and a great distaste for all athletic sports. Leaving Eton on 1 April 1800, he was appointed to a Bengal writer-ship on 13 Oct., and in January 1801 arrived at Calcutta. He was the first student admitted to Lord Wellesley's College of Fort William, where he studied oriental languages with some success. On 3 Dec. 1801 he was nominated assistant to the embassy to the Arab States, an appointment which was cancelled a few days afterwards at his own request for that of assistant to the resident with Dowlut Rao Scindiah. Metcalfe's connection with Scindiah's court was, however, brief, as he soon found that he was unable
