BLIND JACK OF KNARESBOROUGH. 



A BLIND sportsman ! One has heard of blind men doing 

 many strange things, and in spite of their loss of sight acquiring 

 many wonderful accomplishments ; but that a blind man — blind 

 too almost from his birth — should be an energetic and enthu- 

 siastic sportsman seems incredible. For what sport is there to 

 which the enjoyment of eyesight is not indispensable ? Never- 

 theless it is of a blind sportsjuan that we purpose giving the true 

 and remarkable history here. John Metcalf, the subject of our 

 sketch, better known among his contemporaries as ' Blind Jack 

 of Knaresborough,' was born at that town in the year 17 17. He 

 was attacked by smallpox at the age of six, and entirely lost his 

 eyesight. From that time to his death he was stone blind, though 

 it was only by looking closely at his face that one could discover 

 that, like Banquo's ghost, he ' had no speculation in those eyes 

 which he did glare with.' By the time John Metcalf was nine 

 years of age, he could find his way all over Knaresborough with- 

 out a guide, and blind though he was he was the most mis- 

 chievous young urchin in the neighbourhood, always ringleader 

 in every bird's-nesting or orchard-robbing foray. He was early 

 taught music, and Squire Woodburn, who kept a pack of hounds 

 near Knaresborough, hearing him play, took a fancy to him, 

 and had him constantly up at the hall. Here Jack first displayed 

 his passion for sport. He loved to be among the hounds, and 

 the Squire made him a present of a couple of puppies. Squire 

 Woodburn kept his hounds in a very primitive and careless 

 fashion. They were not kennelled, but were allowed to loaf 

 about the place. Master Jack took advantage of this, and used 

 to come out stealthily by night and coax some of the hounds 

 away, and hunt the Squire's hares by moonlight, his marvellous 

 sense of hearing enabling him to follow them as accurately as if 

 he had been gifted with the keenest eyesight. He early mastered 

 the art of swimming and diving, and was as expert in the water 

 as Mr. Charles Reade's ' Hero and Martyr,' James Lambert, being 



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