A little after this, a road was advertised to be made between Congleton and the Red-Bull Inn, in Cheshire, about six miles in length; but the materials were about three miles distant in several places. A meeting for letting this road was held at a place called Audersley, which Metcalf attended; and being a stranger in that part, he fortunately met with three gentlemen who knew him, viz. —— Clows of Macclesfield, —— Downs of Sigleigh, and —— Wright of Mottram, Esqrs. two of them Justices of the Peace.—They said to the trustees, “Gentlemen, you have only to agree with this man, and you may be assured of having your work well done.” The road, however, was not let that day, the business being deferred until another meeting to be held at Congleton, where Metcalf and others attended with estimates.—“Gentlemen,” said Metcalf, “I am a stranger to you, and you may with reason question my performing the bargain; but to prevent any doubt, I will first do one hundred pounds worth of work, and afterwards be reasonably paid as it goes forward; the hundred pounds may lay in the treasurer’s hands till the whole is completed, and then to be paid.” On this proposal, and the three gentlemen’s recommendation at the former meeting, they agreed with him, although there was an estimate given in lower than his by two hundred pounds. He completed the road, to the great satisfaction of the surveyor and trustees, and received three thousand pounds.
During the time that Metcalf was engaged in making this road, having one day occasion to stop at Congleton, he met, at the Swan inn there, one Warburton, a capital farmer, who lived about a mile distant. This man was remarkable for sporting large sums in various ways, and no sooner saw Metcalf, than he accosted him thus: “I understand that you play at cards.”—Metcalf replied, “Sometimes, but not often;” being much surprised that a stranger should know he had that propensity. Warburton offered to play him for five or ten pounds, the best of five games at put; but this he thought fit to decline: in the presence of his friends he would not have feared to play for twenty; but being in a strange place, and having a large undertaking relative to the turnpikes, he concluded that it would be highly imprudent to game. The farmer, however, persisting in his desire for play, Metcalf, after a little consideration, determined to try the effect of ridicule on his new acquaintance, saying, “I have not now time; but if you will meet me here this day fortnight, I will play you, the best of five games, for a leg of mutton, four-pennyworth of cabbage, and five shillings worth of punch.” The farmer, pleased with any prospect of engaging him, agreed to the wager, and insisted that the money should be deposited with the landlord; which was accordingly done. During the interval, Warburton spread the story of his engagement to play with a blind man; and, thinking it a good joke, invited many of his friends to the entertainment. Metcalf came at the time fixed, having first engaged a friend from Buxton to accompany him, whose chief business it was to see that his adversary did not play tricks with the cards. Three guineas to two were offered to be laid on Warburton; and Metcalf’s friend observing this, expressed a wish to take the odds, if agreeable to him: to this, Metcalf replied, that he meant only to amuse himself by playing for mutton and cabbage; and, that if any sums were laid, he would forfeit his wager. When all parties were assembled, Metcalf, out of joke, proposed to his adversary to club for all the articles, and treat the company; but this he positively refused, alledging that he had collected his friends for the purpose of seeing the match played. On this, Metcalf called to the landlord for a fiddle, and playing on it for a little while, was asked by the farmer what he meant: “To enable you,” said he, “to tell your children, that when you played with a blind man, you played to some tune!” They then went into a large room, and were followed by a crowd of people, amongst whom were two Justices of the Peace, and several clergymen. The game now began, and Metcalf won the two first; his adversary got the third, and pulling out his purse, offered to lay five guineas on the rubber: this was a tickling offer to Metcalf, but having resolved against playing for money, he made shift to overcome the temptation. Metcalf won the next game; and, of course, the rubber. On this the farmer laid a large sum on the table, and offered to play for the amount; but Metcalf would only play for liquor, for the good of the company. The farmer agreeing, they began again, and Metcalf presently won two games, when a gentleman present shewed a great desire to play with him for money, but in vain; so winning this rubber also, he saddled his antagonist with the whole score, and not satisfied with the triumph already gained, began to banter him sorely on his childish manner of playing, and telling him, that when the road work should cease for the Christmas holidays, he would come to his house, and teach him to play like a man.
The quantity of liquor yet to come in being large, detained many of the company until five in the morning; and Warburton, who had got pretty drunk, by way of comfort, declared before parting, that of twenty-two fine cows, he would rather have lost the best, than have been beaten so publicly.
Metcalf apprehending that he might now be solicited by many to engage in play, and considering the importance of his other engagements, called aside Mr. Rolle, the surveyor of the road, and begged of him to give sixpence, upon condition of receiving five pounds, if he (Metcalf) should play any more at cards for eighteen months, the time allotted to finish the road. Mr. Rolle approving highly of this, they returned to the company, and Metcalf making the proposal, received the surveyor’s sixpence publicly; and thus put an end to all further importunity.
Here Metcalf finds it his duty to suspend, for a while, his road-making narrative, to introduce, for the last time, the mention of the much-loved Partner of his cares, whom he had brought into Cheshire, and left at Stockport, that she might avail herself of the medical advice of a person there, famed for the cure of rheumatic complaints, of which description her’s was thought to be:—But human aid proving ineffectual, she there died, in the summer 1778, after thirty-nine years of conjugal felicity, which was never interrupted but by her illness or his occasional absence.
In his treatment of her, Metcalf never lost sight of the original distinction in their circumstances, always indulging her to the utmost that his own would allow; but she had no unreasonable desires to gratify. She died in the sixty-first year of her age, leaving four children; and was buried in Stockport church-yard.
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.