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DOUBTLESS inclined towards a kindred spirit, former Home Secretary David Blunkett was in Knaresborough last weekend to sign copies of a new book about Blind Jack Metcalf ? perhaps that North Yorkshire town?s most famous son.
Like David Blunkett, Jack Metcalf, pictured right, overcame his disability in a remarkable way. Like Blunkett, Metcalf could be a bit of a lad, creating a local scandal by refusing to acknowledge the mother of his illegitimate child.
?I haven?t seen the woman for years, ? he protested. It may have been original at the time; Blind Jack didn?t miss much, anyway.
Born in 1717, he lost his sight after suffering smallpox at the age of six. He was also a romancer, gambler, card player, bowls player, huntsman, horse dealer, smuggler, trader, civil engineer, pioneering road maker, accomplished musician ? the term ?blind fiddler? refers only to Metcalf, of course ? and amilitary adventurerwho entertained Butcher Cumberland?s troops before the Battle of Culloden.
In the foreword to a new biography by Arnold Kellett ? a former history teacher in Knaresborough and Harrogatewho supposes that his charges remembered more about local characters than ever they did of the syllabus ? Blunkett variously describes Blind Jack as phenomenal, astonishing, truly historic, inspirational and...