I20 STEEPLECHASING 



cesser on Free Trader, for it was confidently stated 

 that the owners of Emigrant had presented Boyce with 

 ^looo, and a baronet, who had won a good sum over 

 the event, with another ^500, and it was a curious 

 coincidence that Ben Land, the owner of the second 

 horse, should have parted with the winner two years 

 previously. The stakes were valued at ^1115. 



1858 



Mr. Capel's "Little Charlie," aged, 10 st. 7 lb. W. Archer . i 

 Viscount Talon's "Weathercock," aged, 1 1 st. 



7 lb Mr. Edwards 2 



Mr. Craven's "Xanthus," aged, II St. . . . F. Balchin 3 

 Sixteen started. Betting : — 100 to 6 Little Charlie ; 25 to i Weather- 

 cock ; 33 to I Xanthus. 



In this year the winner was penalised to the extent 

 of thirty sovereigns towards expenses, the successful 

 horse on this occasion being ridden by William Archer, 

 the father of Charles and Fred Archer.^ 



The race was started a few minutes to four. Joe 

 Graham refused his first fence and took no further part 

 in the affair, while Tom Olliver got a heavy fall at the 

 brook at the lower end of the course, and only nine out 

 of the sixteen runners jumped the artificial brook. In 

 the second round there were several more mishaps, two 

 horses falling near the finish. Little Tom was the 



^ William Archer, who died in December 1889, was born on New Year's 

 Day 1826, at St. George's Place, Cheltenham, where his father (William) 

 kept some livery stables. When he was only nine years old, that is to say 

 in 1835, William Jr. had his first mount, riding a pony in a hurdle race at 

 Eldstone Hardwick, near Cheltenham. In his younger days he was also a 

 competent jockey on the flat, and, after running away from home, made his 

 own living in the Midlands, and was successful on two or three moderate 

 horses at small meetings in Warwickshire and Staffordshire. Among those 

 who employed him was Alderman Copeland, who owned King Cole, winner 

 of the Chester Cup in 1838. At that time George Taylor, father of Alec 

 Taylor, trained Lord Chesterfield's horses, and to him went young Archer 

 and made rapid strides in horsemanship. It is said that he received as a 

 retainer for his services from Alderman Copeland six pounds a year and a 



