312 



ASHGILL; OR, THE LIFE 



Georgina, Craig Royston, Blue Sky, Wild Mint, 

 Hesperian, and others contributed to their corn bills, 

 occasionally assisted by the services of " Mr. John " 

 himself in the saddle. The early excellence of Mr. 

 "Jack" Hammond's St. Gatien, who dead-heated the 

 following year in the Derby with Harvester, he 

 illustrated by steering him home in the John o' Gaunt 

 Plate at Manchester, giving Hentland, in receipt of 

 7 Ibs., with Archer up, a length's beating. Fabiola he 

 rode when she won the old-fashioned Bishop Burton 

 Stakes at Beverley. At this meeting he also won the 

 Beverley Cup and the Watt Memorial on Coelebs, and 

 Hesperian was assisted home by him. 



After Coelebs had won the Beverley Cup, his owner, 

 Mr. Petrie, the eccentric Edinburgh whisky merchant, 

 mounted the horse, galloped him nearly two miles 

 around the racecourse, then, a la John Gilpin, tore 

 down into the town with him to finish up there a display 

 of other eccentricities hardly en rapport with the 

 orthodox ideas of training. 



In the Northumberland Plate of '83 John had the 

 mount on Mr. Jardine's Shrewsbury, and failed to 

 achieve what was the desire of his heart after many 

 years of effort to have his name inscribed on the bead- 

 roll of winners of the " Pitmen's Derby." But he met 

 a clinker that day in Barcaldine, unquestionably 

 one of the best horses, if not the horse of the century, 

 who conceded the smart Tupgill candidate 17 Ibs. and 

 beat him in a canter over the severe two miles. Archer's 

 burden on Barcaldine that afternoon was 9 st. 10 Ibs., 

 and in bearing that he established a record for the race 

 far ahead of any of those identified with its running, 

 and one that may not be equalled for generations to 

 come. Robert Peck, in buying Barcaldine for 1300 



