STEEPLECHASING. 601 



to Hednesford with fair success, and then to Russia for a couple of years to ride 

 for the Czar; but returning in 1844 he took to hurdle-racing and steeplechasing, 

 doing so well in that line of business that he settled down at Cheltenham. In 

 1848 Archer won the principal race on Tkurgarton, beating Tom Olliver, riding 

 his own horse, Vanguard. In 1862 he gave up riding over a country; his 

 eldest son, William, was killed at Cheltenham steeplechases in 1878, and in 

 December, 1889, Archer himself passed away at the age of sixty-three. 



In the sixties and seventies there was no more popular or able gentleman rider 

 than Mr. T. Pickernell, who rode under the name of Mr. "Thomas," and won 

 his first Grand National in 1860 on Mr. Capel's Anatis. This was quite an 

 amateurs' year, as they rode the first, second, and fourth horses. Mr. Thomas 

 rode in the Grand National no less than seventeen times, winning thrice in 

 1860, on Anatis; in 1871, on Lord Paulet's The Lamb; and finally in 1875, on 

 Mr. W. Bird's Pathfinder, when, though the competitors were regarded as of 

 moderate quality, there was a most exciting finish between the above-named and 

 Mr. S. Davis's Dainty, ridden by Mr. Hathaway, Pathfinder winning all out by half 

 a length. The National of 1862, won by Viscount de Namur's Huntsman, ridden 

 by Lamplugh, proved fatal to James Wynne, son of "Denny" Wynne, who won 

 on Mat hew in 1847. He was on Lord de Freyne's O'Connell, and was neither 

 very strong in the saddle, nor very robust. On the morning of the race he heard 

 of the death of his sister, whereupon Lord de Freyne advised him to stand down. 

 As he had travelled so far to ride he begged to have the mount, so the owner 

 gave way. Willoughby and O'Connell cannoned at a flight of hurdles, their riders 

 trying to avoid a prostrate horse and rider ; both fell ; O'Connell rolled over 

 Wynne, inflicting fatal injuries. 



Next came Lord Coventry's two years of success. Emblem (1863) was a 

 thoroughbred mare by Teddington Miss Batty, and for some time she was useless 

 over a country. When a three-year-old, in 1859, she won a race on the flat (at 

 Cardiff), out of thirteen starts. Lord Coventry bought her not a great while after- 

 wards, and sent her to be trained by Golby, at Northleach, at that time a well-known 

 teacher of jumpers, and afterwards to Weever, of Bourton. A few falls made her 

 positively dread the sight of a fence. One day Weever rather lost his temper with 

 her, and in the heat of the moment picked up a stick which he let the mare feel ; but 

 this, though not quite an orthodox manner of schooling, was the first step towards 

 success ; for, after doing rather better in subsequent trials, Emblem was taken out 



