38 The Life of Fred Archer 
window over the front. Still, we thought it a perfectly lovely 
thing, though he didn't, for he had to drag the great heavy 
chair, with my sister and me in it, right back to Prest- 
bury. 
" Tom OHver did not Hve in Prestbury any longer in my 
young days, but I remember seeing him once, and when he 
looked at me he noticed how remarkably like my father I was, 
and then said : ' If WilHam Archer were dead I could swear to 
his ashes.' I didn't quite know what he meant, but it was a 
funny expression, and it stuck in my memory always, 
" Mr. Edwards and his son, who afterwards took the name 
of De la Bere, had known mother all her life, and they used to 
like to come in and yarn to my father. Sometimes old Mr. 
Edwards would say to my mother : ' If Archer had had a good 
education he would have made a name for himself in other 
things than steeplechasing and done great things in the world. 
My father, as I told you, had run away as a boy to get into some 
training-stables, and he used to tell us that he had only had 
two days' schooling in his life, though really he had more 
than that; my mother, of course, had been very well 
educated, besides being a very refined sort of woman. 
" In my grandfather's time Mr. De la Bere was not so very 
High Church ; indeed, such an old-established churchwarden 
as my grandfather wouldn't at all have approved of such 
changes, I expect. Mr. De la Bere was very fond of Fred ; 
you know he insisted upon coming to Newmarket to bury him. 
Mother kept all my father's accounts and generally wrote his 
letters. They were not a demonstrative couple, but my father 
thought all the world of my mother, and when anybody 
came to see him he would always say, ' Where's your 
mother ? ' and always seemed unhappy if she was not about. 
Father had a temper, but I never saw mother put out about 
anything. 
" They were as different as possible ; she had a very gracious 
sort of manner. They had a very good time when they were 
