The Life of Fred Archer 43 
against a donkey, the match being made one of the events of 
the sports. 
The course was twice round an orchard at the back of a 
small inn called the Plough, and twice over a small brook. 
The donkey had a high reputation, and was ridden by a yokel 
with a thick stick. For a small and nervous boy, Archer rode 
remarkably well, but the donkey won by a neck ! 
Fred Archer's first win was in a donkey-race. There were 
three runners : Fred was riding Southam Lass, a donkey 
which had belonged to the Earl of Ellenborough, and the 
others were Penarth and Peter Simple. This race was for a 
new bridle, and was run in the small paddock of the Plough Inn, 
Prestbury. 
From his childhood Fred Archer was accustomed to ride 
across country either on one of his father's ponies or on one 
borrowed from Cecil Rowlands, the doctor's little boy. About 
the time of his ninth birthday WilUam Archer gave £5 for a 
pony for him, to Charles Pullen, who then kept the Unicorn 
at Winchcombe, and this afforded the child great pleasure. 
Freddy's pony was, says Mr. Brooks, " a very useful one, 
standing about 12 hands 2 inches, and in 1866 Moss Rose, 
for that was her name, was entered in a pony race at Malvern, 
and that was the celebrated jockey's first real race. He also 
rode her at Beckford, a well-known sporting rendezvous 
on the borders of Gloucestershire and Worcestershire. Moss 
Rose was a fractious little piece of goods, and always required 
careful steering ; on one occasion she jumped the ropes, we 
beUeve, at Malvern, but Freddie made her repeat the per- 
formance back into the course, and then finished second." 
The pony afterwards fell into the hands of old Harry 
Ayris, the well-known huntsman of the Berkeley Hounds, and 
she gave him a cropper ; subsequently she came back to Mr. 
R. Chapman at the Oaklands, and eventually went to London. 
Freddy and Moss Rose became regular attendants at the 
district meets of the Cotswold Hounds, then hunted by the 
