30 The Life of Fred Archer 
round a ploughed field, which was the old-fashioned way of 
sweating them, when a very small boy opened the gate for 
him and seemed to take a keen interest in the horses. Asked 
if he liked horses, he replied in the affirmative with a broad 
smile. 
Good (and especially small) stable-boys were always rather 
difficult to get, so Dr. Rowlands looked up the boy's employer, 
who let him come to the stable, where it was soon discovered 
he was a born horseman. When breaking in yearlings he 
seemed to enjoy being kicked off, and he actually rode in a 
four-mile steeplechase at Kidderminster when he only weighed 
4 stone 7 lb. John Jones was his name, and a most excellent 
and trustworthy fellow he became. Eventually he married, 
and his son, Herbert Jones, became the King's jockey. 
In talking of Tom Pickernell and "the old 'uns," one wanders 
a Httle way from Little Charley's Grand National. In this 
race Tom Oliver's mount, Escape, was knocked over at the next 
fence after Becher's Brook, and William Archer, riding a 
patient race, bided his time till close home and won fairly 
easily. 
Years afterwards, Mr. William Villar, of Cheltenham, own 
his first race across country and came home through Andovers- 
ford, where William Archer then lived. To the boy's great 
delight, the old steeplechase jockey presented him with the 
whip he had used when he rode Little Charley at Aintree. 
Soon after his Grand National victory the Archers seem to 
have left Prestbury for a time and lived in Cheltenham, in 
St. George's Place, and also, it is said, in the London Road. 
On the death of the old churchwarden about i860, William 
Archer returned to Prestbury and succeeded to the King's 
Arms as landlord. 
Superintendent MacRae was then a young policeman who 
had not long come from Scotland. Though by no means 
brought up in an atmosphere of sport, he took kindly to it, and 
was, like many others, interested in the steeplechase rider and 
