24 The Life of Fred Archer 
field at the back of Mr. Robinson's mill, and the course was 
over the lane leading from Prestbury to Noverton House, over 
a stone wall, through Agg's Meadows to Hewletts Hill ; on 
again to Prestbury Wood, and back via Hewletts. There were 
stiff briar fences, twenty-four in number, and the course was 
reckoned a little over four miles. There were thirteen starters 
for the principal handicap ; Tramp, a Liverpool Steeplechase 
winner, was made favourite, but Stanmore, ridden by William 
Holman, won the race. Archer being only defeated a length on 
Mr. Evans's Daddy Longlegs. Tramp, running through 
an orchard, cannoned against a tree and dashed his brains 
out, and Turner, his rider, was much injured. The Hewletts, 
or Agg's Hill, is thought by some people to be the hill mentioned 
by B3n-on in The Dream. On the top of it is the house where, 
in 1809, Wilham Hickey, of the Memoirs, visited his friend 
Mr. Agg. 
Soon after this Archer rode Mr. Gambler's brown pony 
The Weasel (9 stone) against Mr. Trelawny's grey gelding, 
Cheese, ridden by Mr. William Fitzhardinge Berkeley, at 
that time a cornet in the Horse Guards, afterwards Member 
for Cheltenham and subsequently Lord Fitzhardinge. The 
match was for 100 sovereigns, three miles over the steeplechase 
course ; the betting was 3 to i on The Weasel, which won easily, 
Mr. Berkeley's mount. Cheese, repeatedly refusing to negotiate 
the obstacles. " Lord Fitzhardinge never forgot this race," 
says Mr. Brooks, " and when he met William Archer always 
shook hands with him and invited him to share his hospitahty." 
About this time Archer won a race at Stratford-on-Avon 
on Eagle, belonging to Mr. William Hurlstone, and among the 
competitors was Mr. Nelson Powell, a well-known lawyer of 
Chipping Sodbury, a bold and fearless rider who steered 
many horses to victory. Mr. Powell afterwards emigrated 
to Australia, and died there from the effects of an accident. 
Archer also remembered a big match at Prestbury Park 
between Captain Dickson's McOrville and Sir John Malcolm's 
