The Life of Fred Archer 13 
Coulson, who usually looked after him, told me that the Uberties 
which Fred would take with his constitution were appalling. 
Archer was not an elegant rider : he crouched too much 
for that ; but he gained an advantage by it, for Tom Cannon 
and his school sat upright, and even began to lean back and 
meet the resistance of the wind. Archer rode long, whereas 
modem jockeys ride short, as Sloan did, and are right forward 
on their mounts' withers, and crouching as well. 
I am sure, however, that Archer would have held his own 
among modem jockeys. He was the best jockey I have ever 
seen, and I should say he was probably the best aU-roimd 
jockey on every t5rpe of racecourse who has ever Uved. 
Conditions have changed since Archer's time, just as they 
were different when he was so superlative from those of Frank 
Buckle years before him, and this makes comparisons between 
one period and another difficult ; but the feats Archer 
accompUshed, and the number of races which he won that less 
skilful riders would have lost, were enough to convince me 
that he was an absolute genius in the saddle. 
One rather amusing story told of Archer was that when 
quite a boy he was found crjdng because he could not ride 
both winners in a dead-heat ; and it was this temperament 
which made him work so hard and waste so much in later Hfe. 
Of course, Archer having a great influence, and being 
permitted to do things by people above him socially which 
no other jockey had ever dreamed of doing previously, was 
very much inchned to bully other jockeys, and especially the 
smaller boys. He almost invariably weighed out first or, if 
not doing that, got to the post first so as to take the most 
advantageous position on the course, there being no draw for 
places at the start as is now the case. In fact, Archer, at the 
zenith of his fame, might with truth be described as a Dictator 
of the Turf, quite to the same extent as either Lord George 
Bentinck or Admiral Rous before him. 
Very clever and a very close observer of all that was going 
