The Life of Fred Archer 69 
Dereham, was there too. She sometimes attended the Chelten- 
ham Races, and Fred is even said to have ridden a pony of hers 
in an event previous to this time. At any rate, this well-known 
patron of the Turf, in her somewhat mannish attire, was well 
known in Archer's village, as at nearly every race meeting in 
the country. 
William Archer pointed to his little son, and said to Mrs. 
Willins : " Here, madam, this is the one to ride over fences." 
Mrs. Willins took the hint, and went to ask Mathew Dawson's 
leave for Fred, a pigmy of under five stone, to ride a pony of hers, 
the well-known Maid of Trent, in a steeplechase at the feather- 
weight of 4 stone II lb. Years afterwards, and not long 
before his death, Fred Archer gleefully described to an inter- 
viewer how he " scored his first winning mount at Bangor prior 
to his successful debut on the flat at Chesterfield." This 
proves that Mrs, Willins, who ran horses on almost every course 
in the kingdom, was right when she claimed that Archer rode 
his first winner for her. He afterwards, during his apprentice- 
ship, rode two winners for the same lady at Rugby. 
Mr. Dawson, with the keen eye of a sportsman, had, as has 
been said, soon " spotted " the qualities of the lad, and gave 
him many chances of distinguishing himself in his profession, 
and Freddy showed his superiority over the other boys by his 
pluck in mounting any awkward kind of horse, and clinging 
to his seat when he got there. Allowed to ride in public, he 
secured his first win at crooked-spired Chesterfield. This 
first race won by Archer under Jockey Club rules took place on 
September 28, 1870. The trainer, Mr. John Peart, of Malton, 
himself lifted his juvenile jockey into the saddle, and at the 
time of Archer's death he was still living to tell the tale. 
The quiet little meeting at Chesterfield has long since 
dropped out of the list of fixtures. The Nursery Handicap 
which Archer won on Mr. Bradley's two-year-old was quite 
unimportant, but it was a beginning, and, though it did not 
look like it at the time, it was an exemplification of the saying 
