The Life of Fred Archer 103 
more like a curate than a jockey. I used to have long chats 
with him after a day's hunting as I rode home to Whittington 
and he rode to his father's inn at Andoversford, and he would 
tell me his thoughts and ideas about things in general, and he 
talked well. One's first impression of Archer would have been 
that he was a gentleman by birth, with a college education. 
I should have said that he read a good deal, and that, if he 
had not had much education, he had improved his mind later. 
People alwaj^s used to say that Mrs. Archer must have had some 
good blood in her veins. She was a big, fine-looking woman, 
with handsome aquiline features, and I think it was from her 
that Archer got his character and partly his looks. At any 
rate, he was not one bit like his father, who was just a clever 
man and a very good steeplechase rider, an ordinary jockey, 
and nothing more. 
" There were Haywards who kept the King's Arms before 
WilUam Archer went there ; very likely they were Mrs. Archer's 
people. Fred seems from the beginning to have asserted his 
own individuality, only in a quiet way. His neckties and pins 
and his clothes generally were all so quiet and unobtrusive, 
and, indeed, his ideas about many things were so refined. He was 
a very remarkable man. I always thought that, with proper 
advantages, he would have made a great general. His riding 
was marvellous, but no end of his success was due to his 
character, which, as I say, I think he got from his mother, 
to his wonderful knowledge of pace, and to his consummate 
understanding of horses. 
' ' His j udgment was so wonderful. As we rode home together 
I got to know a good deal about his thoughts and his tastes. He 
was good at other sports besides racing. I remember he told 
me that in his earlier days he hardly had to train at all ; he 
managed to try and keep himself fit with hunting, etc. One 
day, out hunting on Leckhampton Hill, we were on the edge 
of a quarry and Archer rode along the top of the wall. I was 
on the safe part, and Archer was riding in front of me; I 
