The Life of Fred Archer 117 
when she was coming Hke great guns, running through her field 
Hke the real good racehorse that she was, who that was present 
will ever forget the eager, anxious look of Archer as he turned 
his head to look where she was, or how he then rode like a 
veritable demon to place as wide a gap as possible between 
Silvio and his stable companion ? For there is no doubt he 
had a well-grounded fear of her, and had no intention of coming 
to close quarters if it might be avoided. As it was, he won by 
three lengths, and Mathew Dawson was congratulated on 
winning his first St. Leger, occupying also the second place. 
Mr, T. S. Townend, the well-known journalist (of the 
Melbourne Argus, etc.), is a North-countryman, and used often 
at the time of the races to stay with relatives near Doncaster, 
He says he often used to meet Archer at their house, which 
was just a pleasant walk out of the town. 
Mr. William Villar saw many of Archer's great races. 
and amongst them Silvio's St. Leger at Doncaster. " I think," 
he remarked, " that there has never been such a horseman as 
Archer. I don't believe that any of the present-day jockeys 
could touch him. He was such a finished horseman, and, more 
than that, he rode with his head, and was a very clever rider 
with heaps of judgment. When I took that horse I have a 
picture of — Spark by Flash-in-the-Pan — to Manchester, and he 
won the Great Foal Stakes, Fred and Charlie Archer were there, 
and Fred said : ' Here comes my farmer friend,' and backed my 
horse and introduced me to a lot of people. We were all in 
a party that day. Of course, that race was only a small 
affair." 
Archer seems always to have been more than pleased to 
meet any of his old friends among the Cotswold farmers, 
whether they were descended from Marshals of France, like 
the Villars, or otherwise. It mattered not to him if his friends 
had become celebrities themselves, had stayed as they were, 
or had sunk into insignificance. Archer's genius for friendship 
was equal to all demands made on it. 
