122 The Life of Fred Archer 
He answered with a knowing wink : " You didn't think 
I was going to let him (Archer) beat me by a neck the first 
time I rode, which he would have done ! " 
Custance went to Mr. Jennings and told him what Fordham 
had said, and asked him if he would run Pardon in the 
Bretby Plate, only the second race after the Bushes Handi- 
cap. He said " Certainly," and it is pleasing to be able to 
say that Pardon won this time. No one could have received 
a greater ovation than George Fordham did on his return to 
weigh in that day, and he soon regained his old form and rode 
as well as ever. 
After Archer's death a story was told that in the autumn of 
this year, when Archer went to Chelmsford to ride a horse for 
his brother Charles, a fortune-teller crossed his right hand with 
a bit of silver with which he had presented her, and foretold his 
death by that hand. These were indeed prophetic words, if 
the story is true. 
It was in 1878 the first of the two great tragedies of their 
lives befell William Archer and his wife. At that time they 
had left the King's Arms and kept the Andoversford Hotel. 
On the first day of the Cheltenham Steeplechases an accident 
took place in front of the house, and a farmer, Mr. Charles 
Wood, was killed. The following morning, as William Archer 
the younger was leaving for the steeplechases, he said : " Let 
us draw down the bhnds out of respect for the poor fellow who 
is dead." 
On that very day, and while the inquest was being held in 
his own home on the body of the farmer, young William Archer, 
himself fatally injured, was being carried from the steeplechase 
course. 
It is said that poor Wood's death had greatly affected 
young Wilham Archer, who had driven by the scene of the 
accident on his way home to the Andoversford Inn. Although 
Mr. Wood's body had been removed, the road was stained with 
blood, and the sight so affected WiUiam, who, like his brother 
