The Life of Fred Archer 125 
on some important business. Success appears to have steadied 
him rather than unsettled him, and nothing is more pleasant 
than to witness the deferential air of the most successful 
jockey of the day towards his former mentor and present 
friend and part employer. 
" That it may not be thought that Fred Archer's quiet and 
modest demeanour is dwelt on over-much, it may be well to 
mention that his present income, entirely his own, for he is 
out of his apprenticeship some four or five years, is about as 
great as that of a Queen's Counsel in mid-career, of a special 
surgeon, of any kind of a Royal Academician, barring perhaps 
five, and almost half as great as that of an Italian tenor singer. 
It is quickly earned without long delays, expectations or dis- 
appointments, for when it is put in his charge it is not long 
before the event is decided. His great causes depend on the 
application within the space of a minute of his nice judgment of 
pace ; of his successful operations on the display of consummate 
nerve and courage in tearing down a perilous declivity and 
hugging the rails of an awkward turn ; and his great pictures 
are dashed in with a single stroke, as when he drove Jannette 
through the leading pair at Doncaster ; his sensational effect 
when he brings an outsider like Charibert to the front and makes 
mincemeat of his field. A very large income, the unbounded 
confidence of employers and of the public, might help to turn 
less ordinary heads just arrived at legal manhood ; but Fred 
Archer quietly goes his own way, and studies diligently to 
improve in his calling. 
"It is about eleven years since his father brought Fred 
Archer to Mat Dawson's to launch him in his career." 
