176 The Life of Fred Archer 
I think, talked sanctimoniously to him instead of cheering 
him up. I don't think he would have shot himself if I had 
been there. You won't get much out of jockeys about Archer. 
They have their own little secrets which they keep to them- 
selves." 
If Archer had a catlike affection for old places, he had 
certainly a godlike or doglike faculty for friendship. He always 
drifted down to share his joys and sorrows with his own family 
and his old friends in Cheltenham. He came there for some 
of the hunting season, though he often spent a part of it else- 
where, sometimes with Lord Wilton. 
Mr. Richard Marsh says that he and Archer were great 
friends and that he was a most fascinating man and a great 
favourite with the ladies. He speaks of his wonderful courage 
and skill as a jockey, and goes on to say : " Archer was a great 
man to hounds, and one little thing that happened out hunting 
amused me very much. He was following a man down to a 
fence, who fell, and while he was on the ground Archer jumped 
dangerously close to him. The man was extremely angry and 
told Archer he had no business to follow so closely. Archer 
was very much hurt, and told the man so, and added, " I was 
not within two lengths of you when your horse took off" — 
thinking that, as in racing, it was a very big margin." 
Archer's greatest friend from his youth up had been Herbert 
Mills, a well-known Cheltenham corn merchant. He very 
often kept his horses at Mr. Mills's house, and the two were 
almost inseparable whenever Archer came to Cheltenham. 
Besides which Herbert Mills was often with him at NevvTiiarket, 
and, as he was very fond of racing, went about with Archer to 
many race-meetings. His son, Mr. Wyndham Mills, says : 
" Father went to school at Hygeia House, opposite to the 
King's Arms, which William Archer kept. I daresay that's 
where he and Fred Archer began to be so friendly. I was 
only thirteen when Archer died, and father and mother were 
very strict with us and kept us out of the way of grown-ups, 
