The Life of Fred Archer 177 
and especially of sporting people. And then those sort of 
racing men go about by themselves, and usually don't want a 
lot of children hanging round them and learning about their 
affairs. My chief recollection of Mr. Archer is of his giving me 
unhmited half-sovereigns and sovereigns, and sometimes even 
fivers. A connection of mine has in her possession a blank 
cheque of Archer's which he gave to my father when he went 
to America. He wanted father to go with him, but he didn't. 
Captain Bowling went. Archer said to my father : ' You 
may want money or be in difficulties while I am away, and, if 
you are, you will be able to fill in this.' But father didn't, 
and when Fred came back, father gave the cheque to him. Fred 
returned it to him, and said : ' You'd better keep it as a 
curiosity, for there aren't many of my pals that I could give a 
blank cheque to and they'd give it me back. Archer mean ? 
Yes, he was mean — but not to those whom'he knew and trusted 
He knew only too well how many people were hanging round 
him just to sponge upon him. And you know it's a saying 
that a Gloucestershire man gives nothing away but what he 
doesn't want. 
" I was away a good deal, and so, although he was con- 
stantly at my father's house in the High Street, I didn't see 
so much of Archer as one would have expected — considering 
how inseparable he and my father were. I remember one 
simple Uttle thing about him. He was very fond of blackberry 
jam, and when he came in to tea he would often say : ' Well, 
Mrs. Mills, and have you got any of your blackberry jam to- 
day ? ' I remember one week-end, when I had gone up from 
school to stay at Falmouth House, we were playing one of 
those spelling games with letters. Fred came into the dining- 
room where we were all playing — his wife and mother and the 
rest — and he said he'd play, and he soon beat us all. 
" You know there's a big yard at the Andoversford Inn. 
One night when I was there there were a bull -terrier and a bull- 
dog fighting in the yard. The other men who were there said : 
M 
