i86 The Life of Fred Archer 
rather over emphasised his use of bad language. I knew him 
intimately and I was a great deal in his company, and very 
seldom heard him make use of any. 
" Mrs. Archer, senior, I have always thought one of the 
most aristocratic-looking women I have ever met. She had 
such an easy poise of manner and so much charm, 
" Poor Fred was a very clever, shrewd fellow, and in addi- 
tion to his brilliant genius as a rider he would sit for hours 
working out how best to win a big race under various conditions. 
" I can't help smiling at your asking if he was careful. It's 
he last thing he ever was. Well, yes, of course, in the sense 
of keeping his eyes open. His eyes were always very wide 
open ; certainly no one ever had more chance of getting bad 
accidents. But careful ! The word did not exist in his riding 
vocabulary. Never was anyone less so. Riding at Man- 
chester, when he won the Cup on Valour, he rode so close to 
the rails that they caught his foot and ripped his boot open 
from the heel to the toe. He finished the race and came 
limping and hobbling in to be weighed, put on some more 
boots, and rode another race — and the same thing happened 
again ! Careful ? I should say not ! 
" They say — I can't say I saw it myself, though I saw the 
race — that he came down the hill at Tattenham Corner with 
one leg over the rail. 
" I don't know much about that missing list of wins, but 
I don't think one year would matter much in his biography." 
Fred now built himself a princely residence in Newmarket 
on the Bury road. It was called Falmouth House, and Lord 
Falmouth took the greatest interest in it and helped Archer 
with the plans. He had always given his jockey advice since 
the earliest days, had invested his earnings for him, given 
him legal advice, and in every way been most kind to him, and 
Fred sometimes told his sister, as has been said, that there 
were no two men whom he would rather see coming to his 
house than Lord Falmouth and Mathew Dawson. " And that 
