i88 The Life of t'red Archer 
career. Doubtless his clear eyes saw, too, that amid much 
earthly dross there was a vein of pure gold in the character of 
the premier jockey. The spoilt child of fortune, with almost 
every earthly gift, it seemed to most men that this world had 
little more to offer to Archer. For his great desire was to be 
at the head of the list of winning jockeys, and this had been 
given to him, and almost everything else that he could wish 
for had been poured out before him most lavishly. 
Still, in this glorious prospect, Mr. De la Bere seems to 
have seen 
" One speck of dark appear 
In that bright Heaven of blue." 
On the eve of Archer's wedding one of the boys, who had 
hunted with Fred among the Cotswold Hills and who had at 
one time lived in Prestbury, sat down to wish his old friend 
good fortune. This was also a great horseman, and fated, 
like Archer and like his own brother, Roddy Owen, to die young. 
He wrote : 
" Fred, — I wish you every happiness and the usual luck. 
"Hugh Owen." 
Some of Archer's friends wrote to him just before and some 
of them just after his wedding — but few, if any, seem to have 
forgotten him, and the following letters speak for them- 
selves : 
" Red House, Newmarket. 
"January 28, 1883. 
" My Dear Archer, 
" Before sending you the accompanying tankard, 
Mrs. Ker Seymer and I have drunk your health out of it and 
that of your bride, and though it might make you a pound or 
two overweight to empty the tankard yourself, it is not half 
big enough to contain our cordial good wishes for the happiness 
of your marriage. 
