244 The Life of Fred Archer 
book about Archer ; I think he was the gallantest creature 
that ever Hved. He was simply afraid of nothing. Not 
that I think for a moment that he would ever be forgotten, 
but a book will help to make sure that he won't, and it 
is just an account of his life — not so much of his racing 
doings — that ought to interest people. 
" Of course, I saw a great deal of him ; he was always about 
the stables, and we were so anxious before the Derby that we 
almost slept in the stables, 
" When Melton won the Derby we were all nearly off our 
heads with excitement. We were very young, both my hus- 
band and I, and while Lord Hastings lived racing seemed part 
of my very life. I had not been brought up to it and I never 
gambled, but after I was married I went into it with my 
husband, whose great interest it was. 
" I could not go to see the Derby, because about a fortnight 
before it one of my sons was born. But afterwards they came 
up and told me that Archer was downstairs and would like 
to see me. I begged my husband to let him, and he came up. 
I was just up enough to be lying on the sofa, and he brought 
me the whip he had used in the race. 
" Well, Archer told me all about it and then the baby was 
brought down to see him, tied up in our racing colours — eau- 
de-nil and crimson. Of course. Archer was very pleased 
about it, for many people think it was one of his greatest, 
if not his greatest, race. 
" Archer's was a very complex character. Generous to a 
fault in many ways, I did not admire him at all in the same way 
I did Mathew Dawson — not as a man, I mean. Of course he 
was a genius — never was such riding seen — and many people 
thought him an angel as well. But I never did. He had 
always the same simple, unassuming manners — never wishing to 
put himself forward. He never would even come to lunch with 
my husband and me — he didn't think it was his place — though 
I think Lord Falmouth sometimes got him to go to him. 
