276 The Life of Fred Archer 
The people who cheered Archer for his fine performance- 
in winning five races in one day httle dreamed that Blanchland 
was the last winner he would ever ride. 
On the morning of the last day of the Houghton Meeting 
Archer was visited by a well-known racing man, who, hiding 
his identity under the nom-de-plume " PhiHppus," later wrote 
a very interesting letter to the Daily Telegraph, in which he 
said : 
" At nine o'clock on Friday morning, the last day of the 
Houghton Meeting, I cantered my hack up the road that leads 
to the handsome dwelling of Frederick Archer. 
" Archer was just dressing after his Turkish bath. In a 
few minutes, with a smiling face, and a wonderfully bright 
expression, singularly clear eyes, and all the signs of a mar- 
vellously healthy condition, he came into the dining-room, on 
the table of which, by the way, there was a plentiful repast, 
not any of which, however, was destined for the master of 
the house. 
" He showed me pictures and photographs of his wife, 
whose death came upon him two years since with inextinguish- 
able sorrow, of his child, and of other members of his family 
and friends. About each of them he had some agreeable 
reminiscence. There were pictures, too, of horses which he 
had ridden at various periods of his career, and he also showed 
me the whip of ivory, with the solid turquoise handle, set with 
many hundreds of precious stones, that several of his French 
admirers had presented to him quite recently in Paris. 
" I observed to him that so far as I could judge from his 
outward aspect he was in the best of health. At the same 
time I suggested to him that, notwithstanding his remarkable 
constitution, the time had arrived when it would be wise for 
him to make up his mind to give up much of the severely trying 
work which he was accepting. 
" Let me just recall the fact that upon the day of my 
visit he rode, under the severe and self-denying conditions 
