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FRED ARCHER AND GEORGE FORDHAM Peculiarities of the Two Most Famous Modern English Jockeys Fred Archer could have taken champion rank as the smallestboned man in creation for his inches So small were his ankles that when his boots were buttoned a kind that he most delighted In scarcely a finger could be inserted in the upper portion of them His father as a steeplechase jockey was only second to Tom Olliver and Fred scored his first wins on Maid of the Mist belonging to Mrs Willing in some Welsh pony steeplechases From his boyhood Archer was extremely delicate It was on this account and also because he thought him a lad of promise that Muthuw Dawson took a great fancy to him Until his marriage iu 1883 Archer resided with his old master and his require ¬ ments were so few that two rooms satisfied him It was in the extreme flexibility of his hands and the delicate manipulation of n horses mouth that the champion rose so superior to his fel ¬ lows It is not for one of the present generation to compare this later darling of the turf with such men as Frank Buckle the Chlfneys the Ar nulls etc but in his own day Archer was unap ¬ proachable He held his life in his hands whenever turning Tottenham corner in a race and although so reckless in the saddle It is said that In his early days he had a dreadful fear of death not of death pure and simple but the awful fear that he might be burled in a trance tranceFalmouth Falmouth House which is on the Bury Road and Justs under a mile from Newmarket was built by him for the reception of his bride the daughter of lds old master Mat Dawson but she died in giving birth to her first child a girl It Is well known among those most Intimately acquainted with Archer that he took the loss of his wife so much to heart that he suffered from melancholia and made three determined efforts to end his life When asked 4 y libs friends why he did not marry again he would reply Oh if I could ouly love a woman half so well as I rlovcd her I would but I could not The widow of a former patrician of the turf was so Infatuated with the popular jockey that she offered tp settle 10000 a year her Income was about X20OC0 upon him if he would marry her but Arclrcr politely but firmly refused refusedIn In the last winter of his life when Archer went to Cheltenham his native place to Indulge In his favorite pastime of hunting and renew old acquain ¬ tances he weighed lOst 7H and If he had let nature take her course tie was naturally a list y nan At Falmouth House he had fitted up a most elaborate Turkish bath andlt was as hot as Hades je room SFSfsbeg lYt f S8 ft HTf J registered 200 degrees of heat and in this chamber when getting down weight he used literally to parboil himself Previous to the commencement of the racing season Archer had eighteen Turkish baths in one week and his selfdenial In the mat ¬ ter of food would have given a start and a beating to the most ascetic anchorite His prescription for wasting was written by a most eminent London physician and made up by Mr Wright whose establishment is at the end of the town near the race track and this powder he was continually taking In order to ride St MIrIn he went as I have already stated without food for three days and was for eighteen hours in a Turkish bath and so much did he reduce himself that with all the paraphernalia excepting the whip appertaining to riding he weighed only Sst 71b He is killing himself cried the elder Jennings when he saw Archer scale and so he was When his friends remonstrated with him he would reply If I am not Archer I am a nobody nobodyAH AH who arc versed in urf lore are of course familiar with the famous finishes of George Ford ham But here is a story of one which will I think be new to most of my readers It took place at the Salisbury races of 1807 on the second day of the meeting when four twoyearolds started for the Stonehenge Plate of 30 Lady Barbara with Fordham up Hue and Cry ridden by Tom French whilst Tom Cannon was on Brenda and Saddler on Active The two latter took hut little part In the race and were soon beaten olT but the other two came on the jockeys knee and knee together and finished a dead heat Now Lady Bar ¬ bara belonged to the young Marquis of Hastings who was not the man to cry a go and he determined to run it off which they did On they came knee and knee together again If the horses had been the Siamese Twins they could not have been much closer together and amidst the most deafening shouts they finished another dead heat This time every ¬ body said of course Theyll divide now But not a bit of it the horses were not distressed for it was only a half mile and it is good going on the Wiltshire Downs so after half an hours grace was allowed they came out to do the battle a third time and on each occasion slight odds were betted on Lady Barbara What happened then I will let an old friend of mine who saw the race describe in his own words Well now you shall hear what that deep old tile who donned so often the jacket and cip for Dancsbury did In the two previous heats he rode the near side or in other words the side next to the grandstand and betting ring and I noticed that Hue and Cry leaned a good deal against Lady Barbara which strange to relate also leaned toward her opponent so to make it under ¬ stood better I wish to say they were both propping one another up and when Tom French used his whip once or twice just at the finish of the second heat I observed that his mare swerved and had It not been for the friendly prop of the other would have gone wide Master George says to himself All right Tommy you are not going to have me for a leaning post always so in the last essay he changed the sides at the start and kept there On they came to the commencement of the stand by the Iwxwood bushes and we really thought it was going to be another tie but as they both called on their horses Tommys whip drove Hue and Cry swerving on to the railings side and she had no Lady Bar ¬ bara to lean against then and George sending her ladyship along won by three lengths so the judges verdict said but this time they were so wide apart I think a length or two was the outside of it Be that as is may it cmKd the most remarkable piece of acting I ever saw and although everyone seemed sorry for poor Toms defeat yet no one begrudged losing by it as it was tho head of a general that won battle for Danesbury DanesburyA A story is told of the connection between Ford ham and Mr Bowes which ought to be true if it is not and which at any rate Is generally be ¬ lieved It is popularly supposed that during the score of years in which Fordham hud Mr Bowes for master he only saw him once and that the meeting came about in this wise Ascot had at ¬ tracted its customary team of the Whitehall horses and Fordham was saddling one of the northern nags In the paddock A greyhaired stranger watched the proceedings with what the jockey thought was a greater degree of interest than a casual lookeron was entitled to show so that by degrees tho usually amiable countenance of old George assumed a decidedly morose expression At length the stranger ventured to ask a question Would the jockey be so good as to tell him the name of the horse he was saddling What the dickens have you to do with it burst out the irri ¬ tated rider Who the devil are you Well apologetically replied the greyhaired gentleman I think that I am the owner of thit animal and my name is John Bowes Thornaiiby in London Sportsman
