I must conclude this chapter with a brief notice of the changes and movements of the principal travelling circuses during the last ten years. In 1864, Franconi’s was at Nottingham for a time, with Charlie Keith as clown and the Madlles Monfroid holding a conspicuous place among the equestrian members of the company. Newsome’s circus was, later in the year, at Chester, as I find by the following passage in a local journal descriptive of a foxhunt:—‘The pace was terrific, and the country the stiffest in Cheshire. This description would be incomplete if I omitted to mention Miss Newsome, of the Chester Circus. This young lady astonished the whole field by the plucky way in which she rode. She unquestionably led the whole way, and never came to grief once. _Straight_ was her motto, and straight she went; brook, hedge, and cop were cleared by her in a style never seen in Cheshire before, and when Reynard was deprived of his brush, it was most deservedly presented to her amidst the cheers of all present.’ The movements of this circus during the following year are related, in another chapter, by a gentleman who was at that time a member of the company. In the spring of 1870, Messrs Sanger, whose circus is the largest and most complete tenting establishment travelling in this country, were threatened with a formidable rivalry by the appearance in the field of the great American circus of Howes and Cushing. How they met it is thus told by Mr Montague, who was then their agent in advance:— ‘It is well known that two large tenting concerns will not pay in England. Under these circumstances, Messrs Sanger determined to drive the Yankees off the road, which we ultimately succeeded in doing. Our mode of fighting them was to bill all the towns taken by them as though we were coming the following day, it being known to us that English people will always wait for the last circus, when two or more companies are advertised at the same time. Our next move was to take all the best towns in the North first. We succeeded so well with this mode of operation that we ultimately performed in the same town with them, namely, Preston, in Lancashire. On this memorable occasion, showmen came from all parts of England, two such concerns never having been seen in one town on the same day. Messrs Howes and Cushing acknowledged themselves beaten, and shortly afterwards returned to America.’