The Brothers Sanger—First Appearance in London—Vicissitudes of Astley’s—Batty and Cooke—Purchase of the Theatre by the Brothers Sanger—Their Travelling Circus—The Tenting System—Barnum and the Sangers. An impenetrable mist hangs over the early history of the industrious and enterprising gentlemen who now own the ‘home of the equestrian drama’ in the Westminster Road. The names of Hengler, and Cooke, and Adams have been, to our fathers and grandfathers, as well as to the present generation, ‘familiar in their mouths as household words;’ but circus records, and even circus traditions, are silent concerning the progenitors of John and George Sanger. There is a whisper floating about circus dressing-rooms that the latter gentleman might have been seen, many years ago, doing a conjuring trick on the narrow ‘parade’ of a little show at fairs; but the Brothers Sanger are most reticent concerning their antecedents, and all that can be said of them with certainty is that they were travelling with a well-appointed circus, and a numerous company and stud, many years before they became known as public entertainers in the metropolis. They first became known to a London audience by their successful series of performances at the Agricultural Hall, which place of amusement they occupied for several seasons. During their tenancy they produced several equestrian spectacles, all mounted in a costly and elaborate manner. The first was entitled ‘The Congress of Monarchs,’ and, nothing of a similar character having been previously produced in London, it attracted an immense concourse of persons to the Hall. To give some idea of the vast number who attended, I am enabled to state, on authority, that on several occasions upwards of 37,000 persons witnessed the performances in one day. Their last season in this place was in 1872, in which year they also acquired possession of Astley’s, which had, since the earlier days of Batty, gradually sunk to the lowest grade in the estimation of the pleasure-seeking portion of the public, all Batty’s successors, with the exception of William Cooke, having signally failed. Upon the termination of Cooke’s lease, Batty wished to raise the rental, or sell the property, and as Cooke declined paying more than he had hitherto done, he retired from Astley’s and the profession, and Batty, not finding a purchaser or a suitable tenant, after keeping the place closed for some time, opened it himself, having Hughes, a once celebrated equestrian proprietor, as acting manager, and William West as stage director. The military spectacle with which the theatre was re-opened, entitled _The Story of a Flag_, was a failure; and after lingering for a few months the theatre was closed.