His successor was Benjamin Oliver Conquest {63} (born 1805) a comic actor of ability, endowed with plenty of animal spirits, which had carried him from the part of a coach-builder or (according to others) of a bootmaker in real life to the stage part of a witch in _Macbeth_, and finally supported him through a twenty-eight weeks’ repetition at the Pavilion Theatre of a song, ‘Billy Barlow,’ which made a sensation something like ‘Jim Crow.’ He inaugurated the first night of his management at the Eagle, March 31, 1851, by the production of _A Midsummer Night’s Dream_, with an opening address by E. L. Blanchard. On another night Blanchard’s burlesque, called _Nobody in Town_ was produced with a part for Sam Cowell (1820–1866), the comic singer, famous for his clear articulation and finished style. The great feature of Conquest’s management was the production of ballets, only surpassed by those of Her Majesty’s Theatre. It happened that Mrs. Conquest, his wife, was a fine dancer and a singularly skilful teacher, who trained a long succession of pupils, including the graceful Kate Vaughan. The Miss Conquests, moreover, his daughters Amelia, Laura, and Isabella, formed in themselves a small troupe of capable dancers. In the gardens, too, the public dancing became more prominent, and a ‘monster platform’ was erected for the accommodation of 500 people. The masked ball was also occasionally tried, an experiment, as Vauxhall had shown, likely to be fraught with rowdyism, though the Eagle sternly refused admittance to clowns, harlequins, and pantaloons. One sensation of Conquest’s management was the ascent, in 1852, of Coxwell’s balloon, with the acrobats H. and E. Buislay suspended on a double trapeze from its car. In the last years of the fifties, pantomime and drama, romantic and sensational, figure largely in the bills. From 1857 George Conquest, the proprietor’s son, began to take a prominent part as actor and stage-manager, and finally made the Grecian pantomime one of the features of the minor stage. In conjunction with H. Spry, the younger Conquest wrote or produced more than twenty-one pantomimes at this theatre, and was always to the fore in the performance itself. Unsurpassed in daring feats of the trap and trapeze kind, he was no less remarkable for his wonderful make-up and changes. In the _Wood Demon_ (1873–1874), for instance, he presented the title-rôle as a tree, appearing next as a dwarf, an animated pear, and finally as an octopus. He became sole proprietor on his father’s death (July 5, 1872), and built a new Grecian theatre, {64a} opened in October, 1877, with Harry Nicholls; George Conquest, junior, and Miss M. A. Victor in the company. In 1879 Conquest sold the Eagle property to Mr. T. G. Clark, taking his farewell benefit on March 17. He migrated to the Surrey Theatre, where, as lessee, he continued the traditions of the Grecian pantomimes. He died on May 14, 1901.