Circus Life and Circus Celebrities is a comprehensive look at circuses, covering all circus history and celebrity from its beginnings in England, including:

Beginnings of the Circus in England - Tumblers and Performing Horses of the Middle Ages - Jacob Hall, the Ropedancer - Francis Forcer and Sadler's Wells - Vauxhall Gardens - Price's Equestrian Performances at Johnson's Gardens-Sampson's Feats of Horsemanship - Philip Astley - His Open-air Performances near Halfpenny Hatch - The First Circus - Erection of the Amphitheatre in Westminster Road - First Performances there - Rival Establishment in Blackfriars Road - Hughes and Clementina.

Fortunes of the Royal Circus - Destruction of Astley's Amphitheatre by Fire - Its Reconstruction - Second Conflagration - Astley in Paris - Burning of the Royal Circus - Erection of the Olympic Pavilion - Hengler, the Rope-dancer - Astley's Horses - Dancing Horses - The Trick Horse, Billy - Abraham Saunders - John Astley and William Davis - Death of Philip Astley - Vauxhall Gardens - Andrew Ducrow - John Clarke - Barrymore's Season at Astley's - Hippo-dramatic Spectacles - The first Circus Camel.

Ducrow at Covent Garden -Engagement at Astley's - Double Acts in the circle - Ducrow at Manchester - Rapid Act on Six Horses - 'Raphael's Dream' - Miss Woolford - Cross's performing Elephant - O'Donnel's Antipodean Feats - First year of Ducrow and West - Henry Adams - Ducrow at Hull - The Wild Horse of the Ukraine - Ducrow at Sheffield - Travelling Circuses - An Entree at Holloway's - Wild's Show - Constantine, the Posturer - Circus Horses - Tenting at Fairs - The Mountebanks.

A few words about Menageries - George Wombwell - The Lion Baitings at Warwick - Atkins's Lion and Tigress at Astley's - A Bull-fight and a Zebra Hunt -Ducrow at the Pavilion - The Stud at Drury Lane - Letter from Wooler to Elliston - Ducrow and the Drury ‘Supers' - Zebras on the Stage - The first Arab Troupe - Contention between Ducrow and Clarkson Stanfield - Deaths of John Ducrow and Madame Ducrow - Miss Woolford.

Lions and Lion-tamers -Manchester Jack - Van Amburgh - Carter's Feats - What is a Tiger? - Lion-driving and Tiger-fighting - Van Amburgh and the Duke of Wellington - Vaulting Competition between Price and North - Burning of the Amphitheatre - Death of Ducrow - Equestrian Performances at the Surrey Theatre - Travelling Circuses - Wells and Miller - Thomas Cooke -Van Amburgh - Edwin Hughes - William Batty - Pablo Fanque.

Conversion of the Lambeth Baths into a Circus - Garlick and the Wild Beasts - Batty's Company at the Surrey - White Conduit Gardens - Re-opening of Astley's - Batty's Circus on its Travels - Batty and the Sussex Justices - Equestrianism at the Lyceum - Lions and Lion-tamers at Astley's - Franconi's Circus at Cremorne Gardens - An Elephant on the Tight-rope - The Art of Balancing - Franconi's Company at Drury Lane - Van Amburgh at Astley's - The Black Tiger - Pablo Fanque - Rivalry of Wallett and Barry - Wallett's Circus - Junction with Franconi's.

Hengler's Circus - John and George Sanger - Managerial Anachronisms and Incongruities - James Hernandez - Eaton and Stone - Horses at Drury Lane - James Newsome - Howes and Cushing's Circus - George Sanger and the Fighting Lions - Crockett and the Lions at Astley's - The Lions at large - Hilton's Circus - Lion-queens - Miss Chapman - Macomo and the Fighting Tigers.

Pablo Fanque - James Cooke - Pablo Fanque and the Celestials - Ludicrous affair in the Glasgow Police-court - Batty's transactions with Pablo Fanque - The Liverpool Amphitheatre - John Clarke - William Cooke - Astley's - Fitzball and the Supers - Batty's Hippodrome - Vauxhall Gardens - Ginnett's Circus - TheAlhambra - Gymnastic Performances in Music-Halls - Gymnastic Mishaps.

Cremorne Gardens - The Female Blondin - Fatal Accident at Aston Park - Reproduction of the Eglinton Tournament -Newsome and Wallett - Pablo Fanque's Circus - Equestrianism at Drury Lane - Spence Stokes - Talliott's Circus - The Gymnasts of the Music-halls - Fatal Accident at the Canterbury - Gymnastic Brotherhoods - Sensational Feats - Sergeant Bates and the Berringtons - The Rope-trick - How to do it.

Opening of the Holborn Amphitheatre - Friend's season at Astley's - Adah Isaacs Menken - Sanger's Company at the Agricultural Hall - The Carre troupe at the Holborn Amphitheatre - WanderingStars of theArena - Albert Smith and the Clown - Guillaume's Circus - The Circo Price - Hengler's Company at the Palais Royal - Re-opening of Astley's by the Sangers - Franconi's Circus - Newsome's Circus - Miss Newsome and the Cheshire Hunt - Rivalry between the Sangers and Howes and Cushing.

The book continues to discuss all aspects of Reminiscences of the Henglers, Brothers Sanger, American Circuses, Reminiscences of a Gymnast, Lions, Lion-tamers, and Circus Slang.

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