Which I have writ
To bring the folks to a house well lit,
To fill the house before we quit,
For a great attraction all admit
Will be on Dewhurst’s benefit.’
From the Surrey, Batty and his company removed to White Conduit Gardens, where a temporary circus was erected for the summer season, and in early autumn to the theatre at Brighton. Astley’s was re-opened shortly afterwards with a powerful company and a numerous stud of beautiful and well-trained horses. Batty was himself a capital rider; Newsome, his articled pupil, was already a very promising equestrian; and the company was now joined by the celebrated Stickney, who was a great attraction during several seasons. A bull-fight was one of the special features of the programme of 1842–3, a horse being, as on other occasions when the conflicts of the Corrida de los Toros have been represented in the arena, trained to play the part of the bull.
While performing at Brighton, Batty was convicted of having performed a pantomime in a place unlicensed for theatrical performances, whereby he had incurred a penalty of £50 under an Act of the reign of George II., which has been exercised on several occasions to the vexation and loss of the circus proprietors against whom it has been enforced. Batty appealed against the conviction, and engaged counsel, by whom it was elicited from the witnesses that the dialogue did not exceed fourteen lines, and was merely an introduction to an equestrian and acrobatic entertainment without scenery. It was argued for the appellant that the spectacle which had been represented was neither a pantomime nor a stage play; and that if an entertainment without a stage or scenery was a ‘stage play,’ the well-known tailor’s ride to Brentford was a stage play, and, if dialogue alone made an entertainment a stage play, the clown must not crack jokes with the ring-master, nor Punch appeal to the drummer outside his temple. Counsel reminded the bench that the Lord Chamberlain’s jurisdiction did not extend to the Surrey side of the Thames, and that magistrates had power to grant licenses only at a distance of twenty miles from the metropolis; so that Astley’s, the Surrey, the Victoria, and the Bower infringed with impunity the Act under which Batty had been convicted. The conviction was quashed, but the result of the appeal has not prevented other circus proprietors from being similarly molested in other parts of the country.
During the summer of 1843, Batty’s company performed in the Victoria Gardens, at Norwich, where the feats of Masotta, ‘the dare-devil rider,’ from Franconi’s, formed a striking feature of the programme. He was famous for leaping on and off the horse, from side to side, and backward and forward, while the animal was in full career. Plége, the rope-dancer, and Kemp, the pole performer, were also in the company.
On the company and stud returning to Astley’s in the autumn, the stirring events of the war in Afghanistan were embodied in one of those patriotic and military spectacles for which the establishment was famous. The national pulse did not beat so ardently at beat of drum and call of trumpet as it had done a quarter of a century before, however, and the run of the piece was proportionately short. It was followed by a spectacular play founded upon incidents connected with the battle of Worcester; a romantic equestrian drama, illustrative of the final struggle between the Spaniards and the Moors; and, towards the close of the season, by the ever-attractive Mazeppa.
Young Newsome, who displayed considerable ability as an equestrian pantomimist, was a great attraction in the circle, which now began to be enlivened by the humour of Tom Barry, who continued to be principal clown at this establishment for several years. Among the more remarkable of the ring performances during this season, other than equestrian, were the feats of one of the Henglers on the corde volante, and Kemp’s tricks on the ‘magic pole.’