The popularity of the circus in England may be traced to that kept by Philip Astley (d. 1814) in London at the end of the 18th century. Astley was followed by Ducrow, whose feats of horsemanship had much to do with establishing the traditions of the circus, which were perpetuated by Hengler’s and Sanger’s celebrated shows in a later generation. In America a circus-actor named Ricketts is said to have performed before George Washington in 1780, and in the first half of the 19th century the establishments of Purdy, Welch & Co., and of van Amburgh gave a wide popularity to the circus in the United States. All former circus-proprietors were, however, far surpassed in enterprise and resource by P.T. Barnum (q.v.), whose claim to be the possessor of “the greatest show on earth” was no exaggeration. The influence of Barnum, however, brought about a considerable change in the character of the modern circus. In arenas too large for speech to be easily audible, the traditional comic dialogue of the clown assumed a less prominent place than formerly, while the vastly increased wealth of stage properties relegated to the background the old-fashioned equestrian feats, which were replaced by more ambitious acrobatic performances, and by exhibitions of skill, strength and daring, requiring the employment of immense numbers of performers and often of complicated and expensive machinery. These tendencies are, as is natural, most marked in shows given in permanent buildings in large cities, such as the London Hippodrome, which was built as a combination of the circus, the menagerie and the variety theatre, where wild animals such as lions and elephants from time to time appeared in the ring, and where convulsions of nature such as floods, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions have been produced with an extraordinary wealth of realistic display. At the Hippodrome in Paris—unlike its London namesake, a circus of the true classical type in which the arena is entirely surrounded by the seats of the spectators—chariot races after the Roman model were held in the latter part of the 19th century, at which prizes of considerable value were given by the management.
CIRENCESTER (traditionally pronounced Ciceter), a market town in the Cirencester parliamentary division of Gloucestershire, England, on the river Churn, a tributary of the Thames, 93 m. W.N.W. of London. Pop. of urban district (1901) 7536. It is served by a branch of the Great Western railway, and there is also a station on the Midland and South-Western Junction railway. This is an ancient and prosperous market town of picturesque old houses clustering round a fine parish church, with a high embattled tower, and a remarkable south porch with parvise. The church is mainly Perpendicular, and among its numerous chapels that of St Catherine has a beautiful roof of fan-tracery in stone dated 1508. Of the abbey founded in 1117 by Henry I. there remain a Norman gateway and a few capitals. There are two good museums containing mosaics, inscriptions, carved and sculptured stones, and many smaller remains, for the town was the Roman Corinium or Durocornovium Dobunorum. Little trace of Corinium, however, can be seen in situ, except the amphitheatre and some indications of the walls. To the west of the town is Cirencester House, the seat of Earl Bathurst. The first Lord Bathurst (1684-1775) devoted himself to beautifying the fine demesne of Oakley Park, which he planted and adorned with remarkable artificial ruins. This nobleman, who became baron in 1711 and earl in 1772, was a patron of art and literature no less than a statesman; and Pope, a frequent visitor here, was allowed to design the building known as Pope’s Seat, in the park, commanding a splendid prospect of woods and avenues. Swift was another appreciative visitor. The house contains portraits by Lawrence, Gainsborough, Romney, Lely, Reynolds, Hoppner, Kneller and many others. A mile west of the town is the Royal Agricultural College, incorporated by charter in 1845. Its buildings include a chapel, a dining hall, a library, a lecture theatre, laboratories, classrooms, private studies and dormitories for the students, apartments for resident professors, and servants’ offices; also a museum containing a collection of anatomical and pathological preparations, and mineralogical, botanical and geological specimens. The college farm comprises 500 acres, 450 of which are arable; and on it are the well-appointed farm-buildings and the veterinary hospital. Besides agriculture, the course of instruction at the college includes chemistry, natural and mechanical philosophy, natural history, mensuration, surveying and drawing, and other subjects of practical importance to the farmer, proficiency in which is tested by means of sessional examinations. The industries of Cirencester comprise various branches of agriculture. It has connexion by a branch canal with the Thames and Severn canal.
Corinium was a flourishing Romano-British town, at first perhaps a cavalry post, but afterwards, for the greater part of the Roman period, purely a civilian city. At Chedworth, 7 m. N.E., is one of the most noteworthy Roman villas in England. Cirencester (Cirneceaster, Cyrenceaster, Cyringceaster) is described in Domesday as ancient demesne of the crown. The manor was granted by William I. to William Fitzosbern; on reverting to the crown it was given in 1189, with the township, to the Augustinian abbey founded here by Henry I. The struggle of the townsmen to prove that Cirencester was a borough probably began in the same year, when they were amerced for a false presentment. Four inquisitions during the 13th century supported the abbot’s claims, yet in 1343 the townsmen declared in a chancery bill of complaint that Cirencester was a borough distinct from the manor, belonging to the king but usurped by the abbot, who since 1308 had abated their court of provostry. Accordingly they produced a copy of a forged charter from Henry I. to the town; the court ignored this and the abbot obtained a new charter and a writ of supersedeas. For their success against the earls of Kent and Salisbury Henry IV. in 1403 gave the townsmen a gild merchant, although two inquisitions reiterated the abbot’s rights. These were confirmed in 1408-1409 and 1413; in 1418 the charter was annulled, and in 1477 parliament declared that Cirencester was not corporate. After several unsuccessful attempts to re-establish the gild merchant, the government in 1592 was vested in the bailiff of the lord of the manor. Cirencester became a parliamentary borough in 1572, returning two members, but was deprived of representation in 1885. Besides the “new market” of Domesday Book the abbots obtained charters in 1215 and 1253 for fairs during the octaves of All Saints and St Thomas the Martyr. The wool trade gave these great importance; in 1341 there were ten wool merchants in Cirencester, and Leland speaks of the abbots’ cloth-mill, while Camden calls it the greatest market for wool in England.
See Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, vols. ii., ix., xviii.
CIRILLO, DOMENICO (1739-1799), Italian physician and patriot, was born at Grumo in the kingdom of Naples. Appointed while yet a young man to a botanical professorship, Cirillo went some years afterwards to England, where he was elected fellow of the Royal Society, and to France. On his return to Naples he was appointed successively to the chairs of practical and theoretical medicine. He wrote voluminously and well on scientific subjects and secured an extensive medical practice. On the French occupation of Naples and the proclamation of the Parthenopean republic (1799), Cirillo, after at first refusing to take part in the new government, consented to be chosen a representative of the people and became a member of the legislative commission, of which he was eventually elected president. On the abandonment of the republic by the French (June 1799), Cardinal Ruffo and the army of King Ferdinand IV. returned to Naples, and the Republicans withdrew, ill-armed and inadequately provisioned, to the forts. After a short siege they surrendered on honourable terms, life and liberty being guaranteed them by the signatures of Ruffo, of Foote, and of Micheroux. But the arrival of Nelson changed the complexion of affairs, and he refused to ratify the capitulation. Secure under the British flag, Ferdinand and his wife, Caroline of Austria, showed themselves eager for revenge, and Cirillo was involved with the other republicans in the vengeance of the royal family. He asked Lady Hamilton (wife of the British minister to Naples) to intercede on his behalf, but Nelson wrote in reference to the petition: “Domenico Cirillo, who had been the king’s physician, might have been saved, but that he chose to play the fool and lie, denying that he had ever made any speeches against the government, and saying that he only took care of the poor in the hospitals” (Nelson and the Neapolitan Jacobins, Navy Records Society, 1903). He was condemned and hanged on the 29th of October 1799. Cirillo, whose favourite study was botany, and who was recognized as an entomologist by Linnaeus, left many books, in Latin and Italian, all of them treating of medical and scientific subjects, and all of little value now. Exception must, however, be made in favour of the Virtù morali dell’ Asino, a pleasant philosophical pamphlet remarkable for its double charm of sense and style. He introduced many medical innovations into Naples, particularly inoculation for smallpox.
See C. Giglioli, Naples in 1799 (London, 1903); L. Conforti, Napoli nel 1799 (Naples, 1889); C. Tivaroni, L’ Italia durante il dominio francese, vol. ii. pp. 179-204. Also under [Naples]; [Nelson] and [Ferdinand Iv. Of Naples].
CIRQUE (Lat. circus, ring), a French word used in physical geography to denote a semicircular crater-like amphitheatre at the head of a valley, or in the side of a glaciated mountain. The valley cirque is characteristic of calcareous districts. In the Chiltern Hills especially, and generally along the chalk escarpments, a flat-bottomed valley with an intermittent stream winds into the hill and ends suddenly in a cirque. There is an excellent example at Ivinghoe, Buckinghamshire, where it appears as though an enormous flat-bottomed scoop had been driven into the hillside and dragged outwards to the plain. In all cases it is found that the valley floor consists of hard or impervious rock above which lies a permeable or soluble stratum of considerable thickness. In the case of the chalk hills the upper strata are very porous, and the descending water with atmospheric and humous acids in solution has great solvent power. During the winter this upper layer becomes saturated and some of the water drains away along joints in the escarpment. An underground stream is thus developed carrying away a great deal of material in solution, and in consequence the ground above slowly collapses over the stream, while the cirque at the head, where the stream issues, gradually works backward and may pass completely through the hills, leaving a gap of which another drainage system may take possession. In the limestone country of the Cotteswold Hills, many small intermittent tributary streams are headed by cirques, and some of the longer dry valleys have springs issuing from beneath their lower ends, the dry valleys being collapsed areas above underground streams not yet revealed. In this case the pervious limestone is underlain by beds of impervious clay. There are many of these in the Jura Mountains. The Cirque de St Sulpice is a fine example where the impervious bed is a marly clay.