by thousands
with a contemptuous disregard of author's copyright.

For Aytoun the extravagances of melodrama and the feats and
eccentricities of the arena at Astley's amphitheatre had always a
peculiar charm. "The terrible Fitzball," the English Dumas, in quantity,
not quality, of melodrama, Gomersal, one of the chief equestrians, and
Widdicomb, the master of the ring at Astley's, were three of his
favourite heroes. Ducrow, manager of Astley's, the most daring and
graceful of equestrians, and the fair Miss Woolford, the star of his
troupe, had charms irresistible for all lovers of the circus. In
Aytoun's enthusiasm I fully shared. Mine found expression in "The
Courtship of our Cid," Aytoun's in "Don Fernando Gomersalez," in which I
recognise many of my own lines, but of which the conception and the best
part of the verses were his. Years afterwards his delight in the glories
of the ring broke out in the following passage in a
too-good-to-be-forgotten article in 'Blackwood,' which, to those who may
never hope to see in any circus anything so inspiring, so full of an
imaginative glamour, may give some idea of the nightly scenes in the
halcyon days of Astley's:--

"We delight to see, at never-failing Astley's, the revived glories of
British prowess--Wellington in the midst of his staff, smiling
benignantly on the facetious pleasantries of a Fitzroy
Somerset--Sergeant M'Craw of the Forty-Second delighting the _elite_
of Brussels by the performance of the reel of Tullochgorum at the
Duchess of Richmond's ball--the charge of the Scots Greys--the
single-handed combat of Marshal Ney and the infuriated Life-Guardsman
Shaw--and the final retreat of Napoleon amidst a volley of Roman
candles and the flames of an arsenicated Hougomont. Nor is our
gratification less to discern, after the subsiding of the showers of
sawdust so gracefully scattered by that groom in the doeskin
integuments, the stately form of Widdicomb, cased in martial apparel,
advancing towards the centre of the ring, and commanding--with
imperious gesture, and some slight flagellation in return for dubious
compliment--the double-jointed clown to assist the Signora Cavalcanti
to her seat upon the celebrated Arabian. How lovely looks the lady,
as she vaults to her feet upon the breadth of the yielding saddle!
With what inimitable grace does she whirl these tiny banners around
her hea