The Equestrian Circus in Monmouth Street and the Child of Promise

On 17 April 1788, the following advertisement appeared in the press:

'By particular Desire of several Ladies and Gentlemen positively the last night. At Ryle’s Ride, the top of Monmouth Street, will be presented a variety of equestrian exercise, consisting of horsemanship by the whole troop, tight rope dancing by the unrivalled Signora Riccardini, and the Child of Promise. Slack Rope Vaulting by Master Smith, Mr Smallcomb will pick up a watch blindfold. Mr Handy, in the character of harlequin, will make several surprising leaps through a hogshead of real fire (Beatles fans take note) to conclude with the tailor's disaster Or disagreeable journey to Brentford, with the hunter and road horse, by Mr Smallcombe. The doors open at half past five, and begin at half past six. Front seats, 2s. Back seats, 1s. Mr Handy returns his best thanks for the great encouragement he has been honoured within this city.'

Stephen Ryle, who put in this advertisement, kept equestrian premises in Monmouth Street, from which he sold carriages and horses and ran a stud. He also offered riding tuition in his ‘Circular Riding School.' 

Benjamin Handy began his career as an ostler with Hughes Equestrian Circus. Hughes had been a performer with Phillip Astley’s famous circus in London but left to create his own company and amphitheatre with the intention of breaking Astley’s virtual monopoly. Handy’s appearance with his own company in Bath seems to have been one of his first. The company mostly consisted of members of his own family and former members of the company Astley had brought to Bristol in the 1770s. 

The Tailor's Disaster Or Disagreeable Ride to Brentford was a well-established clowning routine which would have been familiar to those who had attended Astley's shows.

Signora Riccardini was Handy’s wife who could perform on 'One and Two Horses in a capital Manner’ and famously would stand on her head on top a spear surrounded by fireworks. She and  Benjamin had married in Birmingham in 1873.

The 'Child of Promise' was the Handy's daughter, Mary Ann, whose star turn was riding on another rider's shoulders ‘without the assistance of Hand or Rein, having nothing to keep her up but her perpendicular Balance, and which is allowed to be the greatest balance ever attempted.’ She would have been around four years old in 1788. A year later, her father refused an offer of 365 guineas a year from Astley for his daughter's services. 

The Master Smith mentioned in the bill was Handy’s indentured apprentice; however, by the 1787 -8 season, he was a well-established performer, which may explain his running away from his service in 1793 to become a major star of the London circus scene.

Astley's Amphitheatre in 1777

At Bristol on 25th April 1788, in 'a large commodious yard at the back of the Angel, in the Borough Walls, leading from Redcliff Street to Thames Street, ' a group of performers from Astley’s and Hughes’s riding schools in London were presenting riding, rope dancing and other entertainments. Still, the group was called (Benjamin) Handy’s Troupe in the advertisements. Featured were 'the celebrated Mr Franklin, the Child of Promise' (Mary Ann Handy), Signora Riccardini (Mrs Handy), and Benjamin Handy. Mr Franklin was Thomas Franklin, the son of a clown, famous for his feats of strength.

In December 1788 and early January 1789, ‘Ryle’s Circular Riding-School,’ which by now had been granted a Royal Patent to Host Equestrian Entertainments, hosted the same troupe of performers. The wonders promised included: ‘Mr Franklin will carry the Child of Promise over the leaping bar on two horses in the attitude of a Flying Mercury.’  This show did not feature Handy’s wife, possibly because she was incapacitated by the illness of which she would later die. By October of that year, Ryle’s was putting on a show, under the patronage of the Mayor of Bath, that did not include the Handy family, probably because of the death of Handy’s wife on the 25th of September. But they did have Franklin and many other members of the Handy troupe. The performers also included Mr Parker throwing 'a Somerset (sic) off the horse at full speed.’ (Beatles fans may wish to take note here, too!). Parker's celebrated actress wife, who was said to be the best Columbine in England, joined him and was a member of the company at the Theatre Royal for the 1789/90 season.

By November, Ryle and Franklin had formed a partnership and put on their own shows at what was now billed as 'Ryle and Franklin’s Amphitheatre' with facilities comparable to Astley’s London arena, e.g., heating and ringside boxes which could be reserved, as in the Theatre, by sending your servants to occupy them. There were three performances a week. The Ryle Franklin enterprise doesn't seem to have thrived because, by March 1790, Franklin and Hardy had become partners and were again in Bristol building a new riding school and ring for performance behind the Full Moon in North Street, St Paul’s. Construction was delayed, however, and the planned opening on 8th March was postponed until the 22nd. Meanwhile, the two men offered riding lessons to the ladies and gentlemen of Bristol.

Even though they had so recently erected an arena, on 10th May 1790, Franklin and Handy announced plans for a more elaborate riding school and performance ring. They promised their patrons that construction would commence as soon as 500 gs (of a total of 1000 gs needed) should be subscribed. They also noted they would attend six months of the year to teach riding to Bristolians and to break horses for them. They continued to perform in their old circus at Bristol throughout May and then left to perform elsewhere. Their new establishment in Bristol opened in 1792, but Handy seems to have sold his interests in the Bristol establishment in 1793. Handy went on to have a long and successful career both as a performer and proprietor, eventually owning a part share in Astley’s Amphitheatre in London. Jacob DeCastro, the comedian, in his memoir of 1824, said that Handy 'lives as an independent gentleman, and a magistrate for the county of Somerset, very near the famed city of Bath . . .'

In February 1793, Franklin brought his company to Monmouth Street four times a week. The company consisted of 9 performers and 9 horses. The programme offered horsemanship, rope-vaulting, ground and lofty tumbling and Egyptian Pyramids. Performers included:

• Mr Franklin, himself performing his "much-admired trick with oranges and forks
• The astonishing eight-year-old "Young English Mercury", whose speciality was playing the violin while on the shoulders of Franklin while he rode two horse
• Master Smith
• The Little Devil performing somersaults on horseback
• Mr Crossman, who had learned his trade with Astley

Franklin’s Bristol venture never seems to have been adequately capitalized and appears to have failed around 1794. DeCastro says that Franklin went to America, where he died. Ryle seems to have gone back to focussing on his core business, and his 1804 advertisements announce his hiring of a fashionable London riding master to teach the gentry alongside his livery and horse hire services. He also seems to have acquired additional livery accommodation in Pulteney Street.

In July 1813, the newspapers announced that 'Mr Sam Ryle, former livery stable keeper and master of the riding school in Monmouth Street; he retired to bed in his usual state of health and in the morning was found dead.'

And what of the Child of Promise? She went on to have a successful career as a performer on horseback but, more famously, as a slackrope dancer until her tragic death at about thirteen. Travelling with her company from Liverpool to London in the packet Viceroy, she drowned when it sank in St Georges Channel in December 1797.