SOMEONE has sent to me the obituary from the Daily Telegraph of April 26 of Clara Paulo, a member of one of Britain's great circus families, whose ballerina act on horseback harked back to the early days of the big top.

What has that to do with Bolton? you may ask.

Well, her grandmother was Madame Blondini, who had walked a rope over the Niagra Falls in emulation of the great Blondin (and who himself appeared at the Bolton Temperance Hall in 1879). However, the obituary goes on to say that her grandmother "was later seriously injured in a fall from a rope strung between church steeples in Bolton."

All I can find about this startling event, however, is not quite so startling. According to information in the Evening News' library, in about 1899 Madame Blondini attempted to walk from a rope attached to the tower of Holy Trinity Church, Bolton, to the ground. On the way she slipped. It was said that there was a joint in the rope which twisted when the rope was pulled taut. She caught it with her toe, fell, but managed to hang on until rescued by firemen. There may, possibly, have been another occasion when she was "seriously injured", but if so it is not recorded here. Perhaps a reader knows better.