I REMEMBER that, when I was small, a number of circuses toured the country and came to towns like Bolton where they paraded through the streets from the train station to where the Big Top had been erected, and thousands of people lined the streets to see the spectacle.

In the show itself, we would watch in awe the trapeze artists, the elephants, the bare horseback riders (in case you are wondering, the horses' backs were bare - i.e no saddles - not the riders' backs) and the many other fascinating acts.

The one that always intrigued and frightened me most, though, like many people, was the lions. They were dangerous, wild animals, so why didn't they attack the lion tamer?

Well, they never did when I was there, but, in fact, there were a couple of instances in Bolton where these ferocious and beautiful creatures got the upper hand.

On January 3, 1872, a deathly hush settled over 600 people in the large marquee on the Market Square (now Victoria Square or the Precinct) as Thomas Maccarte, professionally known as "Massarti, the Lion Tamer", entered the lion's den for the last time; the last time, supposedly, before Manders' Menagerie packed up and moved on to Bury.

Little did that crowd realise, however, that they were to actually witness Massarti's last appearance as a lion tamer. Fifteen minutes later, he was carried battered and bleeding from the lion's cage after one of the most horrifying sights in the history of the circus.

Alarge part of the Square in front of the Town Hall and the Commercial Hotel had been occupied by the show since the opening of the New Year Fair. On the Wednesday evening alone, five performances had already been given, but, because of the immense numbers of visitors, it was decided to give another at 10.30pm.

Anyone not directly involved in the show was hard at work packing for the trip to Bury. When the time came for Massarti's act, one attendant was busy taking down the lamps inside the tent, and nobody had bothered to heat up the red-hot iron bars and scrapers which were to be used to ward off the lions in case of emergency.

Massarti was 34 years old and had trained lions for several years. An incident at Bell and Myers' circus in Liverpool, in which a lion had taken off one of his arms, had given him a reputation for carelessness, and he had often been cautioned by his employer, Mrs Manders.

Only that morning he had been told to watch an Asiatic lion, Tyrant, which had recently shown signs of being dangerous, but he seemed to be more worried about a black-maned African lion which had bitten his hand on the Monday. At any rate, it was the African lion that he particularly eyed as he put the five animals through their paces.

Towards the end of the act, however, Tyrant became troublesome and prowled menacingly to the tamer's side of the cage. Massarti drew the short sword which formed part of his gladiator's costume, and succeeded in scaring the lion away. However, as he was returning the sword to its scabbard, he slipped and fell to the floor of the cage.

Tyrant was on him in a flash, seizing him by the hip. The African lion fastened on the stump of his arm while Massarti, still on the ground, shouted to the keepers to fire on the animals and jabbed the sword desperately in Tyrant's face.

By now, the shouting, panic-stricken crowd had gathered round the cage, preventing the keepers from doing anything. Police who were on duty in the tent fired blank cartridges ineffectively into the cage while others ran off to get rifles from the nearby shooting ranges. A resourceful member of the crowd, a Mr Birchall, placed the scrapers into the fire to heat them.

The shouts of the crowd and the smell of the blood excited the other lions, and a third seized Massarti by the ribs. A fourth, which had always been a favourite of its master, ripped open Massarti's scalp and then slunk back into its corner.

An iron shutter, designed to be operated from outside the cage to separate the lions, was now brought into action. With the aid of the hot scrapers, circus attendants managed to drive three lions away and into the other half of the cage, but an attempt to drive off another lion only led to the tamer being dragged through the shutter and back among the enraged animals.

Meanwhile, Mrs Manders, recovering from paralysis, had managed to make her way painfully into the tent and to the side of the cage; under her direction, the keepers soon had the lions back under control. The door of the cage was opened, and Massarti was carried to the Infirmary where he died a few minutes later.

The jury at the inquest returned a verdict of "misadventure" and added a rider expressing their "entire disapprobation of the reckless custom of so-called lion tamers performing in dens where ferocious animals are caged up".

On July 5 of that same year, a monument was erected over his grave in the Roman Catholic portion of Tonge Cemetery. It read: "In memory of the Great Lion Tamer, Thomas Maccarte, aged 34, killed at Bolton on Jan. 3, 1872, by the lions in Manders' Star Menagerie. Erected to the memory of an old and faithful servant by Mrs Rosina Manders, sole proprietress of the Grand National Star Menagerie".

It wasn't the only time that a lion tamer was injured in Bolton, though. In December, 1948, at the Grand Theatre, Naraya Swami was attacked by an African lion just after he had finished his act. It was only by the efforts of other performers that the lion was driven off and Swami's life saved, although he was treated at Bolton Royal Infirmary for his injuries. Two years later, in March, 1950, Swami was again attacked, and killed by the same lion while performing in a travelling circus in Evesham, Worcestershire.