'The Greatest Show on Earth'
P.T. Barnum, slogan for his circus, 1881

Jugglers, grease paint, drum-rolls, implausible moustaches, gunpowder, outsize shoes, lions, oompah music, spangly acrobats.

Such extraordinary goings-on under the big top have a special resonance for us all. They're as much a part of the British childhood experience as conkers, seaside holidays and Blue Peter. And quite rightly, because the circus we know today was fashioned by a trick-riding English cavalryman called Sergeant Major Philip Astley in the 1760s.

Although some of the individual acts were familiar to earlier audiences, notably in ancient Rome, Astley concluded that a show combining displays by horses, acrobats, trapeze artists, tight-rope walkers and – everyone's favourite – clowns, would be an unmissable spectacular.

So, next time you see a striped big top and hear the roar of the crowd, spare a thought for a long-departed English cavalry officer who gave us The Greatest Show on Earth.