[Shona]

Going through the newspaper reports, there is conflicting information about the troupe.

One report from 1876 records an accident. Lilla and Elspa, a boy and girl, aged about 10, were performing with Elspa hanging by feet and Lilla failed to grasp his hands and fell.

Not seriously hurt, though.

Then there are various reports about the so-called 'romantic abduction' of Lillo in 1884.

The Edinburgh Evening News reports that at Birmingham, Samuel Neale, a wholesale newsagent, was charged on remand with abducting Florence Mary Lillo Stone, otherwise Dillon, professionally known as 'Lillo' of the Lillo, Elspa and Echo troupe of female gymnast.

The defendant and the girl's father came to an amicable agreement and the charges were withdrawn.

The Dundee Courier, however, on reporting the summons issued by Samuel [a mistake?] Dillon, Birmingham, hotel keeper, against Samuel Neale for the abduction of his daughter, Florence, aged 15, states that Dillon's daughter is a well-known trapezist, performing with an elder and younger brother, the trio being known as Lillo, Elspa and Echo.

Apparently, Neale, 22, hawked the evening paper around Birmingham. He became acquainted with Lillo by frequenting the bar attached to her father's hotel. When Neale and Florence married, it was said that Florence was an orphan and aged 18. She returned to her father after the marriage. The marriage only became known when Mr Dillon made and engagement with Mr Barnum's agent for the children to tour America and Neale demanded his wife.

The Manchester Evening News carried a report headed 'Sequel to the Romantic Abduction Case' in which the troupe are referred to as female gymnasts. This report details that Neale was summoned for threatening the life of Mrs Harriet Cox, the mother of Julia Cox, to whom he was paying his addresses at the time he made the acquaintance of the fair gymnast. Again, the parties concerned reached an amicable agreement and the case was dropped.