364 REMINISCENCES OF 



you take an interest ; and I am so glad to have an 

 opportunity to do the best I can in these new works, 

 and I hope I may succeed, as my best will be but 

 poor. I hope Mrs. Thomson and family are well, 

 though the last accounts I heard were not so favour- 

 able of Mrs. Thomson's state of health. Please to 

 give her my best compliments, and to remember me 

 also to J. Pye. I hope you will find some day some 

 nice cheap horse for me — I long for one. 

 " Ever sincerely and obligingly yours, 



" J. E. BOEHM." 



Boehm made a beautiful statue of the Queen, 

 life-size, sitting with a spinning-wheel and a collie 

 dog lying by her side. He very often came down 

 to Brixworth, and used to ride an old horse of mine 

 called " Rocket," but he did not like my plain 

 fiapped saddles, so I got one with plenty of stuffing 

 in front of the knees. He said, " The saddle was 

 charming, and Rocket was charming". He jumped 

 a small brook, a branch hit him on the face, and 

 knocked his hat off into the brook. He picked it 

 up and put it on: "Trickle, trickle, and I said to 

 myself, here comes bluid, but it was zvate?''". 



Boehm's father was the manager of the mint in 

 Austria, and his principal occupation as a boy was 

 drawing designs of the emperor for the dies for 

 coins. He first went to Paris, but he did not like 

 the French style of equestrian statues — they were 

 too ideal, and he wanted something more real ; so 

 he came to England, and commenced with statuettes, 



