COL. ANSTRUTHER THOMSON 361 



CHAPTER XXI. 



JOHAN ERASMUS BOEHM, AFTERWARDS SIR EDGAR BOEHM. 



BOEHM was making an equestrian statuette of Lady 

 Spencer. I happened to ride over to Althorp one 

 afternoon, and Spencer took me to see the statuette 

 and introduced me to Boehm. He had not then 

 been very long in England, and did not talk English 

 very well, but he knew it and wrote it very perfectly. 

 He said that he wished to have an opportunity of 

 studying fox-hounds, as he had an order from an 

 American gentleman to make a group. I said, 

 " Come and stay with me at Brigstock, and you can 

 study them all day ". I was staying by myself at 

 " The Three Cocks ". He came there and I lent him 

 a pony to go out cub-hunting, and in the evenings 

 he made little wax models of hounds. When he was 

 going away he said, " Have you any objection to 

 my making a model of you ? " I said, " I shall be too 

 proud ". I then found that while out hunting he had 

 made many sketches of me in different positions. He 

 made the statuette without my ever sitting for it, and 

 when he did the head, he had a bit of clay on the 

 end of a stick, and walked about the room talking to 

 me. His facility in modelling was most wonderful. 

 I believe Lord Spencer had mentioned him to 



