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 

 flapped 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 water". 



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, 



