_Bilderdijk the Poet._--Banished from his native country, disowned by
his own countrymen, the Dutch poet Willem Bilderdijk pitched his tent
for a while on the hospitable soil of Old England. Prince William V.
residing in 1795 at Hampton Court, he resolved to stay there; but,
possessing no income at all, and, like the sage of antiquity, having
saved nothing from the shipwreck but his genius, he shifted his
dwelling-place to London, where he gave lessons in drawing, languages,
and various, even medical, sciences. He was married in England to
Katharine Wilhelmina Schweickhardt, on the 18th of May, 1797. His
residence in the birthplace of "NOTES AND QUERIES" makes me ask, if
there be still persons living, who remember him as teacher, friend, or
poet? A presentation-copy of Mrs. Bilderdijk's translation of _Rodrick,
the Last of the Goths_, was offered to Southey, accompanied by a Latin
letter from her spouse. The poet-laureate visiting Leyden in the summer
of 1825, Bilderdijk would not suffer him to remain lodged in the inn,
where an injury to his leg urged him to favour the landlord with a
protracted stay. Southey was transported accordingly to the Dutch poet's
house; and did not leave it before he was cured, several weeks having
elapsed in the meanwhile. Mention of this fact is made in a poem the
British bard addresses to Cuninghame. I do not know whether it is
alluded to in Southey's _Life_.
Bilderdijk's foot was crushed accidentally, in the sixth year of his
age, by one of his play-fellows; and thus he, who, by his natural
disposition seemed to be destined to a military career, was obliged to
enlist in the _militia togata_. He fought the good fight in verse. It is
remarkable that Byron and Sir Walter Scott, his cotemporaries, were also
lame or limping.