“. . . . . Tuesday we had a pleasant day on the water,
and saw at the sluices of the Rhine enough to undeceive us concerning the
common statements about this country. That the sea is higher than the towers of
Leyden is altogether false: the truth is, that the general level of Holland is
above the low-water mark, and a little below that of high-water; and though the
lands are much below the rivers and canals, it is because the beds of the
rivers have been raised by what they bring down, or because the lands were
formerly large meres, or deep morasses, which have been drained. Wednesday I
went with Henry Taylor to the Hague, saw
the museum of pictures, called on one of my Dutch curmudgeons, Mr. De
Clerc, who is an improvisatore poet, and returned in the
evening. Thursday I settled my business as to booksellers.—Oh, joy when that
chest of glorious folios shall arrive at Keswick! the pleasure of unpacking, of
arranging them on the new shelves that must be provided, and the whole
year’s repast after supper which they will afford! After dinner we took
what Mr. Bilderdijk calls a walk in a
carriage, and drank tea in a village, where we had a very entertaining scene
with the hostess—a woman shaped very much like a jumping Joan, supposing the
said Joan to be tall, and lean in the upper half. Her birth-day had occurred a
few days before, and on that
| 232 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 51. |
“Yesterday our kind friends accompanied us a little way
in the trekschuit on our departure, and we parted with much
regret on both sides. If Mr. Bilderdijk
can muster spirits for the undertaking, they will come and pass a summer with
me,—which of all things in the world would give me most pleasure, for never did
I meet with more true kindness than they have shown me, or with two persons who
have in so many essential respects so entirely pleased me. Lodowijk, too, is a very engaging boy, and
attached himself greatly to me; he is the only survivor of eight children whom
Mr. Bilderdijk has had by his present wife, and of
seven by the first! I can truly say, that unpleasant as the circumstance was
which brought me under their roof, no part of my life ever seemed to pass away
more rapidly or
| Ætat. 51. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 233 |
“God bless you, my dear child!
