Strawberries and cheese

Johan Huizinga once called Bilderdijk the ‘Great Unbearable’ ('Groote Ongenietbare'), because he was in constant conflict with his environment. Yet he also had a friendly, homely side. This is shown by the letters sent to Bilderdijk’s wife and children by the English Romantic poet Robert Southey, who stayed at Bilderdijk’s house in 1825. Bilderdijk, his wife and their thirteen-year-old son Lodewijk Willem lived on the Oude Singel (now number 86) in Leiden at the time. Here, they led a withdrawn existence.

Southey arrived in Leiden in the summer of 1825. The Englishman was ravaged by a painful foot, which was the result of an insect bite. Because nobody understood him in the guest house where he stayed, he wrote a note to his only Leiden connection, Bilderdijk, with whom he had previously corresponded. As soon as he heard that the Englishman was in town, Bilderdijk hurried over to him. ‘We were friends at first sight,’ Southey later wrote. Thanks to Southey, we obtain a clear view of ​​what Bilderdijk was like in these years, as well as of his eating habits. Various types of cheese were served at breakfast, including Leiden cheese. After the main meal, strawberries and cherries were eaten.

The strawberries and cheese cubes are placed on two Delft blue wall plates, which were released by De Porceleyne Fles in 1931, with religious sayings by Bilderdijk, such as: ‘Do not desire more than God gives you / He knows what everyone needs' and 'Beneficence has greater sweetness / Then all the pleasure of abundance’.