Bilderdijk’s walking stick

In 1822, Jan Wap, who later became friends with Bilderdijk, saw the 66-year-old Bilderdijk walking across the Rapenburg in Leiden on his way to school. Later, Wap could still recall the image in detail:

A rather smaller than medium-sized man: a man with a trailing leg (à la Byron), a stumbling-on-the-go old man with a triangular or pointed hat, a dressed or state skirt, a pair of shorts, a long cardigan, everything in dignified black, and with bow shoes on the feet. In his right hand he held a supporting stick, but his left rested on the right shoulder of a boy, who was a few children’s steps ahead of him.

That was Bilderdijk, accompanied by his ten-year-old son Lodewijk Willem. With his wig, his three-edged hat, his breeches and bow shoes, which surprised many contemporaries, Bilderdijk was a walking anachronism in 1822. The fact that the walking stick, accompanied by its original storage bag, has been preserved, says a lot about Bilderdijk’s status. After his death, many objects that belonged to him were kept as a memento of a special person and a great poet.