Φ.
Bilderdijk the Poet (Vol. ii., p. 309.).—There are several letters from Southey, in his Life and Correspondence, written while under the roof of Bilderdijk, giving a very agreeable account of the poet, his wife, and his family.
Φ.
Fool or a Physician (Vol. i., p. 137.; vol. ii., p. 315.).—The writer who has used this expression is Dr. Cheyne, and he probably altered it from the alliterative form, "a man is a fool or a physician at forty," which I have frequently heard in various parts of England. Dr. Cheyne's words are: "I think every man is a fool or a physician at thirty years of age, (that is to say), by that time he ought to know his own constitution, and unless he is determined to live an intemperate and irregular life, I think he may by diet and regimen prevent or cure any chronical disease; but as to acute disorders no one who is not well acquainted with medicine should trust to his own skill."
Dr. Cheyne was a medical writer of the last century.
A. G——T.
Wat the Hare (Vol. ii., p. 315.).—In the interesting, though perhaps somewhat partial, account of the unsuccessful siege of Corfe Castle, during the civil wars of the seventeenth century, which is given in the Mercurius Rusticus, there is an anecdote which will give a reply to the Query of your correspondent K. The commander of the Parliamentarian forces was Sir Walter Erle; and it was a great joke with his opponents that the pass-word of "Old Wat" had been given (by himself I believe) on the night of his last assault on the castle. The chronicler informs us that "Old Wat" was the usual notice of a hare being found sitting; and the proverbial timidity of that animal suggested some odious comparisons with the defeated general.
I have not the book at hand, but I am pretty sure that the substance of my information is correct.
C.W. BINGHAM.
Bingham's Melcombe, Blandford.