| List of Collections |
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| Aletta | | Alfred Gillet Trust Archive | | Auckland Libraries | | Bodleian Libraries Special Collections | | Bristol Unwin | | British Library, London | | Carlisle Marshall | | Colby Lee | | Cory Library, Rhodes University | | Cullen Library, Historical Papers, University of Witwatersrand | | Delaware Lasner | | Free State Archives Depot | | Greene Family | | Hobhouse Trust | | Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin | | Humpherys Bedborough | | Johannesburg Public Library | | Library of Parliament Cape Town Hunt | | Library of Sommerville College, Oxford | | Liverpool Bruce Glasier | | LSE Passfield | | Lytton Family Papers | | Macfarlane-Muirhead Family | | McMaster Russell | | National Archives Depot, Pretoria | | National English Literary Museum, Grahamstown | | National Library of South Africa SCCS Extracts | | National Library of South Africa, Cape Town | | Newspapers | | Ronald Levine | | Sheffield City Libraries, Archives & Local Studies | | University College London | | University of Cape Town, Historical Manuscripts | | Unknown | | War Museum of the Boer Republics Bloemfontein Autograph Collection | | West Sussex Cobden Unwin | | Western Cape Archives | | Women’s Library Autograph Collection |
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| Letter Reference | Lytton 01229/1 |
| Archive | Lytton Family Papers, Knebworth |
| Epistolary Type | Letter |
| Letter Date | 13 February 1893 |
| Address From | Middelburg, Eastern Cape |
| Address To | |
| Who To | Constance Lytton |
| Other Versions | Rive 1987: 219 |
The manuscript of this letter by Olive Schreiner belongs to the Archive referenced above; its ownership of the original should be acknowledged by referencing the letter as indicated: Copyright transcription: © Olive Schreiner Letters Project. This transcription can be freely used as long as copyright is acknowledged and it is referenced using the following citation: ‘Olive Schreiner to Constance Lytton, 13 February 1893, Lytton Family Papers, Knebworth, Olive Schreiner Letters Project transcription’. Please also supply letter line numbers for specific quotations.
Legend
The Project is grateful to the Knebworth House Archive (www.knebworthhouse.com) for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter to Lady Constance Lytton, which is part of the Knebworth collections.
1: Middelburg
2: Feb 13 / 93
3:
4: Dear Lady Constance,
5:
6: I was so glad to hear you had such a good voyage home with “plenty of
7: room” on the ship. It must have been beautiful to get back.
8:
9: I’ve been travelling ever since you left. I’m quite strong now, almost,
10: & I want to be quite fit when I get home, so I’m going to travel a
11: bit more.
12:
13: I wrote you a very foolish letter; but you know sometimes one is so
14: tired one doesn’t know what to do I had got to the end of all hope &
15: faith in our South African politi-cal world, & as that is the world in
16: which I have through my sympathies been living for the last three
17: years it seemed to crush me. Now I have got past that point: I
18: recognize facts - & don’t care. That is recognize it is the
19: ?inevitable.
20:
21: Low as the atmosphere of political life is & must be everywhere where
22: representative institutions exist, I think it is lower at the Cape
23: than elsewhere.
24:
25: I have found one very splendid & able young man in the Eastern
26: Province; who when he enters political life may “stand” but the
27: probability is he will fall.
28:
29: I shall I think be sailing on the 28th of April. I dont know what my
30: address will be in London but I shall have time to send it you before
31: I come. It will be quite beautiful to see you again there. I can’t
32: realize it.
33:
34: Yours always
35: Olive Schreiner
36:
37: I’m sending this to Adela because I don’t know your address
38:
39: ^Still address Matjesfontein^
40:
Notation
Rive’s (1987) version omits part of this letter and is incorrect in minor ways.
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