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Letter ReferenceMacFarlane-Muirhead/1
ArchiveMacFarlane Collection
Epistolary TypeLetter
Letter Date25 September 1889
Address FromSt Leonards, Hastings, East Sussex
Address ToAbbotsholme, Rocester, Staffordshire
Who ToRobert Franklin ('Bob') Muirhead
Other Versions
PermissionsPlease read before using or citing this transcription
Legend
The Project is grateful to Mrs Hazel MacFarlane for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter to Bob Muirhead, which is part of the MacFarlane family collection of Muirhead Papers, Special Collections, University of Glasgow Library. The date of the letter is provided by the postmark on an attached envelope, and the address it was sent to is on its front.
1St’ Leonards on Sea
2
3Dear Bob, I have had to come down here for a week. I shan’t be back
4in town till the Wednes Thursday of next week, so if you come on the
520th I shan’t see you. Don’t you want to come to St Leonards??? We
6could have some fine walks. Alice is down here with me & when she goes
7another girl is coming. I shall only be in Eastb London till Monday
8the first of Oct: & then come to Eastbourne to stay there till I sail.
9I don’t know why I like to see you so much.
10
11You must always tell me alittle about yourself when I’m in Africa,
12tell me when you fall in love & when you get married! When I am
13staying at Eastbourne I shall “work” my brother on the subject of
14the school.
15
16It’s beautiful down here. I sometimes feel as if I were dead & gone
17to heaven already, but I expect when I get stronger the old Adam will
18wake up & I shall want to live.
19
20I had a lovely day up the river with my
21
22^friends the Roberts.^
23Olive
24
25I will send you the first copy of the Fortnightly I get, Bob.
26
27It’s so beautiful lying here in bed lis-tening to the sea. It’s a
28wild windy day with gusts of rain. I can see the sea from my bed when
29I am proped up with pillows. I’m afraid you were very tired when you
30got back to Lon-don.
31
32I would like to write you a long long letter but I can’t today.
33
34Send me your photograph, please. Address to Alice Corthorn’s care.
35She has been so sweet the last two days taking care of me.
36
37Bob I’ll never forget how you helped me up those steps & how nice it
38was lying there in the sunshine.
39
40Goodbye
41Olive Schreiner
42
43Tuesday
44St Leonards on Sea
45
46Please finish the address on the care & post.
47
48^Address. Edinburgh Hotel till next Tues-day. After that Chenies St
49till the 30th.^
50
51^I’ll send you a copy of the Fortnightly with my article as soon as it^
52
53^comes out.^
54
Notation
The article in the Fortnightly Review which Schreiner refers to was in fact not published in the Fortnightly Review because of its length. See "The sunlight lay across my bed: Part I - Hell" New Review Vol 1, no 11, April 1890, pp.300-309; and "The sunlight lay across my bed: Part II - Heaven", New Review Vol 1, no 12, May 1890, pp.423-431.