Olive Schreiner Letters Online

Letter Reference	MacFarlane-Muirhead/25
Archive	MacFarlane Collection
Epistolary Type	Letter
Letter Date	14 July 1914
Address From	Grand Hotel, Oberhof, Germany
Address To
Who To	Robert Franklin ('Bob') Muirhead
Other Versions

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 Robert Franklin ('Bob') Muirhead, 14 July 1914, MacFarlane Collection, Olive Schreiner Letters Project transcription’. Please also supply letter line numbers for specific quotations.

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 letter is written on printed headed notepaper.

1:  Grand Hotel und Kurhaus
2:  Oberhof
3: 
4:  July 14th 1914
5: 
6:  Dear Bob thanks for your letter. As you will see I’m now in a little
7:  Thuringian village buried among the pine trees. Its not bad, but not
8:  like my dear Bad Nauheim. I was so well & so happy there.
9: 
10:  Now as to my plans, I want to find a quiet place not too expensive
11:  where I can settle down & write a little, if I can. It seems to me it
12:  would be very nice if I could find such a place near Glasgow where I
13:  could sometimes see you people. I should so to know Lene & the
14:  children. But don’t take trouble about finding me a place. I don’t
15:  know yet quite when I will return or what I will do. It depends much
16:  on my brother’s movements who is now here with me. If he goes to
17:  Sweeden next week, as he half talks of doing, I shall return to
18:  England next week, if he stays on I shall. I’ll write & tell you as
19:  soon as I know, but I’m so afraid of your spending valuable time &
20:  thought for nothing.
21: 
22:  If do come I think I should like to be near the sea, but any place
23:  that is stimulating & airy (like Whitby). I should like, & I
24:  shouldn’t like a place where I had a long walk to get to train or
25:  boat, - as the doctors say I must not walk much. I love lakes & little
26:  rivers with little steamers on them better than anything, being on
27:  water if it’s calm is so lovely & rest-ful.
28: 
29:  Its funny that as I get older I get more & more so-ciable! I suppose
30:  my character is weaking. When I was young I could spend months quite
31:  alone without ever longing for human companionship – now I seem to
32:  care so much for it. Of course I could work more before my heart got
33:  weak; & when one is buried in work one can never feel lonely.
34: 
35:  Isn’t dear old Edward splendid? He seems to me more lovable & full
36:  of life & genius than when I first saw him.
37: 
38:  Good bye. You don’t say anything about the invention so I suppose
39:  there’s nothing to say.
40:  Olive
41: 

Notation