Olive Schreiner Letters Online

Letter Reference	Edward Carpenter 359/89
Archive	Sheffield Archives, Archives & Local Studies, Sheffield
Epistolary Type	Letter
Letter Date	10 August 1905
Address From	Hanover, Northern Cape
Address To
Who To	Edward Carpenter
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 Edward Carpenter, 10 August 1905, Sheffield Libraries, Archives & Information, Olive Schreiner Letters Project transcription’. Please also supply letter line numbers for specific quotations.

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The Project is grateful to the Sheffield Archives, Sheffield Libraries, Archives and Information Services, for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter, which is part of its Archive Collections.

1:  Hanover
2:  Aug 10th 1905
3: 
4:  Dear Ed
5: 
6:  I got a letter the other day from a Miss Darby; who says she is a
7:  friend of yours. So many people say they are your dear friends (like
8:  the Swans & others) that I am always a little doubtful!! She is with
9:  Miss Hobhouse.
10: 
11:  I’ve had a great joy this week. My dear old friend Dr John Brown,
12:  once of Burnley came & spent a day here. In the five years I have been
13:  here, once my sister came for a day, & once Miss Molteno & Miss Green
14:  for a day, & those are all the friends faces I have seen here in five
15:  years, & I have only five times left the village, so you can think
16:  what a red letter day it was. I don’t think the happiness of such
17:  happy things end too when they are over because you always have the
18:  memory & it makes everything beautiful. I wonder where Kate Salt is
19:  now & if you ever see her.
20: 
21:  I’m very well & my dear little Kaffir is a great interest to me. We
22:  are having a great deal of ice & snow here still. Cron is away in Cape
23:  Town for ten days, but returns the day after tomorrow.
24: 
25:  I hear the Lawrence’s are coming out to South Africa. Do you know
26:  them. I fear I shan’t see them, as they are not likely to come to
27:  this out of the way place. I hope they will learn something true about
28:  the way they are treating the Chinamen, & about the desire of the
29:  Colonist to have a
30: 
31:  ^native way war to bring money into the country. They might be of some
32:  use; but sometimes it seems to me there not much to be done in this
33:  world to prevent things & set them right, you must just let things
34:  drift & drift, till at last wrong doing & oppression bring their own
35:  punishment - & they do bring it! Though I tarry long saith the Lord. ^
36: 
37:  Good bye dear old friend
38:  Olive
39: 
40:  How is my old Bob getting on? I’ve not heard from him for such a
41:  long long time
42: 
43: