"Am going to meet Rhodes, more solitary in this country than you can conceive" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | Olive Schreiner BC16/Box4/Fold4/1911/41 |
| Archive | University of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town |
| Epistolary Type | Letter |
| Letter Date | Tuesday 30 August 1911 |
| Address From | De Aar, Northern Cape |
| Address To | |
| Who To | Frances (‘Fan’) Schreiner nee Reitz |
| Other Versions | |
| Permissions | Please read before using or citing this transcription |
| Legend |
The Project is grateful to Manuscripts and Archives, University of Cape Town, for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter, which is part of its Manuscripts and Archives Collections. The date has been written on this letter in an unknown hand. Schreiner was resident in De Aar from November 1907 until she left South Africa for Britain and Europe in December 1913, with some fairly lengthy visits elsewhere over this time.
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1
Tuesday
2
3 My dear old sister
4
5 I hope you are not feeling the least bit anxious about Ursula. I’m
6sure it was just the heat. The same a post that you got the letter
7saying she was unwell I got several letters from friends in England
8saying they were ill with the heat. My friend Havelock Ellis & his
9wife, both very strong people were both unable to walk about, & since
10I’ve got several letters from friends in England excusing themselves
11for not having written because they were ill with heat! I think our
12party has come off well so far; I do hope it won’t knock Will over:
13its a pity they have much weather for their visit – weather that
14only comes once in ten or 20 years there.
15
16 I’m glad Adela & Constance Lytton were so delighted with out boy
17Oliver. Adela was so bitterly disappointed she couldn’t see you &
18Dot when you were in England. She with difficulty got consent to see
19Will. She had had such an awful miscarriage the last time ^before when^
20she was going to have a baby – in the 6th month – that she had to
21be quite still the whole of the time before the birth of the last one,
22seeing no one & having no excitement & they still had to take the baby
23from her at 7 months or she & it would have died.
24
25 We are having a tremendous wind here today – one can hardly stand
26outside. I’m so glad Dot came while the weather was so fine. I do
27hope her cough keeps away & that you are still feeling better for you
28change.
29
30 I had a letter from Lady Loch: she hopes to spend some days with you.
31How I wish I could run down now to you for a couple of weeks, but you
32see I have to go away in the great heat so I can’t run to the
33expense of this little trip just for nothing, & I don’t like to
34leave home while I can stay here.
35
36 Good bye. Love to Bill & Dot.
37 Yours small sister
38 Olive
39
40 ^Isn’t it funny to think of Violet as a grandmother. When you see her
41tell her I send her my loving congratulations.^
42
43
44
2
3 My dear old sister
4
5 I hope you are not feeling the least bit anxious about Ursula. I’m
6sure it was just the heat. The same a post that you got the letter
7saying she was unwell I got several letters from friends in England
8saying they were ill with the heat. My friend Havelock Ellis & his
9wife, both very strong people were both unable to walk about, & since
10I’ve got several letters from friends in England excusing themselves
11for not having written because they were ill with heat! I think our
12party has come off well so far; I do hope it won’t knock Will over:
13its a pity they have much weather for their visit – weather that
14only comes once in ten or 20 years there.
15
16 I’m glad Adela & Constance Lytton were so delighted with out boy
17Oliver. Adela was so bitterly disappointed she couldn’t see you &
18Dot when you were in England. She with difficulty got consent to see
19Will. She had had such an awful miscarriage the last time ^before when^
20she was going to have a baby – in the 6th month – that she had to
21be quite still the whole of the time before the birth of the last one,
22seeing no one & having no excitement & they still had to take the baby
23from her at 7 months or she & it would have died.
24
25 We are having a tremendous wind here today – one can hardly stand
26outside. I’m so glad Dot came while the weather was so fine. I do
27hope her cough keeps away & that you are still feeling better for you
28change.
29
30 I had a letter from Lady Loch: she hopes to spend some days with you.
31How I wish I could run down now to you for a couple of weeks, but you
32see I have to go away in the great heat so I can’t run to the
33expense of this little trip just for nothing, & I don’t like to
34leave home while I can stay here.
35
36 Good bye. Love to Bill & Dot.
37 Yours small sister
38 Olive
39
40 ^Isn’t it funny to think of Violet as a grandmother. When you see her
41tell her I send her my loving congratulations.^
42
43
44