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Letter ReferenceOlive Schreiner BC16/Box7/Fold3/Jan-Feb1920/16
ArchiveUniversity of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town
Epistolary TypeLetter
Letter DateWednesday 28 January 1920
Address From9 Porchester Place, Edgware Road, Westminster, London
Address ToTrevaldwyn, Llandrindod Wells, Wales
Who ToMay Murray Parker nee Murray
Other Versions
PermissionsPlease 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 of this letter is derived from the postmark on an attached envelope, which also provides the address it was sent to. Schreiner was resident at Porchester Place from early April 1917 until August 1920, when she left Britain for South Africa.
1Wednesday
2
3May dear,
4
5I am enclosing you the letter which Betty has asked me to send on to
6you. I don’t know how you & Freddie feel about it, but it makes me
7more anxious than ever for Betty. I will try to get her to come up to
8you as soon as she comes here. I shall not be able to come with her as
9I am now too unwell. The pain in my chest has become so unbroken &
10intense that I could not pack my box.
11
12Thank dear Freddie for his letter. I never take meat now: since those
13two little cutletts you sent me I^’ve^ only tasted meat twice – its
14too bad here & I don’t seem to want anything much. I live
15principally on bananas which I roast myself in front of my fire &
16cocoa made with condensed milk & a little bread - & butter when I can
17get it Thank you for your splendid gift of butter; it came today, it
18will last me for a long long time.
19
20It is pouring with rain here today, the weather as choaking as it can be.
21
22My poor darling Betty. She talks of transports of bliss, but it is
23really intensity of strain & agony that makes her feel so!
24
25Oh I do hope Freddie & you will get out to Africa before next winter.
26
27Yes I long for Africa but I don’t know where I could stay in the
28summer if I went there. You know my husband has sold his business &
29has left de Aar for ever. He thinks of coming to England for a few
30weeks in May, & then going to travel all over America, which has been
31a life long dream of his. I am so thankful he is going to have a
32little rest after his long life of hard work.
33
34Good bye my darling May. I do hope the change of diet will do Freddies
35asthma good. But it is pure, fresh, clear, dry air one wants for
36asthma ^oxygen, oxygen, oxygen!!^ My brother Theo got asthma for the
37last months. He suffered terribly.
38
39Good bye
40Olive
41
42^I do hope you have good news of your father & mother. When is Margaret
43coming back. I can’t think how Betty will live without Miss Greene.^
44
45^Alice Greene died yesterday Hellen Greene writes me Betty is well &
46calm I need have no anxiety.^
47
Notation
The enclosed letter is no longer attached. The final insertion, that Alice Greene had died, is written on the envelope.