"Place with husband, Betty Molteno needs new world" Read the full letter
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Letter ReferenceOlive Schreiner BC16/Box3/Fold3/1904/52
ArchiveUniversity of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town
Epistolary TypeLetter
Letter Date12 November 1904
Address FromHanover, Northern Cape
Address To
Who ToBetty Molteno
Other Versions
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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 name of the addressee of this letter is indicated by salutation and content.
1 Hanover
2 Nov 12 / 04
3
4 Dear Friend
5
6 I have just found a long letter I wrote to you the week after you left.
7 I kept it to get your address from Mrs Murray, & when it came I was
8very unfit & forgot all about everything. It is rather out of date now
9so I won’t send it. I’ve just got your letter from Las Palmas. It
10is so good to know the voyage was doing you both good. I felt sure it
11would, & believe the time in Europe will make new persons of you both.
12Would you like me to get some addresses of people in Holland for you
13from Mrs Reitz? Write at once if you would.
14
15 The Reitzes have come out & are living in my brother Will’s house in
16St James for the first six months.
17
18 There is no news to give you of things here except that three of
19‘Arriet’s little meerkats got drowned in a tub. The only one that
20is left is the dearest, sweet tame most intelligent little meerkats
21that ever lived. He has some of Emmies wild nature in him. He is
22Tommie & ‘Arriets little one. I call him "Litty-von" being short for
23"little one" when spoken in a very affectionate tone! He runs up, if
24you hold out your hand & climbs into it like a little boat, & lets you
25lift him so. If you call call him he comes & sits quite still & lets
26you catch him. If you call him & he’s in his hole under the stones
27he runs out at once, & lifts his neck to be scratched, & he’s only
28about 2 inches long. Neta is getting worse. My little Kaffir boy
29continues a treasure. To-day there is a wild dark storm of said sand
30that has been darkening the sky since this morning. We hope it may
31bring rain. The velt is very terrible all sand. I fancy this wind will
32mean storms on the coast. It is the biggest storm of sand we had for
33some years.
34
35 Do write beloved friend & tell me a little of what you are seeing &
36doing then I shall seem to be sharing it all with you both.
37
38^I will send you some addresses of my friends next post. I want you so
39to see Havelock Ellis’s wife. I am sure you & especially Miss Greene
40will love her so Also Isabella Ford, & it will be so nice to hear
41about them when you come back. Miss Greene ought to see about printing
42her poems in a separate little volume while in England. They are
43injured by being with much that is so inferior. ^
44
45 Good bye my beloved friend
46 Olive
47
48
49